THE ALUMNI JO URN A I , 



79 



THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF THE 

 CITY OF NEW YORK.* 



By Prof. H. H. RUSBY, M. D. 



Following out the idea of the divi- 

 sion of labor presented in our opening 

 paragraphs, we find the present duties of 

 the pharmacist to be as follows, omitting 

 the extra professional, or so-called com- 

 mercial, side of his business, and also 

 that portion, now in its infancy, which is 

 very vaguely spoken of as " advanced 

 pharmacy: (i.) To obtain the crude ma- 

 terials from which his medicinal prepa- 

 rations are to be manufactured ; (2) to 

 make a judicious selection from among 

 such materials, or to make similar selec- 

 tion from among such preparations as 

 are offered to him by manufacturers ; (3) 

 to properly preserve and store such ma- 

 terials and preparations until required ; 

 (4) to interpret the direct'ons of the phy- 

 sician as expressed in prescriptions ; (5) 

 to correct the physician's mistakes so 

 presented ; (6) to carry out those instruc- 

 tions ; (7) to take professional action in 

 emergencies, the most extreme cases be- 

 ing those in which he is compelled to fill 

 the place of the physician in grave cases, 

 where no physician is to be had. The 

 primary but not the sole object of the 

 College of Pharmacy is to fit the student 

 for performing these seven duties. 



Most of the professional work of the 

 pharmacist is directed and limited by 

 an official guide known as the "United 

 States Pharmacopoeia." This book is 

 ' decennially revised by a large committee 

 of pharmacists and physicians, appointed 

 for this purpose by a national convention 

 of delegates from our colleges, principal 

 societies, and certain other bodies of 

 pharmacy and medicine. It fixes the 

 official titles and recognized synonyms, 

 defines the identity, gives descriptions 

 for identification and selection of materia 

 medica, and directions for making such 

 articles and preparations as the pharma- 

 cist is supposed to make for himself. 

 The articles thus treated in the Pharma- 



*From tlie Univ. Magazine. 



copoeia are known in the profession and 

 in the law as "official." The work 

 does not assume, except in the form ot 

 some of the more important reference- 

 tables, to give scientific instruction. This 

 the student is expected to gain at the 

 school of pharmacy. 



It will thus be seen that the pharmacy 

 school has its field of labor well marked 

 out for it by the carefully framed direc- 

 tions of the entire medical fraternity of 

 the nation. The honesty and faithful- 

 ness with which this work is performed 

 by the different schools varies from al- 

 most zero to a high degree of perfection. 

 Unfortunately, however, the graduates 

 of all schools stand in the eye of the law, 

 and too often in the estimation of the 

 public and a great part of the medical 

 profession, practically upon one level. 



Of the articles of the official materia 

 medica 175 consists of plants or parts of 

 plants, in which latter are not here in- 

 cluded the 139 substances extracted from 

 plants — while 207 are substances of inor- 

 ganic origin. Articles of the third, and 

 many of those of the second class, are 

 obtained from manufacturers of chemi- 

 cals. The natural effects of our tariff 

 system is to enable the home manufac- 

 turer to offer pecuniary temptations to 

 the pharmacist to content himself with 

 an inferior article, thus largely depriving 

 the former of the stimulus of competition 

 as to quality, because the most of such 

 stimulus, as relates to this class of arti- 

 cles, originates abroad. This is appar- 

 ently one reason why ioreign chemicals 

 are in general superior to those of do- 

 mestic make. Rut among both there is 

 considerable variation as to purity. It 

 will thus be seen that the pharmacist 

 requires a very extensive, accurate, and 

 practical knowledge of chemistry and 

 closely related physics, of which he is 

 required to make constant use in testing 

 purity and quality. 



I To be continued.) 



