Time was when the Homoeopathic physician prepared his own medicine, but as the number of drugs increased, and the demand upon the time of the physician became more pressing, this most important duty was gradually relegated to the Homoeopathic pharmacist. The Homoeopathic pharmacist’s duty in preparing medicine is second only in importance to that of the physician in prescribing it; if he fails in thee quality or accuracy of his medicines through ignorance, carelessness or a desire to increase his sales by the allurements of “cheapness” (that is so tempting a bait to many), his failure nullifies the skill of the physician, and it may be, costs human life.
For close on to half a century the house of Boericke & Tafel has had the confidence of Homoeopathic physicians of this country, and, indeed, all other countries where Homoeopathy is practiced; the absolute accuracy and entire reliability of the medicines furnished by them for so many years in the past, and the same policy inflexibly adhered to in the present, has earned that confidence, and will continue to merit it in the future. But with the unprecedented increase in the patrons of Homoeopathy of late years, there has sprung up a race of pharmacists who are, to use their own language, “up to the times,” and who “meet competition,” with all that is implied in the term. When a pharmacist or his oily-tongued drummer offers tinctures at less than the cost of importation, and who, with one-hundredth the stock, is always able to cut a little under the prices of reliable housed, why the wise physician can draw his own inferences. Many of the great tincture polychrests of Homoeopathy must be prepared from the fresh plant where that plant grows; bust to do this and import the tincture, and pay duty, costs money and leaves no margin for the cheap man’s tactics. A tincture of the same name, however, prepared from the dried herbs, can be prepared for a trifle, and can “meet- competion” for the benefit of those who delight in drug “bargain-counter” methods .
We have said it before, but it will bear frequent repetition, that where is nothing easier to prepare than “cheap” Homoeopathic medicines and goods tinctures. Triturations, “tablets” and all the rest and nothing that will more surely undermine Homoeopathy than these same “cheap” preparations. Of what avail is it for the physician to search his Materia Medica for the true similimum, if, when found, his aim is to be defeated by faulty medicines? Many physicians have volunteered the statement, after first prescribing that firm’s medicines, that the responses they got were much quicker and more satisfactory than ever before obtained from medicines bought elsewhere.
