8o     Pharmacopoeia — View  of  Analytical  Worker.    { ^Februar'yTf™" 
Pharmacy  as  the  science  and  the  art  of  preparing  products  for 
the  treatment  of  the  sick  is  broader  than  ever  before.  The  widely 
diverging  therapeutics  demand  special  service. 
If  we  believe  in  psychological  therapeutics,  we  have  our  field  in 
writing  arguments  to  convince  those  who  think  they  are  sick  that 
they  are  not. 
If  hydropathy  is  to  be  practiced,  we  must  be  prepared  to  furnish 
the  proper  kinds  of  water. 
If  osteopathy  prevails,  we  must  provide  all  appliances  needed  for 
that  practice. 
If  vaccine  therapy  is  the  important  remedial  agent,  we  have  our 
field  in  the  preparation.  Just  so  with  all  the  other  special  branches 
of  therapeutics.  Few  pharmacists  realize  their  scope,  but  hang 
tenaciously  to  the  mythology  of  unimportant  drugs. 
If  I  may  indulge  in  further  speculation,  I  would  say  that  the 
therapy  of  the  future  will  be  mainly  preventive  or  prophylactic 
practice,  and  adherence  to  only  the  remedial  agents  that  have  proved 
particularly  efficacious.  For  example  :  Small  pox  has  practically 
been  eradicated  by  scientific  use  of  vaccine.  Serum  therapy  has 
greatly  decreased  the  mortality  of  diphtheria  and  bids  fair  to  hold 
its  place  in  the  treatment  of  that  disease.  Tuberculosis  can  effectu- 
ally be  fought  with  a  combination  of  fresh  air,  isolation  and  tuber- 
culin. Just  so  with  other  maladies,  the  ultimate  treatment  will  tend 
toward  uniformity  after  this  period  of  adjustment.  Of  course,  death 
is  necessary  to  life,  so  human  suffering  can  never  be  banished,  yet 
the  more  common  diseases  to  which  we  are  subject  may  at  last  be 
overcome  and  the  body  run  evenly  for  "  three  score  years  and  ten," 
when  it  will  fall  to  pieces  as  did  "  The  one  horse  shay." 
Why  is  this  speculation  important  to  pharmacists  ?  Because  we 
are  concerned  in  the  preparation  of  the  products  that  are  to  be 
used  and  we  must  be  able  in  some  way  to  discriminate.  To  my 
mind,  rational  therapeutics  will  be  the  final  victor  and  it  is  the  one 
we  should  follow.  We  are  a  long  way  from  the  final  goal,  but  have 
seen  some  important  advances,  of  which  standardization  is  a  vital 
one. 
Alkaloidal  assay  has  added  a  remarkable  stimulus  to  uniformity, 
but  all  our  active  drugs  are  not  capable  of  such  valuation. 
The  test  of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating,  not  in  the  appearance, 
size,  color,  number  of  raisins,  per  cent,  of  proteid,  fat  or  starch. 
