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ON  AMERICAN  PHARMACY. 
tories  and  libraries  in  connection  with  local  organizations,  the 
obligation  of  the  employer  to  furnish  facilities  for  study,  and  of 
the  student  to  avail  himself  of  them,  will  have  to  be  so  insisted 
upon,  as  to  render  effective  the  work  of  reform  now  begun.  We 
should  encourage  teachers  capable  of  giving  direction  to  the 
work  of  education,  to  enter  this  field  ;  let  our  enterprising  young 
men  aspire  to  impart  scientific  knowledge.  Who  is  so  capable  of 
instructing  the  physician  as  well  as  the  pharmaceutist  in 
materia-medica,  chemistry  and  pharmacy,  as  the  well-educated 
apothecary  ?  who,  by  his  pursuits^and  the  tastes  that  grow  out 
of  them,  is  so  peculiarly  connected  with  those  departments  of 
knowledge  which  are  common  to  a  medical  and  pharmaceutical 
education?  If  we  would  reach  the  position  to  which  we  are  en- 
titled, we  must  cut  loose  from  that  vassalage  to  physicians,  which 
has  been  too  much  encouraged  and  still  keeps  us  down.  Let  us 
do  our  own  teaching,  and  wherein  we  are  the  equals  or  the  supe- 
riors of  our  medical  brethren,  let  us  not  fail  to  assert  our  claims. 
The  profession  of  Pharmacy  lacks  self-respect,  and  this  is  one 
reason  it  is  not  more  respected  by  the  public. 
A  measure  fraught  with  a  high  degree  of  interest  and  import- 
ance, as  calculated  to  promote  an  improved  condition  of  our  art, 
and  to  lead  to  an  honorable  emulation  among  its  practitioners  and 
students,  has  already  been  suggested  in  the  American  Pharma- 
ceutical Association ;  it  has  for  its  object  the  offering  of  prizes 
for  the  best  essays,  both  theoretical  and  practical.  The  subjects 
should  be  selected  with  a  view  to  drawing  out  all  degrees  of  scien- 
tific attainment,  and  a  wide  publicity  being  given  to  the  papers 
in  connection  with  their  author's  name,  would  operate  as  a  fur- 
ther incentive  to  competition,  in  this  very  important  line  of  effort. 
Those  which  require  illustration,  and  which  are  connected  with 
the  display  of  apparatus  and  of  improved  processes,  should  be 
read  publicly  at  the  annual  meetings,  an  additional  charm,  con- 
nected too  with  practical  advantages,  would  thus  be  imparted 
to  these  gatherings. 
The  cultivation  of  a  pharmaceutical  literature  among  ourselves, 
which  shall  make  pharmacology,  instead  of  a  secondary  branch 
of  medical  knowledge,  a  distinct  department  of  science  pertaining 
to  a  distinct  profession,  is  an  object  greatly  to  be  desired  and  pro- 
moted by  every  legitimate  effort.  In  connection  with  this,  we  should 
