*  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
September,  1897. 
••}    American  Pharmaceutical  Association. 
469 
As  it  is  now,  we  have  gone  outside  of  our  own  territory  and  invaded  that  of  every  other  trade, 
and  added  their  goods  to  our  stock  under  the  name  of  "  side  lines." 
Remedies  innumerable  have  been  proposed  for  the  present  depressed  condition  of  phar- 
macy. You  cannot  control  commerce  ;  trade  will  seek  its  own  channels  in  spite  of  laws  or 
obstacles  ;  and,  as  far  as  I  can  see,  there  is  only  one  way  out,  that  is  to  return  to  pharmacy 
proper ;  devote  more  attention  to  the  laboratory,  cultivate  more  cordial  feelings  with  the 
medical  profession  and  strive  for  higher  ideals.  The  higher  the  standard  we  set  up,  and  the 
closer  we  approach  to  it,  the  greater  will  be  the  esteem  in  which  we  will  be  held  by  the 
public. 
One  of  the  first  requisites  for  the  elevation  of  the  profession  is  more  stringent  pharmacy 
laws,  and  more  especially  as  regards  examinations.  In  this  connection  I  would  say  that  the 
Section  on  legislation  and  Education  will  present  for  our  consideration  a  model  pharmacy 
law. 
Now  I  wish  to  draw  attention  to  what  I  consider  a  fault  in  all  American  pharmacal  legisla- 
tion. As  far  as  education  is  concerned,  they  all  begin  at  the  wrong  end.  By  this  I  mean 
that  no  supervision  is  exercised  over  students  or  apprentices  in  drug  stores.  It  is  the  almost 
universal  custom  to  take  any  boy  applying  for  a  position  without  any  examination  as  to  his 
mental  equipment  and  general  fitness  for  the  profession  ;  and  if  he  does  his  work  reasonably 
well,  he  is  promoted  from  errand  boy  to  clerk,  and  then  to  dispenser,  and  after  three  or  four 
years'  service  he  commences  to  prepare  for  his  examination,  in  which,  by  means  of  quiz  com- 
pends  and  other  cramming  devices,  he  succeeds.  Of  course  there  are  exceptions  ;  but  I 
believe  that  the  number  of  college  graduates  is  out  of  proportion  to  the  number  of  young  men 
employed  in  drug  stores.  If  pharmacy  is  to  become  a  profession,  we  must  commence  with 
the  beginners.  We  must  have  a  class  of  men  who  have  acquired  a  sound  foundation  upon 
which  to  erect  the  composite  structure  which  we  call  the  science  of  pharmacy.  If  the  law 
recognized  a  class  of  apprentices  and  compelled  all  desiring  to  study  pharmacy  to  pass  an 
examination  in  such  subjects  as  arithmetic,  history,  geography,  elementary  algebra,  and  one 
modern  language  besides  English,  either  German  or  French,  before  a  board  named  by  the 
Board  of  Pharmacy,  and  consisting  of  two  or  more  well-known  high-school  teachers,  a  super- 
ior class  of  young  men  would  be  attracted  to  the  study  of  pharmacy  proper,  who  would  almost 
invariably  become  college  graduates,  and  would  aim  at  becoming  proficient  pharmacists 
rather  than  merely  passing  the  board  examination.  This  requirement  would  also  lessen  the 
number  of  clerks  and  pharmacists  and  decrease  competition,  which  is  one  of  the  greatest  evils 
of  the  present  system. 
The  delegation  to  the  American  Medical  Association  will  bring  before  you  for  consideration 
a  most  important  question,  viz.:  Will  Spiritus  Frumenti  and  Spiritus  Vini  Gallici  be  retained 
in  the  next  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia?  There  is  no  necessity  for  my  dilating  on  the  evils 
of  the  liquor  traffic,  and  the  incalculable  amount  of  injury  it  has  done  to  American  pharmacy. 
The  pharmacists  of  the  United  States  are  at  present  in  a  peculiar  position;  for  just  as  long  as 
liquors  are  sold  in  pharmacies,  even  if  only  on  prescriptions,  will  we  be  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Government  on  the  same  footing  as  saloon-keepers.  It  is  time  that  this  condition  of  things 
be  terminated  by  the  complete  abolition  of  every  form  of  dealing  in  fermented  or  spirituous 
liquors.  A  great  advance  in  that  direction  will  have  been  taken  when  it  will  be  decided  to 
delete  all  such  preparations  from  the  Pharmacopoeia.  For  my  part,  I  believe  that  the  sale  of 
liquors  by  pharmacists  is  unnecessary,  and  is  simply  a  result  of  a  bad  habit  into  which  we 
have  allowed  the  public  to  fall.  In  the  Province  of  Quebec,  pharmacists  do  not  deal  in  liquors. 
The  physician,  when  desirous  of  prescribing  stimulants,  invariably  sends  his  patient  to  the 
grocer;  and  in  all  my  experience  of  twenty  years  as  a  retail  pharmacist,  I  do  not  believe  I 
have  had  to  sell  a  quart  of  liquor,  except  during  the  time  I  was  employed  in  this  country.  I 
am  not  a  temperance  crank,  but  I  believe  that  the  sale  of  liquor  is  degrading  to  the  profession 
of  pharmacy,  and  is  an  unmitigated  evil.  The  only  excuse  which  I  have  heard  advanced  for 
the  retention  of  this  class  of  preparations  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  is  that  we  have  a  standard  by 
which  to  test  our  goods.  Now,  let  us  examine  the  reliability  of  this  standard.  Under  "Spiritus 
Frumenti,"  we  find  the  Pharmacopoeia  says  :  "  Its  specific  gravity  should  not  be  more  than 
0*930  nor  less  than  0*917,  corresponding  approximately  to  an  alcoholic  strength  of  45  to  50  per 
cent,  by  weight,  or  50  to  58  per  cent,  by  volume" — a  rather  wide  margin.  And  is  the  test  for 
impurities  any  more  reliable  ?  Under  "  Spiritus  Vini  Gallici,"  we  find  that  "  Its  specific  gravity 
should  not  be  more  than  0*941  nor  less  than  0  935,  corresponding,  approximately,  to  an  alcoholic 
strength  of  39  to  47  per  cent,  by  weight,  or  46  to  55  per  cent,  by  volume."  The  tests  for  fusel 
oil,  etc.,  are  not  more  definite  than  under  "Spiritus  Frumenti."  An  examination  of  the 
tests  for  wines  will  show  that  they  are  not  more  definite.    Admitting  that  the  tests  are  suffi- 
