AMERICAN  PHARMACY. 
291 
growing  out  of  such  an  association.  Let  us  abolish  all  tests  of 
membership,  and  trust  to  the  force  of  sound  principle  and  the 
contagion  of  good  example  to  spread  through  our  ranks  a 
higher  and  better  standard  of  practice. 
By  the  more  complete  incorporation  of  the  popular  element 
into  the  national  organization,  we  may  hope  to  extend  its  useful- 
ness to  localities  which  would  otherwise  be  unrepresented  at  its 
meetings.  We  shall  be  able  to  extend  the  system  of  regular  ap- 
prenticeships throughout  the  west,  and,  through  the  employers 
to  incite  in  apprentices  a  disposition  to  advance  their  own  inte- 
rests and  those  of  the  profession  at  large  by  higher  scientific 
attainments  and  more  thorough  practical  training.  The  Phar- 
macopoeia, as  a  standard  of  practice,  we  may  hope  will  be  more 
generally  used.  The  petty  jealousies  that  keep  apart  those 
whose  interests  are  similar,  may  be  expected  to  melt  away,  in 
great  measure,  before  the  "  esprit  de  corps  "  which  the  Associa- 
tion will  seek  to  foster  and  maintain,  and  the  diffusion  of  theo- 
retical and  practical  knowledge  by  the  reading  of  prize  essays 
and  the  discussion  of  scientific  and  business  topics  at  the  meetings 
will  be  more  widely  useful  in  proportion  as  the  doors  are  thrown 
open  to  all  who  are  disposed  to  join  and  attend  upon  the  Associa- 
tion at  its  migratory  meetings. 
As  the  sphere  of  the  National  Association  is  extended,  we  may 
anticipate  that  the  local  organizations,  which  were  sought  in  the 
first  instance  as  a  primary  object,  will  gradually  take  place  as  a 
secondary  result,  and  these  growing  out  of  the  parent  stem,  will 
be  more  completely  assimilated  to  it  and  to  each  other,  than  as 
though  independently  organized  each  on  its  own  basis. 
If  the  twenty-five  towns  in  the  United  States,  which  have 
at  least  ten  druggists  and  apothecaries,  were  each  to  contain  a 
Pharmaceutical  Society  auxiliary  to  the  National  Association, 
the  influence  of  the  profession  of  Pharmacy  would  soon  be  felt 
over  the  entire  country. 
The  organization  of  druggists,  chemists  and  apothecaries  into 
local  societies,  however  small,  is  then  an  object  of  the  highest 
utility,  and  one  to  be  kept  constantly  in  view.  The  most  potent 
motive  for  organization  would  be  found  in  self-interest.  There  is 
scarcely  a  town  in  which  a  united  effort  of  the  druggists,  might 
not  so  elevate  the  character  of  the  trade  as  to  make  the  business 
