The sale of so-called patent medicines by pharmacists is a continual irritant to doctors. Their objections have the same basis as in the preceding case, namely, that apothecaries ought not to encourage the people to prescribe for themselves. A distinguished physician once said that drugs do more harm than good—a statement which will not be disputed by those most conversant with the facts. But this is no argument against the employment of medicinal remedies in any proper way. Drugs taken by advice of educated, competent physicians do an immense amount of good; the injury comes almost altogether from their administration independently of the recommendation of qualified medical men. Concocted, not to benefit humanity, but to enrich their manufacturers, advertised as positive cures of diseases which the utmost skill of the medical profession cannot control, sometimes inert, sometimes dangerous from the poisons which they contain, pressed upon the attention of the people with impudent persistence and colossal mendacity, the infamous compounds, called patent medicines, are purchased by the credulous public in almost incredible amounts. Nobody knows as well as the pharmacist what quantities of drugs are sold in this form; nobody knows as fully as the physician the enormously baneful effects which they produce. If apothecaries would refuse to handle this class of goods, they would confer a wonderful blessing on humanity, by demonstrating their belief in the injuriousness of these articles, and thus bringing them into disrepute; and they would vastly dignify their profession by displaying its sense of moral obligation, even at the sacrifice of a lucrative part of its business. Apothecaries complain that, to meet the demands of prescriptions, they are obliged, at great expense, to keep in stock a large number of whimsical preparations, and also many brands of the same standard medicines, when really one is practically as eligible as another. There is force in this complaint. As a rule, the former class of preparations has but an ephemeral popularity, and, as for the latter, there cannot often be need of specifying the goods of a particular manufacturer; for a worldly-wise, not to say honorable, pharmacist certainly may be trusted to furnish only fine articles, that he may keep the favor of those upon whose good-will his legitimate business depends. If a special brand is deemed necessary by the doctor, he can request a convenient apothecary to procure a quantity, and then can send to his shop the patients who require this article. Thoughtful consideration of this grievance will dictate some such course and effect its redress.