396  American  Medical  Association.  {^kl^wmi!*' 
The  pharmacologic  action  and  the  physiologic  testing  of  drugs 
were  freely  discussed  in  papers  on  isopral,  strophanthus,  thyroid 
preparations,  and,  more  particularly,  in  a  paper  on  "  Physiologic 
Assay  of  Some  Commonly  Used  Drugs,"  by  Drs.  C.  W.  Edwards 
and  George  B.  Roth,  of  Ann  Arbor. 
One  meeting  of  the  Section  on  Pharmacology  and  Therapeutics 
was  devoted  to  a  joint  session  with  the  Section  on  Hygiene  and 
Sanitary  Science,  which  included  a  symposium  on  the  Prophylaxis 
of  Communicable  Diseases. 
In  the  Exhibition  Hall  the  chief  attraction,  to  pharmacists,  was 
the  exhibition  of  U.S.P.  and  N.F.  preparations  by  the  Chicago 
branch  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  This  exhibit 
was  advantageously  placed  with  the  scientific  exhibits  and  attracted 
considerable  attention.  It  included  upwards  of  150  different  prep- 
arations, so  that  in  variety  and  number  it  eclipsed  the  exhibit  made 
by  the  Philadelphia  Branch,  at  Atlantic  City,  last  year. 
Members  of  the  Chicago  Branch  were  in  constant  attendance  to 
demonstrate  the  elegance  of  the  preparations  exhibited,  to  extol 
their  virtues,  and,  incidentally,  to  distribute  an  interesting  pamphlet 
of  some  thirty-two  pages,  entitled,  "  The  Pharmacopoeia  and  the 
National  Formulary. "  This  pamphlet,  in  addition  to  the  enumeration 
of  the  composition  and  the  uses  of  the  preparations  exhibited, 
contains  much  interesting  information  and  is  well  worth  careful 
perusal  on  the  part  of  pharmacists  as  well  as  physicians. 
Altogether,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  prophesy  that  the  fifty-ninth 
annual  session  of  the  American  Medical  Association  will  mark  for 
pharmacy,  as  it  surely  has  marked  for  medicine,  a  very  decided  step 
forward.  It  would  indeed  be  preposterous  to  suppose  that  the 
varied  activities  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  evidenced  in 
its  Council  on  Medical  Education,  its  Council  on  Pharmacy  and 
Chemistry,  its  Committee  on  Legislation,  its  Board  of  Public 
Instruction  and  its  Committee  on  the  Revision  of  the  United  States 
Pharmacopoeia  could  be  continued  without  influencing,  in  no  unmis- 
takable way,  the  development  or  the  progress  of  pharmacy  in  this 
country. 
While  the  American  Medical  Association  has  already  accom- 
plished much,  it  bids  fair  to  be  but  at  the  beginning  of  its  possible 
usefulness,  and  certainly  pharmacists  should  be  interested  in  these 
possibilities,  and  see. to  it  that  their  own  profession  and  their  own 
associations  do  not  lag  too  far  in  the  rear.  M.  I.  Wilbert. 
