386 
American  Medical  Association. 
[  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I      August.  1908. 
There  is  nothing  new  or  radical  in  the  requirements — nothing  but 
that  every  reputable  pharmacist  will  agree  to.  A  definite  expression 
like  this  is  deemed  necessary  that  all  concerned  may  understand 
their  position  to  the  prescription  and  to  each  other,  and  to  give  the 
pharmacists  who  so  desire,  the  authority  and  the  opportunity  to 
align  with  the  profession.  Similarly  many  subjects  may  be  con- 
sidered at  these  joint  meetings  and  eventually  be  formulated  in 
declarations  to  guide  the  relations  of  the  pharmacist  and  the  physi- 
cian and,  it  is  hoped  also,  the  public. 
COMING  INTO  HIS  OWN. 
With  the  fulfilment  of  such  a  programme  the  pharmacist  will  soon 
come  into  his  own.  For  years  our  institutions,  like  this  old  Phila- 
delphia College  of  Pharmacy,  with  a  record  of  nigh  on  to  a  century, 
have  been  sending  out  thousands  of  youths — trained  in  the  prepara- 
tions of  pharmaceuticals,  qualified  for  the  compounding  of  medi- 
cines— to  do  what  ?  To  practise  pharmacy — hardly.  The  encroach- 
ment of  the  proprietary  medicine  men  left  but  little  of  the  practice. 
Now  it  is  going  to  be  different. 
With  the  medical  profession  earnestly,  actively  interested  in  this 
movement,  with  the  impetus  given  to  our  great  works — the  U.S.P. 
and  the  N.F. — by  the  Federal  Act,  with  the  branches  of  the 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association  aggressively  at  work  in  the 
principal  cities,  the  reformation  is  now  progressing. 
THE  REFORMATION. 
And  it  is  high  time  for  the  alignment  of  the  two  professions  of 
medicine  and  pharmacy.  The  public  has  lost  faith  in  medicine  and 
has  been  doing  without  either  physician  or  pharmacist.  The  layman 
has  discovered  that  he  can  buy  patent  medicines  without  paying  a 
physician  a  fee  for  recommending  them.  Many  of  them  have  tried 
all  the  principal  proprietary  pharmaceuticals,  even  synthetics.  From 
these  they  have  fallen  victims  to  the  regular  patent  medicine  litera- 
ture of  the  press  and  sometimes  the  symptom-questions-list  of  the 
advertising  quack. 
They  have  thus  by  natural  evolution  or  selection  graduated  from 
Osteopathy  to  Hypnotism,  Dowieism,  Eddyism,  and  through  every 
imaginable  fad,  fake  or  faith  cure. 
The  public  has  run  the  gamut  and  is  ready  for  a  change. 
