June 21, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
1025 
house infirmary, may be extended to the British soldier 
when in hospital. 
The general projected reorganization of the French 
army, including, among other departments, those relating 
to the health of the soldier, appears to have brought with 
it some danger that the pharmaceutical service would be 
subordinated to the medical. This has induced Dr. 
Roucher to issue the brochure bearing the title at the 
head of this notice, in which he seeks to maintain the 
acquired rights of the body as being identical with the 
interests of the army, stating that if it were otherwise 
he would not hesitate to sacrifice persons to things, for 
that servants are made for the service and not the service 
for the servants. One introductory remark is worthy of 
quotation as having a general application in matters of 
this kind, that while on the one hand it is useless to 
pretend personal interests entirely disappear before the 
general interest, on the other it is not sufficient for the 
State to appeal to the spirit of generosity and sacrifice, 
without recompensing worthily those from whom it ac¬ 
cepts service. 
As a contribution towards the spread of information 
necessary for the proper appreciation of the important 
service which can be rendered to the State by a body of 
men like the French military pharmaciens, we quote from 
Dr. Boucher’s pamphlet an account of some of the prin¬ 
cipal duties which they perform. The military pharma¬ 
ceutical service embraces, besides that relating to the 
regiment, the veterinary service of the army, prisons, 
penitentiaries, etc,, the colonial service, and investiga¬ 
tions connected with the war administration relative to 
food, dress, and encampment. The military pharmacien is 
required to see to the supply of medicines wherever there 
is a soldier ill or a military physician has a remedy to pre¬ 
scribe. He has to guarantee the quantity, and especially 
the quality of the medical supplies ; to verify the genuine¬ 
ness of substances used for food, and to assist in the solu¬ 
tion of problems which lie -within the domain of the physi¬ 
cal sciences. He has to study economy in the purchase of 
medical substances, to superintend their preparation and 
preservation, and to render an exact account of all the 
material confided to his care by the State. In the hospital 
his daily duty is to examine all the medical prescriptions 
to see that they conform to the formularies laid down by 
the Council of Health ; also that the mixtures or com¬ 
pounds prescribed in them follow the rules of the pharma¬ 
ceutical art, and that they do not through momentary 
inattention, ignorance, or negligence, contain dangerous 
doses. The pharmacien is expected to reply to questions 
of the medical men inspecting the quality or properties of 
new or little known medicines ; to suggest means of pre¬ 
paring new remedies suggested by extraordinary cases or 
the progress of the healing art; to be able to demonstrate 
to them the purity and good quality of the substances 
used, and to indicate possible substitutions. He is also con¬ 
sulted respecting the food and drinks by which the patients 
are nourished. Finally, he must be able to analyse morbid 
products interesting in the history of disease, and a know¬ 
ledge of which is of importance to the physician. All this 
work requires an acquaintance with not only the substances 
which are comprised in the official list of the military 
hospitals, but the whole field of natural history, materia 
medica, physics, and chemistry. Some objection appears 
to have been taken to the necessity for the presence of the 
pharmacien with the army in the field, on the ground 
that after a battle the medicines used are of the simplest 
description, requiring but little skill to prepare them. 
But as the author forcibly remarks, even these require 
supervision, and the presence of a skilled pharmacist 
leaves the medical man at liberty to attend to duties 
more in accordance with his calling. But besides this 
duty the pharmacien of the divisional ambulance has to 
renew the stock of the medical and surgical canteens, and 
to provide supplies on the march to the veterinary service, 
which requiries larger quantities of drugs than the medical 
service, and is second in importance only to it. In fact, 
the valuable services rendered by the French military 
pharmaciens were gratefully recorded at the time of the 
Crimean war, and during the more recent campaign 
against Germany. 
Dr. Roucher, however, does more than national service 
in claiming for the pharmaceutist a position in relation to 
medical men considerably beyond that generally conceded 
to him. Although English pharmaceutists as a whole have 
not yet acquired the same locus standi as scientific men as 
their continental brethren, it is incontestable that skilled 
pharmacists, educated as highly and with a knowledge as 
wide as that possessed by medical men, are becoming 
yearly less exceptional. And to quote the words of our 
author, “ Either medical men will have to renounce the sup¬ 
port of the pharmaceutical chemist in their forward march, 
or they will have to share with that powerful auxiliary the 
honour of progress in this domain of the medical sciences, 
where they can never venture alone. Comprehended or 
not, this sentence is absolute.” Three years ago, Professor 
H uxl ey questioned the propriety of burdening the mind 
of the medical student with a knowledge of materia 
medica, except so far as it related to therapeutics, and 
threw a doubt upon the permanence of its retention in 
the memory. The opinion of M. l’lnspecteur Jeannel, 
quoted in this pamphlet, is quite in accord with this. 
He says that after being at the same time doctor of 
medicine and pharmacien militaire, teaching during six¬ 
teen years materia medica to both medical and pharma¬ 
ceutical students, and well acquainted with the too feeble 
stock of chemical and pharmaceutical knowledge possessed 
by a doctor of medicine, he is persuaded that the incom¬ 
petence of medical men as to pharmaceutical compatibilities 
and the preparation of medicines is nearly absolute. And 
the author, who, after several years of professional duties 
and special persevering study, laments that he is not so 
good a pharmacist as he would be, adds his testimony 
that, had he to retrace his steps, if he wished to be a 
doctor he would study medicine, and if a pharmacist he 
would devote himself exclusively to the pharmaceutical 
sciences. 
But revenons a nos moutons. It is interesting, with the 
memory of recent events fresh in our minds, to note that 
the man aspiring to be a pharmacien militaire cannot 
enter the service until he has spent three years at prac¬ 
tical pharmacy, passed through a full course of three 
years at the schools, and taken his degree as bachelier es 
sciences. The service has always attracted a high class of 
men, and some of them have borne names of which not 
only France but the scientific world is proud. Without 
neglecting their more modest functions, they have always 
been associated with scientific progress, they have been 
represented at the Institute, at the Academy of Medicine, 
in the chairs of the Faculty, and everywhere where science 
has shone. We shall conclude our notice with a list of a 
few of the principal, expressing the hope that the time 
will come when the pharmacist in this country also will 
receive more general recognition as a man who can render 
valuable services to the State. 
The Corps des Pharmaciens Militaires has counted 
among its members :— 
Gueret, known by his labours in reference to Cruciferae , 
for which he received several academical prizes. 
Bayen (1725-1798), an original investigator who exa¬ 
mined by chemical analysis substances hitherto unknown. 
His valuable researches upon the calcination of metals 
overthrew the famous theory of phlogiston, and prepared 
the way for Lavoisier. 
Deyeux, the colleague of Parmentier, who made im¬ 
provements in the manufacture of cheese, and with A au- 
quelin and Thenard performed numerous analyses of 
mineral waters. 
Parmentier (1737-1813). Some of the services of Par¬ 
mentier to science have recently been recorded in this 
Journal (ante, p. 537). It is worthy of note that his pro¬ 
found study of the food question in connection with his 
duties prepared the way for the introduction of the potato. 
