EDITORIAL. 
87 
worthy of its advocates and their best exertions ? That object is no less than 
a complete organization of the large, but to a great extent ill educated body 
of Pharmaceutists of the United States, which will induce the existing 
members to pursue an efficient course of self education, and dispose them 
to extend to their proteges and assistants a more liberal tuition in the 
sciences accessory to our Art. 
Perhaps in no country in the world is the proportion of apothecaries to 
population greater than in our own. In no country is their practice so 
little interfered with by legislative enactments or so little fostered by the 
government. Left to themselves to pursue what course they may choose it 
is only when some of them by ignorance or carelessness have harmed the 
community, that common law steps in and deals with them as with other 
offenders against the well being of society ; whilst no legal inducement is 
held forth for their improvement or encouragement. 
In view of these facts what a noble field is open for pharmaceutical re- 
form ! A strong interest has already been awakened far and wide ; from 
many a distant city and secluded town has the voice of inquiry gone forth 
seeking for the means of self improvement ; and whether this interest arises 
from pecuniary or higher motives, it indicates that the blossoming time is 
approaching ; that the fruit yet in embryo will soon be forming, and that on 
wise treatment and careful culture will depend the abundance, and the qual- 
ity of the harvest. 
We would then, with all the earnestness of our nature, invite the serious 
attention of our brethren, every where, to the Resolutions of the Convention; 
we ask them to throw aside local jealousies, and sectional feelings, and as 
the basis of a national Pharmaceutical reform, to found local societies for 
mutual improvement. Let every town and every city have its society. It 
is in these and by these that real good is to be promoted, for charity begins 
at home. They are in fact the only sure foundation upon which to base a 
state or national association ; for however eloquent and persuasive the lan- 
guage of Conventions, when addressed to individuals, and however Avise and 
useful the precepts they inculcate, — like the seeds, sown by the husband- 
man, they will perish or yield but a scanty and impoverished return, if the 
soil of local influence and inierest be not prepared for their reception at 
the outset, and carefully tended by the hand of culture during progress in 
germination, growth, and fruition. 
Fewness of numbers should not deter pharmaceutists from associating. 
A dozen well disposed men can accomplish wonders when enlisted in a 
common cause, and animated by a single interest. The Pharmaceutical 
Society of Great Britain, now numbering more than twenty-five hundred 
members in all parts of England, and in Scotland, had its birth at a tea- 
party given in London by a prominent chemist and druggist. A small num- 
ber may not be adequate to establish a School, or desire to seek an act of 
