1 12  Assay  of  Medicinal  Plasters.  { ^mZ^ww™' 
tions  for  such  work,  the  medical  profession  generally  does  not  feel 
the  pinch  of  necessity  with  quite  the  same  sharpness  that  do  the 
pharmacists.  Will  the  schools  of  pharmacy  undertake  the  task? 
Can  they?  I  hardly  think  so  unless  some  special  aid  is  rendered 
them.  Pharmacists  generally  speaking,  teachers,  retailers,  and 
wholesalers,  are  only  beginning  to  appreciate  that  under  modern 
conditions  all  education  has  become  a  matter  of  philanthropy, 
not  to'  say  charity.  The  world  has  long  believed  that  a  young  man 
should  be  offered  as  much  as  he  wants  of  general  education  and 
culture,  at  his  own  price,  as  is  shown  by  our  public  school  system, 
with  its  normal  schools  and  high  schools,  and  by  our  numerous 
partially  endowed  colleges.  But  we  of  to-day  have  gone  a  step 
further  than  our  fathers  and  are  giving  young  men  not  only  their 
general  education  but  are  giving  them  their  technical  training- 
fitting  them  for  their  life-work,  free  of  cost.  You  find  the  great 
universities  of  the  land  supporting  their  chemical  departments,  their 
engineering  courses,  their  medical  schools,  etc.,  each  being  run  at  a 
large  annual  loss,  and  their  continued  existence  made  possible  only 
through  the  aid  of  their  alumni  and  friends.  But  the  schools  of 
pharmacy  are  attempting  to  struggle  against  this  universal  trend, 
to  keep  up  the  standard  of  their  profession  and  yet  make  those  who 
enter  it  pay  for  the  privilege.  It  is  a  lost  cause ;  either  you  must 
be  content  to  see  the  apothecary  little  by  little  degenerate  into 
a  minor  merchant,  or  you  must  come  to  the  financial  assistance  of 
your  institutions  of  learning.  There  is  no  more  practical  way  to 
begin  than  for  you  who  most  poignantly  feel  the  need  of  pharmacol- 
ogists and  who  have  been  able  to  gather  the  means  for  the  satisfying 
of  your  ambitions  to  establish  in  connection  with  your  alma  mater 
a  post-graduate  department  for  the  training  of  young  men  for  this 
work.  The  necessity  is  yours,  the  opportunity  is  yours,  what  will 
vou  do  with  it? 
ASSAY  OF  MEDICINAL  PLASTERS. 
By  Frederick  B.  Kilmer. 
Comparatively  little  literature  has  appeared  in  scientific  publi- 
cations in  respect  to  the  analysis  or  assay  of  medicinal  plasters  made 
with  an  India  rubber  base. 
The  enactment  of  the  Federal  Food  and  Drugs  Law  and  the 
