“DRUG REFORM”
As It Appears to the Cleveland Medical Journal
The matter which follows appeared originally as an editorial in the Cleveland Medical Journal, November, 1915. It expresses, we believe, the attitude of the thinking physician toward the subject discussed:
Physicians have come to the realization that drugs are as a two-edged sword—under proper conditions, striking against the disease; otherwise, against the patient’s health. The first condition for their proper use is adequate knowledge of their composition and purity; of their actions and malefactions; their field and limitations. Slowly and painstakingly—sometimes painfully—this scientific knowledge has been gathered, is still being gathered, by chemists and pharmacists, pharmacologists and clinicians, with increasing thoroughness, care and discrimination.
Where wisdom fears to venture, unwisdom and cupidity find ample room. The wise physician knows that there are ills that drugs cannot cure; that drugs generally only aid or relieve; and that to obtain even this aid efficiently and safely, the existing scientific knowledge is none too great. Not so the unwise. He who sees in disease only a name, to him a name is a sufficient cure. Let there be a mixture with a convenient and suggestive name and a pleasant taste, a compendious index of diseases and symptoms—and a lively imagination—and the cure is accomplished. Few things could be easier, and few more false. It is not surprising that the “man on the street” should fall into these errors; it is sad that any physician should be misled by the sophistry of interested drug vendors.
Physicians have the moral obligation to instruct the public in matters of health. Preaching before practice is of little avail. It behooves the medical profession to make at least a reasonable effort to clean its own house before it passes the broom to the public. Realizing this responsibility, the American Medical Association some years ago established its Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry. This Council is strictly an educational agency—it collects and disseminates knowledge about drugs, especially those drugs that are advertised to physicians and that are not described in the legal pharmacopeias. Physicians are thus put in a position to discriminate. Many have done so; others will, a few may never see the light on this earth.
Journals can no longer claim that they mislead their readers in good faith. Some—the Cleveland Medical Journal among the first—have frankly acknowledged their obligations, and sacrificed a lucrative income from advertisements; others are still occupied in compounding the matter with their conscience. Manufacturers are in a similar position. Those who are on the side of scientific progress—or to put it materially, those who realize that honesty is the best policy—are taking the opportunity to separate themselves from the dishonest and ignorant.
Altogether, the medical profession may safely advise the public on the subject of drugs without laying itself open to the charge that it preaches what it is unwilling to practice.