Am.  Jo  i  r  Pharm.  ) 
November,  1910.  j 
Pharmacy,  A  Profession. 
529 
TRUE  IDEAL  OF  PROFESSIONAL  PHARMACY. 
The  term  "  profession  of  pharmacy "  implies  a  fraternity  of 
pharmacists  holding  as  common  property  the  results  of  the  experi- 
ence of  the  profession.  According  to  the  professional  ideal,  each 
pharmacist  should  manufacture  and  deal  in  the  same  pharmaceutical 
preparations,  under  the  same  names,  made  according  to  common 
standards  and  by  the  same  methods;  and  each  member  of  the  pro- 
fession is  supposed  to  devote  a  portion  of  his  time  to  original  research 
and  to  publish  the  results  of  his  observations  for  the  benefit  of 
science,  that  the  fraternity  may  have  free  use  of  the  same. 
I  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  results  of  such  researches, 
when  reduced  to  law  and  embodied  in  system,  constitute  the  "  science 
of  pharmacy,"  or, 'more  properly,  the  "science  of  pharmacology." 
Pharmacology  is  defined  by  the  National  Syllabus  Committee  to  be 
"  The  sum  of  scientific  knowledge  concerning  drugs  and  medicines ; 
their  nature,  preparation,  administration,  and  effect ;  including  phar- 
macognosy, pharmacy,  pharmacodynamics,  and  therapydynamics." 
According  to>  this  same  authority,  "  Pharmacy  is  a  branch  of  phar- 
macology, including  the  science  and  art  of  preparing  and  dispensing 
medicine."  These  definitions  are  not  new  ones,  being  supported  by 
H.  C.  Wood,  in  his  text-book  on  Materia  Medica,  also  by  Hermann, 
in  his  "  Experimental  Pharmacology,"  and  by  the  various  diction- 
aries, but  I  will  not  take  space  here  to  give  the  full  quotations  I 
gave  in  my  lectures. 
According  to  the  National  Syllabus  Committee's  definitions, 
pharmacology  embraces  a  knowledge  of  the  following  subjects: 
Drugs,  medicines,  materia  medica,  chemistry,  pharmacy,  physiology, 
botany,  microscopy,  pharmacognosy,  toxicology,  posology,  elemen- 
tary physics,  manufacturing  chemistry,  pharmaceutical  arithmetic, 
pharmaceutical  latin,  theory  of  pharmacy,  practice  of  pharmacy, 
commercial  pharmacy,  manufacturing  pharmacy,  histological  phar- 
macognosy, pharmacodynamics,  therapydynamics,  assaying,  dis- 
pensing pharmacy,  and  pharmaceutical  jurisprudence. 
According  to  the  Standard  Dictionary,  "  Science  is  knowledge 
reduced  to  law  and  embodied  in  system."  Therefore,  the  knowledge 
of  the  above-mentioned  subjects,  when  systematically  arranged,  con- 
stitutes the  "  science  of  pharmacology."  The  same  authority  states 
"  Knowledge  of  a  single  fact,  not  known  or  related  to  any  other,  or 
of  many  facts  not  known  as  having  any  mutual  relations  or  com- 
