34        The  Council  on  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry.  {A^nua?yfi907m' 
WHY  PHARMACISTS  SHOULD  SUPPORT  THE  COUNCIL 
ON     PHARMACY     AND     CHEMISTRY     OF  THE 
AMERICAN  MEDICAL  ASSOCIATION.1 
By  John  K.  Thum. 
To  be  deserving  of  the  title  pharmacist  the  aspirant  should  be  a 
scientist,  and  being  such  he  must  realize  that  the  end  for  which  the 
Council  on  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  of  the  American  Medical 
Association  is  striving,  is  the  truth !  It  has  long  been  known  to 
well-informed  pharmacists  that  the  literature  put  out  in  connection 
with  many  of  the  newer  remedies  is  not  only  misleading  as  to 
their  composition,  source  of  origin,  and  therapeutic  properties,  but 
not  a  few  are  of  an  absolutely  fraudulent  nature.  A  few  recent 
reports  of  the  investigations  of  the  Council,  published  in  the  Journal 
of  the  Amencan  Medical  Association,  of  the  attempt  of  manufacturers 
to  mislead  credulous  physicians  illustrates  forcibly  the  need  of 
watching  manufacturers.  That  there  is  a  legitimate  field  for  the 
discoverer  and  manufacturer  of  medicinal  remedies  is  plain  to  every 
fair-minded  man,  but  he  must  not  be  allowed  to  prey  upon  human- 
ity like  a  vulture. 
The  work  of  the  Council  can  be  utilized  by  up-to-date  pharma- 
cists in  educating  and  informing  physicians  in  matters  pharmaceutic 
instead  of  allowing  smooth-tongued  detail  men  to  act  as  their  phar- 
maceutical mentors.  Pharmacists  should  assert  themselves  and 
make  physicians  appreciate  more  and  more  the  true  standing  of  the 
newer  remedies,  and  the  possibilities  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  and 
National  Formulary.  Physiologic  or  therapeutic  results  obtained 
by  the  use  of  many  of  the  newer  remedies  can  ofttimes  be  obtained 
just  as  readily  by  a  judicious  use  of  the  drugs  and  preparations  con- 
tained in  these  two  noted  books — scientific  books  which  for  careful 
selection  and  comprehensiveness  cannot  be  equaled. 
When  physicians,  as  often  happens,  come  to  the  pharmacist  for 
information  about  drugs  and  medicinal  preparations  contained  in  the 
Pharmacopoeia  and  National  Formulary,  they  naturally  expect  him 
to  be  able  to  give  them  all  of  the  desired  information,  not  alone 
pharmaceutical  but  also  chemical,  etc.  If  physicians  inquire  for 
information  about  new  and  non- official  remedies,  the  pharmacist, 
if  he  is  progressive  enough,  should  be  able  to  aid  him  very  mate- 
1  Read  before  the  Philadelphia  Branch  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  November,  1906. 
