New York Journal of Pharmacy, Volume 1 (of 3), 1852 / Published by Authority of the College of Pharmacy of the City of New York.

by College of Pharmacy of the City of New York

6th. Physicians being often unacquainted with practical pharmacy, pay little attention to the order in which the several articles entering into a prescription are arranged, with the view to facilitate the operations of dispensing. It hence becomes the first duty of the apothecary carefully to read the prescription and fix the proper order in his mind. He should, at the same time, acquire the habit of considering the quantities ordered in relation to the usual doses, and, also, the general bearing of the prescription; and a constant resort to this practice, based on due knowledge, must almost inevitably detect mistakes, if any have been made. {56}

7th. Apothecaries should accustom their assistants to study prescriptions in this light, and to acquire such a knowledge of the doses and therapeutical uses of medicines as shall serve to guide them in avoiding errors.

8th. The apothecary, when engaged in dispensing a prescription, should, as far as possible, avoid mental preoccupation, and give his attention fully to his task. He should acquire the habit of always examining the label of the bottle before using its contents, and he should satisfy himself that he has read the prescribed quantity correctly, by referring to the prescription anew before weighing out each article. It is also, a useful precaution to have bottles containing mineral or vegetable poisons, distinguished by some prominent mark.

9th. As the conscientious discharge of his duty should be the aim of every apothecary, seeing that on his correct action depends, in no slight degree, the usefulness of the physician, no pains should be spared to secure the efficiency of the medicines dispensed, whether they be drugs or preparations. The latter should always be prepared of full strength, and according to the formulæ recognized by the United States Pharmacopœia, unless when otherwise specially ordered.

10th. The apothecary should always label, and number correctly, all medicine dispensed by him on the prescription of a physician; he should, also, invariably, transcribe on the label, in a plain legible hand writing, the name of the patient, the date of the prescription, the directions intended for the patient, and the name or the initials of the prescriber.

11th. The original prescription should always be retained by the apothecary, whose warrantee it is, in case of error on the part of the prescriber. When a copy is requested, if, as in many instances, no objection can be urged, it should be a fac simile in language and symbols, and not a translation.

12th. In no instance is an apothecary justifiable in leaving his business in charge of boys, or incompetent assistants—or in allowing such to compound prescriptions, excepting under his immediate and careful supervision. {57}

13th. In justice to his sense of the proper limits of his vocation, to the medical profession, and to his customers, the apothecary should abstain from prescribing for diseases, excepting in those emergencies, which occasionally occur, demanding immediate action, or, in those every day unimportant cases where to refuse council would be construed as a confession of ignorance, calculated to injure the reputation of the apothecary, and would be attended with no advantage to either physician or patient.

14th. The sale of quack or secret medicines, properly so called, constitutes a considerable item in the business of some apothecaries. Many of the people are favorably impressed towards that class of medicines, and naturally go to their apothecaries for them. It is this which has caused many apothecaries to keep certain of these nostrums, who are ready and willing to relinquish the traffic in them, but for the offence that a refusal to supply them to their customers would create. At present all that the best disposed apothecary can be expected to do, is to refrain from the manufacture himself, of quack and secret medicines; to abstain from recommending them, either verbally or by exhibiting show bills, announcing them for sale, in his shop or windows; and to discourage their use, when appealed to.

15th. Having in view the welfare of the community and the advancement of pharmaceutic science and interest, it is all important that the offices of prescribing and compounding medicines should be kept distinct, in this city and surrounding districts. All connection with, or moneyed interest in apothecary stores, on the part of physicians, should, therefore, be discountenanced. With respect to the pecuniary understanding said to exist, in some instances, between apothecaries and physicians, we hold, that no well disposed apothecary or physician would be a party to such contract, and consider the code of Ethics of the College of Pharmacy and the Constitution of the Philadelphia County Medical Society as sufficiently explicit on this subject. {58}