One dentist must not imitate too closely the sign or card of a fellow practitioner. One Colton alleged that he had purchased from a Dr. G. Q. Colton the right to use the name “Colton Dental Association” in connection with the use of nitrous-oxide gas to alleviate pain in the extraction of teeth, and that he used the same in advertisements and prominently displayed it on signs; that the defendant, who had been in his employment, left him, opened dental rooms in the same street, issued cards announcing that he was “formerly operator at the Colton Dental Rooms,” and extracted teeth without pain by the use of nitrous-oxide gas, and put a sign to the same purport over his door, but the words “formerly operator at the,” upon cards and sign, were in small and almost illegible letters, while the words “Colton Dental Rooms” were very conspicuous; the signs were very similar in shape, size, &c., and were hung on the same side of the street, in the same manner, and might readily be mistaken the one for the other, especially by suffering patients impatient for relief. An injunction against the defendant’s cards and signs was granted ([457]). |173|
And where Morgan and Schuyler, two dentists, dissolved partnership, S. bought M.’s interest in the fixtures and in the lease of the room, and continued business therein. M. removed his name from the sign, but S. replaced it, and put above, in letters so small as to be nearly imperceptible, his own name with the words “successor to.” The agreement of dissolution did not prohibit M. from engaging in the business, so he opened an office therefor in another part of the city. He then applied to the Court to restrain his late partner from the use of his name as mentioned. He was successful in his action. But the Court thought that S. would have kept within his rights if he had merely described himself as “late of” the firm ([458]).
CHAPTER XIV. DRUGGISTS.
A druggist, the Supreme Court of Louisiana says, means “one who sells drugs without compounding or preparing them: and so is a more limited term than apothecary ([459]).”
A commission merchant, dealing principally in alcohol, is not a druggist, within the meaning of the Massachusetts’ Act, regulating the sale of alcohol by druggists ([460]); and although whiskey may be sold by druggists in comparatively small quantities as medicine, and doubtless a great many people so take it, still it was held that fifty barrels of whiskey remaining in a bonded warehouse at the time of his death would not pass under the will of a wholesale and retail druggist bequeathing his stock of medical drugs, etc. The Court considered fifty barrels of whiskey wholly disproportionate to the ordinary stock of medicine and drugs kept on hand by the testator—too much sack for the bread ([461]). One may be an apothecary or druggist although he does not actually compound his medicines ([462]).
In the early days in England, the grocers, or poticaries, who formed one of the trade guilds of London, united with their ordinary business the sale of such ointments, simples |175| and medicinal compounds as were then in use. In the days of Henry VIII., the medical department of the grocers’ trade being greatly increased, shops were established for the exclusive sale of drugs and medicinal and all kinds of chemical preparations. We have a graphic description of one of these apothecaries about the days of “Good Queen Bess,” in the words of the prince of English dramatists:
——I do remember an apothecary,
And hereabouts he dwells, which late I noticed
In tatter’d weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of simples: meagre were his looks,