There is nothing in all this that is illegal, but it is opposed to the best interests of the profession. At first sight it appears an evidence of imbecility to send prescriptions 180to be compounded by a competitor. Yet you send them to the druggist, who is your most active competitor. Not only is he one directly, but he is often the agent of some other doctor or doctors whose merits he glibly contracts with your demerits, for the edification of the patient. You tell him, time and again, not to repeat your prescriptions, but to no purpose. In some cases you know that he is giving commissions to one set of doctors, while his clerks are getting commissions from practice sent to others, yet you stick to him. Now, there’s but one solution of the problem. Every doctor who can should dispense his own medicines. The people like it, and the profession will soon learn to like it. The doctor can furnish medicines cheaply and still make a profit. The patient pays a bill for services and medicines much more cheerfully than one for services alone. Not the least of the good things that would result from the doctor doing his own dispensing would be the familiarity with his working tools thus acquired. Most men enter practice without the least knowledge of the physical qualities of the drugs they expect to use. Many a man has prescribed, over and over again, remedies he never saw, smelt or tasted. The best doctor is he who is most familiar with his curative agents. Another desirable result would be the doctor’s renunciation of polypharmacy. He would soon learn that the number of serviceable drugs is by no means legion. Where a number of doctors occupy an office, they should have their own dispensary. When neither plan suggested is feasible, the doctor 181should endeavor to find a druggist who, in consideration of having practically a monopoly of the prescriptions of that particular physician, will dispense his prescriptions on cipher and never without an order. It is possible to find such druggists. Self-interest is likely to induce them to treat the doctor fairly, when all other arguments fail. There is a peculiar advantage in this system in the fact that the doctors’ favorite formulæ can be kept in quantities already prepared, thus saving time and assuring uniformity in dispensing. Under such an arrangement, too, the druggist is able to be much more reasonable in his prices. He is also likely to keep such special preparations as the doctor may request, thus avoiding the temptation to substitute. One thing is certain in the relations of doctor and druggist, viz., the time is not far distant when the doctor will either dispense his own drugs or will boycott every druggist who counter-prescribes or sells patent medicines. The profession will not go blindly on forever, carrying grist to the other fellow’s mill.