5^4 
Pharmacy,  a  Profession. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\   December,  1910. 
materia  medica  products,  and  future  standardization  will  include 
pharmacognosy,  pharmaceutical  assaying,  and  pharmacodynamic 
tests  on  animals.  This  is  expensive,  and  must  be  done  on  a  large 
scale. 
WHAT  IS  THE  USE  OF  PHARMACOLOGIC  EDUCATION? 
The  answer  to  this  question  is  frequently  pessimistic,  but  my 
personal  answer  is  optimistic.  I  believe  the  future  outlook  for  drug 
therapeutics  is  better.  Never  before  has  there  been  greater  need  for 
a  profession  of  pharmacology.  The  members  of  the  profession  will 
naturally  specialize.  Most  of  the  research  work  will  be  done  by 
those  engaged  in  government  laboratories  and  in  teaching,  although 
those  employed  by  the  large  manufacturing  houses  will  conduct 
original  investigations  on  a  smaller  scale.  Those  engaged  in  the 
retail  drug  business  will  be  learned  in  pharmacologic  science,  and 
will  occupy  the  positions  of  experts  regarding  the  preparation  of 
drugs  and  their  application  as  remedial  agents.  They  will  be  manu- 
facturers as  far  as  their  facilities  permit,  or  else  hold  stock  in  some 
large  manufacturing  house,  doing  all  in  their  power  to  promote  its 
advancement. 
This,  at  least,  seems  to  be  the  tendency  of  things.  And  this  is 
for  the  best  interests  of  the  public,  as  it  will  place  the  practice  of 
the  pharmacologic  arts  under  the  control  of  the  pharmacologic  pro- 
fession, where  it  properly  belongs. 
PHARMACY  LAWS. 
It  is  evident  that  enforcement  of  the  professional  ideal  of  phar- 
macologic practice  under  present  conditions  will  place  professional 
pharmacists  and  manufacturers  at  a  disadvantage  in  competition 
with  commercial  druggists  and  manufacturers  of  the  so-called  "  pro- 
prietary "  medicines.  "  Professionalism  "  requires  that  new  products 
be  surrendered  for  the  general  good  and  that  all  members  of  the 
profession  be  taught  how  to  make  and  use  them.  "  Commercialism  " 
means  the  monopoly  of  new  products  by  individual  manufacturers, 
firms,  or  corporations,  and  their  introduction  to  commerce  by 
advertising. 
The  anomalous  conditions  of  law  in  this  country,  by  which  manu- 
facturing houses  are  exempted  from  the  operation  of  both  medical 
and  pharmacal  laws,  permit  any  person,  however  ignorant,  to  set 
up  as  a  manufacturer  and  thereby  practise  pharmacy  and  therapy 
