8  State  Pharmaceutical  Associations.  {^l^/X™' 
adapt  its  laws  to  accommodate  such  wants  as  the  several  States 
might  require,  for  there  is  such  an  element  as  State  rights  which 
national  laws  could  hardly  be  expected  to  protect,  but  which  the 
States  severally  can  rightfully  hope  for  as  within  their  own  terri- 
torial domain.  It  is  a  fact  that  however  valuable  a  membership  in 
the  American  Association  is  to  the  individual,  it  is  also  a  fact  that 
it  is  not  within  the  easy  province  of  every  pharmacist  to  attach 
himself  or  herself  to  this  national  body.  Reasons  for  this  conclu- 
sion could  be  readily  named.  To  satisfy  their  national  besetting 
proclivity  for  organization  when  once  the  thought  took  on  a  definite 
purpose,  we  find  one  after  another  of  the  States  assumed  for  them- 
selves this  right  and  privilege  until  nearly  every  Stateun  the  Union 
has  its  pharmaceutical  association,  and  to  the  extent  that  these 
organizations  keep  in  mind  their  province  they  are  prosperous  and 
the  mutual  benefit,  embodied  in  organization  for  a  common  purpose, 
is  advanced. 
Good  or  better  pharmacy,  high  emulation  for  efficiency  of  the 
individual  pharmacist,  sound  legislation  for  the  profession,  economic 
and  useful  safeguards  for  matters  of  trade  interests,  honorable  and 
fair  relations  among  the  craft,  and  a  higher  value  upon  the  indi- 
vidual responsibility  among  that  branch  of  toiling  servants  for  the 
public,  are  all  among  the  motives  that  have  led  up  to  the  origin  of 
this  important  organization.  Many  of  the  suggestions  thus  out- 
lined will  help  us  more  carefully  to  enter  into  the  details  of  the 
history  and  influence  made  and  exerted  by  this  federation  of  the 
profession,  and  the  fact  that  all  members  in  the  organization  may 
not  be  strictly  skilled  pharmacists  does  not  detract  in  the  slightest 
from  such  organization  under  the  general  name  pharmaceutical, 
as  among  the  most  valued  allies  are  found  the  simple  dealer 
in  drugs  or  their  able  representatives  visiting  the  trade  looking 
after  the  commercial  side,  and  others  standing  for  allied  interests  at 
this  time  so  numerous  and  consequent  upon  the  ever-changing  con- 
ditions in  a  rapidly  expanding  commercial  country  such  as  we  have 
become. 
The  history  of  these  associations  is  as  varied  as  history  usually  is. 
Some  devote  much  of  their  time  to  the  purely  commercial  side, 
others  largely  to  the  social  and  others  again  to  the  scientific,  but 
we  believe  the  level  of  activity  will  ere  long  be  reached  when  the 
educational  or  scientific  development  will  be  the  possible  standard, 
