THE NEW YORK JOURNAL OF PHARMACY 



THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF 

 PRESCRIPTIONISTS.- 



H. V. Arnv, PH.D. 



Reform in American Pharmacy is the 

 call of to-day. We hear of prospective 

 leg-islation which will separate the real 

 pharmacy from the hazaar clrus^ store. 

 even as in Germany we find the Apotheke 

 separated from the "Drogen Handlung." 

 A year or so ago much was said of the 

 creation of certified pharmacists by joint 

 committees of physicians and phar- 

 macists, and the latqst is the appointment 

 by the New York State Pharmaceutical 

 Association of a Committee of Eleven, to 

 study the entire question from one end 

 to the other. 



The interesting subject has been given 

 much thought by the writer ever since 

 the idea of the certified pharmacist was 

 first broached. This idea, while consid- 

 ered sympathetically, never seemed very 

 feasible to one who knew how exceed- 

 ingly difificult it is to get physicians and 

 druggists in conference assembled, to 

 agree on questions of policy. What 

 ]ihysicians consider essential, scarcely fits 

 the views of a majority of druggists, and 

 what the druggists decide on, rarely 

 agrees with medical views of the same 

 subject. 



The next thought was that the certified 

 pharmacist should be decided bv the 

 medical men alone. The main idea of a 

 certified pharmacist is a man fitted to 

 cater to ph^'sicians' wants by accurately 

 filling prescriptions and otherwise con- 

 tributing to the progress of the healing 

 art. The question therefore rose as to 

 the possibility of establishing the idea of 

 the certified pharmacist under the guise 



•From J. A., Ph. A. 



of "accredited agents" of the American 

 Medical Association. This idea, how- 

 ever, was soon abandoned and no one 

 realized more clearly than the writer that 

 any plan of a medical protectorate over 

 pharmacy will not meet with the approval 

 of the majority of pharmacists, even 

 those who specialize on prescriptions. 



This led to a third plan, in which the 

 certification of pharmacists is to be done 

 by pharmacists only and this idea is here 

 presented under the fanciful name of 

 The American Institute of Prescrip- 

 tionists. 



Let us imagine the practicing prescrip- 

 tionists of this association — not the 

 n-ianufacturers, not the professors, nor 

 the frankly commercial retail druggists — 

 forming an organization under the motto, 

 "prescription compounding our foremost 

 consideration," and let them formulate 

 such requirements of membership as 

 follows : 



1. The candidate must be a graduate 

 of a recognized college of pharmacy and 

 must be a registered pharmacist in the 

 state wherein he resides. 



This will be agreed to with little oppo- 

 sition. 



2. He must be the majority owner of a 

 pharmacy and an actual compounder in 

 same. 



This is apt to cause a split at the be- 

 ginning, since much available timber may 

 be found among those who are employes 

 in stores owned by others, but this pro- 

 viso seems essential to head ofif the in- 

 clusion in the plan of corporation drug 

 stores. 



3. He must show that i)er 



cent, of the business of his store is in 

 prescriptions. 



It will be noticed that the actual per- 

 centage is left blank and that the amount 



