THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
JULY,  1854. 
AMERICAN  PHARMACY. 
Bt  Edward  Parrish. 
Continued  from  page  217. 
In  considering  the  best  plan  for  organizing  the  profession  of 
Pharmacy,  we  are  met  at  the  outset  with  the  fact,  that  from  the 
first  suggestion  of  an  extended  organization,  two  different  views 
have  been  entertained,  one  looking  toward  the  formation  of  local 
societies,  colleges,  &c,  which  should  be  duly  represented  in  a 
national  congress,  whose  members  generally  should  be  accredited 
as  delegates ;  and  the  other  proposing  the  immediate  union  of 
all  well-disposed  pharmaceutists  into  a  national  association,  with- 
out regard  to  location  or  previous  organization,  the  influence  of 
which  should  be  exerted  for  the  improvement  of  Pharmacy 
throughout  the  whole  country,  and,  as  fast  as  circumstances 
would  allow,  in  promoting  the  organization  of  local  societies  on 
the  same  general  plan  and  with  similar  objects  in  view. 
The  origin  of  the  first  convention  accounts  in  part  for  the 
prevalence  of  the  first  named  view.  The  discrepancies  occurring 
at  the  different  ports  of  entry  in  the  administration  of  the  law 
for  the  inspection  of  imported  drugs  and  medicines,  led  to  a 
united  action  of  the  different  incorporated  colleges  of  pharmacy, 
to  endeavor  to 'fix  standards  of  purity  for  the  various  leading 
medicines  passing  through  the  custom  houses,  and  thus,  as  far  as 
these  legally  authorized  institutions  could  influence  the  policy  of 
the  different  special  examiners  of  drugs,  to  produce  the  uniformity 
of  action  among  them  that  would  be  desirable.  For  this  object, 
involving  as  it  did  many  delicate  questions  requiring  knowledge 
and  experience  to  settle  them  aright,  and  in  which  grave  differ- 
ences of  opinion  would  be  sure  to  arise,  and  the  sanction  of: 
majorities,  pro  and  con,  be  sought,  and  in  which  a  sort  of  official 
force  was  designed  to  be  imparted  to  the  decisions,  there  were 
strong  reasons  for  requiring  that  the  conventions  should  consist 
of  carefully  selected  representatives  from  established  societies. 
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