In some of the American Courts it has been held that a statute forbidding the sale or keeping for sale without authority of spirituous or intoxicating liquors does not apply to druggists who keep such liquors only for the purpose of mixing them with other ingredients, according to prescriptions of physicians; and also for the purpose of manufacturing such compounds as are commonly used by druggists to be sold as medicines for remedies for sickness and disease [490]. The question has often come up whether a compound sold by a druggist is to be considered an intoxicating liquor, the sale of which is illegal, or not. The rule laid down is, that so long as liquors retain their characters as intoxicating liquors, capable of being used as beverages, notwithstanding that other ingredients—roots or tinctures—may have been mixed therewith, they fall under the ban of the law; but when they are so compounded with other substances as to lose their distinctive characters of intoxicating liquors, and are no longer desirable for use as stimulating beverages, they are medicine and their sale is not prohibited [491]. In Indiana a _bona fide_ sale of intoxicating liquor by a druggist for medicinal purposes is not a violation of the statute regulating the sale of such liquors, although the statute contains no exception authorizing the sale of such |188| liquors, without license, for medicinal, chemical or sacramental purposes. And that is the law in North Carolina, but not in Arkansas [492]. In Iowa it was considered a breach of the law for a druggist to sell a quart of whiskey to a stranger upon his simple statement that he was accustomed to take it as a medicine and wanted it as such [493]. In Texas, where a druggist can only sell ardent spirits upon the prescription of physicians in sickness, a druggist who is himself a physician may sell to a sick patient without a prescription from anyone else [494]. |189| CHAPTER XV. PARTNERS, GOODWILL, ASSISTANTS. A partnership [495] between medical men is an association of persons, standing to one another in the relation of principals, for jointly carrying out the objects of their profession, with an agreement to share the profits. The general laws relating to partnerships apply to those of medical men or dentists. There can be no partnership, as between themselves, if the relationship of master and servant exists, or where there is no joint interest. No particular form of words is needed to create a partnership, nor need the agreement be in writing unless it is to last for more than a year from the date. If an agreement to form a partnership is broken an action will lie, if the terms of the agreement be clear and distinct; but the performance of such an agreement will not be compelled unless all the terms have been fixed and ascertained, and a definite time for its duration agreed on.