Show USED BY THE DOCTORS j ninety per cent of th drugs pre bed are patent med cines cities despite the opposition of physicians especially of those whose experience I 1 has been neither far reaching nor profitable to patent medicines nine ty per cent of all drugs that clans use are put up and compounded by manufacturing concerns are in tact fact patent medicines just as truly as if they were vere advertised in fir the newspapers the average doctor knows knovs little or nothing of pharmacy and Is there fore glad to depend on the very cines cities which in public he condemns just as he Is obliged in many cases to depend on the diagnosis of the pa tient himself even while publicly de 1 crying what he calls self diagnosis how rapid has been the growth of the professional use of patent or pro prie tary medicines Is shown in an article written for the journal of the american medical association tor for september 29 1906 by A jacob jacobi M D LL D he relates that 50 pre script ions compounded in several drug stores nere a carefully examined from 1850 to 1870 no prescription was found for patent or proprietary medicines in 1874 but one prescript pre scrip cioll in 1500 1 called for ready to use remedies between 1875 and 1880 the number calling for patent or proprietary prie tary medicines equalled equal led two per cent of the total this increased to 5 per cent in the period between 1880 and 1890 in 1895 it was as 12 per cent in 1898 it was 15 per cent and I 1 in n 1902 1903 was from 20 to 25 per cent dr jacob jacobi sas says that in a large store he was assured that 70 per cent of the prescriptions were for patent or proprietary medicines and this probably is approximately the correct proportion at the time from this it v i seem that it if the patent and proprietary medicines are good enough tor for physicians to prescribe in seven cases out of ten they are good enough tor for family use in cases of necessity and where the symptoms are well known and as easily under stood by the people as by the doc doe tors |