^March'wio™'}        Physiological  Standardization.  in 
of  their  products  to  come  up  to  the  standard.  Either  the  assay 
must  be  done  rightly  or,  the  manufacturer  is  going  to  have  trouble 
with  the  law. 
While  the  number  of  drugs  which  require  biological  assay  may 
seem  at  first  thought  too  small  to  justify  the  outlay  necessary  to 
obtain  a  man  competent  to  do  the  work,  there  are  so  many  other  ways 
in  which  a  pharmacologist  may  make  himself  valuable,  as,  for  in- 
stance, the  introduction  of  new  drugs  and  new  preparations,  that 
there  is  at  least  a  strong  possibility  of  such  an  expert  being  a  paying 
investment  even  at  present  prices.  If  the  manufacturer  can  afford 
to  pay  these  necessary  salaries  let  him  step  right  up  and  do  so  and 
the  dilemma  is  evaporated. 
If  he  cannot,  I  see  but  two  possible  alternatives  :  either  the  manu- 
facture of  preparations  of  digitalis  and  other  drugs  which  shall  be 
biologically  assayed  will  have  to  be  left  in  the  hands  of  the  special- 
ists, as  antitoxin  is  now,  or  else  some  artificial  means  of  increasing 
the  supply  of  pharmacologists  will  have  to  be  adopted. 
To  fulfil  this  latter  the  first  step  is  to  provide  some  place  where 
the  willing  novitiate  can  obtain  his  education.  At  present  the  train- 
ing of  a  pharmacologist  is  almost  universally  an  individual  one ;  that 
is,  some  young  seeker  for  knowledge  enters  into  the  laboratory 
of  some  older  man  who>  has  previously  trod  the  same  path  and 
labors  and  patiently  accepts  the  simpler  duties  which  he  is  fit  to 
perform,  watching  his  senior  and  gradually  imbibing  little  by  little 
a  working  knowledge  of  the  art ;  much  the  same  process  of  education 
as  the  old  fashioned  apprentice  was  led  through  in  the  bygone  days. 
Whether  or  not  our  modern  more  systematized  and  more  rapid 
method  turns  out  any  better  or  as  good  workmen  is  a  question  open 
to  debate,  but  at  least  it  turns  them  out  more  rapidly,  and  quickness 
is  the  great  desideratum  in  the  eyes  of  the  young  America  of  to-day. 
The  change  of  conditions  occasioned  by  the  passage  of  the  various 
food  and  drug  acts  all  over  the  country,  and  the  consequent  com- 
pulsion to  abide  by  the  standards  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  has 
led  to  the  formation  of  courses  intended  for  the  training  of  experts 
in  this  line  similar  to  the  one  established  a  year  or  two  ago  at  this 
venerable  College  for  nearly  a  century  the  pioneer  in  all  movements 
looking  to  the  uplift  of  the  profession  of  pharmacy. 
But  who  is  to  give  a  course  of  training  in  methods  of  biological 
assay?  Are  the  schools  of  medicine  likely  to  do  so?  I  think  not, 
for  while  I  grant  you  they  are  at  present  the  best  equipped  institu- 
