Life, 1883-06-21 · page 11 of 16
Life — June 21, 1883 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Druggist's Clerk" - Satirical Critique of Pharmacy Safety This is a scathing satirical dialogue mocking the complete lack of regulation and accountability in late-19th-century pharmacy. The joke exposes a horrifying reality: a druggist's clerk deliberately substitutes morphine for quinine in a prescription, killing the patient. The satire systematically demolishes every excuse: - The clerk pleads sleepiness; bottles sit on the same shelf - The druggist hires cheap, untrained boys to save money - When deaths occur, coroners pack juries with druggists and doctors who acquit each other - The patient is somehow blamed for "committing suicide" by taking the poisoned medicine The cartoon attacks professional collusion and the absence of pharmaceutical standards or legal consequences. This reflects genuine public concern about unregulated druggists in an era before the FDA (established 1906). The piece advocates transparency and safety reform by exposing how systematic negligence and professional self-protection made poisoning both common and unpunishable.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE: POPULAR SCIENCE CATECHISM. Lesson III].—The Druggist’s Clerk. HAT is this? A druggist’s clerk, dar- ling. Ls he not a druggist? No, dear. But he is putting up a prescription. Oh, no! he is not. What, then, is he doing ? He is trying to put one up. Ts he succeeding ? He is very near success. How near? Well, the doctor's pre- scription calls for five grains of quinine in each dose. And what ts the drug- gist’s clerk doing? He is putting five grains of morphine in each dose. Oh! But will not this hurt the poor patient? Not very much. But how much? It will kill him. My! But what a dreadful thing for the clerk! Not half so bad as for the patient. What will the poor druggist say when they arrest him Sor the murder? He will say his clerk put the prescription up. And what will the poor clerk say? He will say he was sleepy, and mistook the bottles. , Why! are the bottles of morphine and quinine kept on the same shelf? Certainly. Then such mistakes are liable to occur at any time? ‘They are, my precious. But why does not the poor druggist hire clerks who know the difference between quinine and morphine? Because he can hire a boy who does not know, for less money. Then we are in danger whenever we take the medicine the poor doctor orders? We are, darling. Can we do nothing to protect ourselves? Oh, Yes! What? We can throw the medicine out of the window. But is not the druggist or his clerk punished for kill- ing innocent people in this way? No, dear. 297 Why? Because the over-zealous Coroner fills the jury with druggists and doctors, and they acquit both the drug- gist and his clerk, Oh! the druggists and doctors stand by each other ?. Every time. But when the poor druggist’s clerk puts up such a dose by mistake, does he not really murder the poor patient? Oh, no, my pet. Why? _ Because the poor patient commits suicide by taking it, Digby, has been working hard at Italian all winter, and resolves to try a little on a newly arrived emigrant : PARLATE ITALIANO, SIGNOR? Emigrant : ARRAH! NOW, WHAT ARE YE GIVIN’ us? Tue song of the feline ariseth, and lo! bootjacks have wings. ~ comicbooks.com