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ADDRESS
OF  THE
TO
THE  PEOPLE  OF   PHILADELPHIA.
     The undersigned address you on behalf of the Pharmaceutists
   of Philadelphia, convened agreeably to public  notice July 18th,
   1860, to consider and perfect a plan for the relief of themselves
   and their assistants, from unnecessary  labor and confinement on
   the Sabbath.
     The business of the Pharmaceutist involves a constant confine-
   ment to the store, required by no other pursuit, besides the ordi-
   nary motives of competition, we are under a supposed necessity
   to provide  at the moment, for every real or imagined exigency
   of sickness ; so that the dispensing stores in this city, are open
   on an average, from sixteen to seventeen hours daily throughout
   the entire year, besides being supplied with sleeping accommo-
   dations, from which the proprietor or a skilled  assistant may be
   summoned at any time during the hours necessarily appropriated
   to sleep.
     From this onerous confinement to business,  there has hereto-
   fore been no cessation on the day set  apart by the laws  of the
   land, and the practice of  nearly all Christian sects,  for rest and
-^rcMgiuUB uUflei'Vdgrjfe".  ii. xew  pIMimWl'gullSUS lUiptHc,Q'lJV <i sense
   of duty, have refused to attend to all calls except those of obvious
   necessity, and a few have absented themselves  during the hours
   of public worship, but the common practice  has been to open the
   stores during the whole day and evening, thus inviting calls  of
   every description,  and effectually blotting out  the sabbath from
   the week of those compelled to be in attendance.
     This most unreasonable custom  has become  almost universal,
   because its alleged necessit}' has not been  questioned; recently,
   however,  through the  general awakening  of  discussion  among
   pharmaceutists, both in this country and Europe, a professional
   spirit has grown up which has subjected  this and  many other
   abuses to a thorough scrutiny.  It has been ascertained that the
   excessive  confinement  now complained of, though common in
   many large cities, is not found necessary in smaller towns, where
   a few hours only are allowed on the sabbath for the  purchase of
   necessary articles.
    Few families in any community are  without  some  of the more
   important medicines adapted to cases of sudden  illness, and which
   are especially  liable to  be needed at  night, while none in the
   cities are so isolated as to be unable to obtain them from  a
   neighbor, when the pharmaceutical stores are closed.
    Under the earnest conviction that it is a  duty we  owe to our-
   selves and assistants, to secure  to the  fullest extent compatible
   with the responsible duties of our profession, that immunity from
  business  which almost  the whole  community enjoys  on  the
   Sabbath, and having obtained the written concurrence of so large
   a number of the leading pharmaceutists of this city  as to  make
   the movement  a general one, we  have resolved  to close our
   Stores,  after the first of August next, on   the first  day  of \
 the week, except at the following hours, fixed with special refer-
 ence to the known requirements of physicians and the public,
       In the morning until 9£ o'clock,
       In the afternoon from 1 to 3 o'clock,
       In the evening from 9 to 10 o'clock.
   We trust that this arrangement, which  for a few months will
 necessarily partake of the nature of an experiment,  will be ac-
 ceptable to all concerned, and that  it will be cordially entered
 into in good faith by pharmaceutists generally.
   In order to secure its success, and  that  no disadvantage may-
 result to our customers, we request all to procure in advance those
 medicines they are most liable to require during the  short inter-
 vals in which the stores will be closed, and as far as possible to
 accommodate themselves to the hours above indicated; and to re-
 move still further the  possible disadvantages of the arrangement
 and acquit ourselves of any desire to escape the necessary duties
 of our profession,  we invite customers in cases of  urgent necessi-
 ty which are liable, though very rarely, to^ceur, f.r>  m^ke, jjipplji
 cation at the residence of their Pharmaceutist, or during the ap-~
 propriate hours, to seek  him, as is  sometimes  necessary in the
 oase of Physicians, at the place of worship to which he resorts.
   To medical practitioners  we  confidently  appeal for encourage-
 ment in this  reform.  Their unremitting  labws in a profession
 kindred in its objects to our own, make them acquainted with the
 peculiar difliculties and dangers which  beset our laborious and
 confining pursuit, and we trust that they will willingly aid this
 effort to test the  practicability of  a  measure  designed  to pro-
' mote the  physical and moral well being of those to  whom arn
 entrusted so important a department of the healing art.
   Finally, fellow  citizens, having based this movement  mainly
 upon the  grounds of justice and  expediency, claiming only a
 share in that day of rest provided by the beneficent laws of our
 State for " the ease of creation," we cannot forget that there are
 many who place  the  obligation  to abstain  from unnecessary
 secular employment on this day, on the ground  of paramount re-
 ligious duty; and  on behalf of these we claim a still  higher con-
 sideration and willing acquiescence  in the  full  exercise of con-
 scientious convictions, which, regardless of theological differences,
 all are bound to respect.       Signed,
          EDWARD PARRISH, No. 800 Arch street.
          J. C. TURNPENNY & CO., 10th and Spruce sts.
          FRED'K BROWN, Jr.,  9th and Chesnut sts.
         J. P.  CURRAN, 6th and Q-. T. Avenue.
         GEO. C. BOWER, 6th and Vine street.
          WM.  M. REILLY, cor.  2d and Wharton titn,
         HENRY MULLEN, Market and 33d streets.
         WILSON H. PILE, Catharine and Pass. Av.
   Philadelphia, Jv.h/% 1860.
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