July 22, 1920] 



NATURE 



661 



cover characters and devise tests within the scope of 

 the skilled, trained pharmaceutical chemist without 

 involving experiments upon living animals, so that the 

 pharmaceutical preparation exhibiting the drug shall 

 be both active and uniform. 



The Future. 



The annual meeting of the British Pharmaceutical 

 Conference affords a great opportunity for all 

 pharmacists to meet each other on common ground 

 and consider their common interests. Is not the 

 present a period in pharmaceutical history at which it 

 is fitting that all of us whose lot is cast in pharmacy 

 should band together for our common welfare? The 

 demands of the business side of pharmacy are to-day 

 so imperious and so obvious that there is a danger 

 of neglecting- what, to my mind, is of primary import- 

 ance if we are to persist. If I am asked what path 

 should be pointed out for pharmacists to pursue in 

 order that the present condition of affairs may be 

 improved and the outlook for the future made more 

 bright, then I say without doubt that the answer lies 

 in cultivating assiduously the scientific side of 

 pharmacy; in the promotion, encouragement, and 

 assistance of pharmaceutical research ; in the im- 

 provement of pharmaceutical products ; and in keep- 

 ing pharmacy abreast of advances in chemistry, 

 physiology, bacteriology, vaccine-therapy, and other 

 kindred subjects. 



Only by giving first place to the professional side 

 of pharmacy, keepini;:- as distinct as possible the purely 

 business side and declining to mix with pharmacy 

 prof>er business in things so far removed from drugs 

 as to be derogatory to the calling of pharmacy — only 

 thus will it be possible to maintain and enhance the 

 esteem in which pharmacists are held by their fellow- 

 men, both medical men and laymen, as well as public 

 bodies and Government Departments. 



The British Pharmaceutical Conference exists for 

 "the cultivation of pharmaceutical science" and "to 

 maintain uncompromisingly the principle; of purity in 

 medicine." Let pharmacists see to it that the con- 

 ference receive full and generous support, and that 

 no effort be spared to enable it to carry out these 

 worthv objects. Thus shall pharmacists prosper and 

 pharmacy flourish. 



Medical Science and Education. 



IN his wiselv eloquent presidential address to the 

 British Medical Association meeting at Cam. 

 bridge Sir T. Clifford Allbutt struck many a nail on 

 the head. He began with the claim that the universi- 

 ties, ancient and modern, from Alexandria to Edin- 

 burgh, have made the professions, and stated the 

 universitv ambitions to be building up character, 

 training in clear thinking, and imparting particular 

 knowledge and experience. He confessed, however, 

 that the new universities comoare ill with the old in 

 nourishing the imagination. There is need to learn 

 how to teach; there is need for simplification by 

 more blending of details into larger principles; and 

 there is need to beware of letting our teaching stiffen 

 into formulas. .Another point, refreshinglv illustrated, 

 was the debt of other sciences to medicine, for what 

 impulses have come from medical studies to cytologv, 

 to organic chemistry, to bacteriology, and so on, up 

 to philosophy, as the address itself shows. In medical 

 research, as elsewhere, natural observation is yielding 

 more and more to artificial experiment as investig-a- 

 tion penetrates from the more superficial to the deeper 

 processes. "The progress of medicine must in large 

 part be endogenous." "Mere observation — Nature's 

 NO. 2647, VOL. 105] 



•narch past — will not count for much now ; and as tc 

 family histories — well, they vary with each historian." 

 Once more Sir Clifford Allbutt made a plea for the 

 study of the elements and phases of disease in animals 

 and plants — a comparative pathology that would stir 

 the imagination of young workers and save the world 

 from a wastage as unnecessary as it is incalculable. 

 •' Yet no one stirs, save to gyrate each in his own little 

 circle. There is no imagination, no organisation of 

 research, no cross-light from school to school, no 

 mutual enlightenment among investigators, no big 

 outlook. . . . How blind we are! " After a very 

 severe but timely criticism of psychotherapy — a 

 criticism which is not marked, however, by any 

 lack of appreciation of the fruitfulness of experi- 

 mental psychology — Sir Clifford Allbutt closed with 

 some discussion of the immediate problems of general 

 practice and preventive medicine. There is inspira- 

 tion in the whole address (see British Medical Journal, 

 No. 3105, pp. 1-8), not least in its final glimpse of 

 the possibilities before medicine as a social service 

 and international bond. 



At the same meeting of the British Medical Associa- 

 tion there was an exceedingly important discussion on 

 the place of "preliminary science" in the medical 

 curriculum— a discussion which will lead, we hope, to 

 some highly desirable changes. In his introductory 

 address Sir George Newman indicated several reforms 

 — a quantitative lightening of the curriculum at both 

 ends, a fresh orientation of the preliminary sciences in 

 relation to the training of medical students, but, above 

 all, more biology and more real biology. " It is the 

 biological outlook and spirit that is required, the 

 capacity ' to see great truths that touch and handle 

 little ones '; for biology, pure and applied, is the 

 most educative, germinative, and dynamic subject in 

 the whole curriculum." Prof. S. J. Hickson em- 

 phasised the value of biological studies in cultivating 

 habits of verification and precision, in preparing the 

 ground for subsequent anatomical and physiological 

 studies, and in introducing the student to practically 

 important sets of facts, either very concrete as in the 

 case of parasites and their carriers, or more 

 theoretical as in the case of heredity. He recom- 

 mended a reduction in the number of " types " so as 

 to make room for more important studies, better 

 orientation of what is taught, and more emphasis on 

 fundamental questions — admittedly difficult as it is 

 to handle them well in teaching beginners. Prof. A. 

 Keith urged that "anatomy could be made a living, 

 practical part of medicine if only the teacher would 

 ask himself : Could this fact help me in diagnosis and 

 treatment?" Sir Ernest Rutherford, speaking of 

 physics, insisted on the necessity for a sound training 

 in the fundamental methods and principles of the 

 science before the medical curriculum is begun, and 

 for a subsequent professional course oriented in a 

 judicious way to future studies in physiology and the 

 like. Prof. Lorrain Smith laid emphasis on the 

 fundamental value of the preliminary sciences as a 

 training in method and criticism, but maintained that 

 the general introduction at present supplied is waste- 

 ful in its discontinuity with what follows later. It 

 misses part of its aim because its bearings on more 

 professional studies are not made clear. Prof. A. 

 Smithells, speaking of chemistry, indicated some ways 

 in which more value could be got out of the present 

 opportunities if there were more adjustment to the 

 particular ends in view. In general, there seemed to 

 be agreement (see British Medical Journal, No. 3105, 

 pp. 8-21) on two points: (i) The need for makinr^ 

 sure of a firmer grasp of principles, and (2) the need 

 for a re-orientation of the class-teaching in relation to 

 the particular needs of the medical student. 



