Am7L0ne*"i9oh7?rm'}         American  Chemical  Society.  263 
with  coal  if  designed  to  burn  oil.  So  in  our  associations  we  may  have 
perfect  organizations,  constitutions,  by-laws,  and  rules,  but  unless 
the  spirit  back  of  them  is  in  force  and  in  harmony,  the  machinery 
of  our  organizations  will  not  run.  It  is  therefore  to  the  objects 
sought  by  these  respective  societies  that  we  must  turn  for  our  real 
comparison,  and  for  the  lessons  which  each  may  draw  from  the  other. 
We  have  in  the  American  Chemical  Society  an  organization  in 
the  interest  of  pure  science  only.  In  our  meetings  and  publications 
we  have  been  criticized  by  our  technical  members  for  devoting  too 
much  time  to  researches  in  theoretical  chemistry  and  not  enough 
time  to  practical  problems.  I  wish  to  call  attention  to  the  fact 
to-night  that  in  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  we  are 
drifting  to  the  other  extreme,  and  devoting  too  much  time  to  the 
economic,  the  political  and  the  purely  business  side  of  our  profession, 
and  not  enough  to  the  truly  professional.  That  there  are  good  and 
sufficient  reasons,  or  rather  causes,  for  this  state  of  affairs,  I  do  not 
deny.  In  the  American  Chemical  Society  there  is  no  common  business 
ground  upon  which  we  can  get,  in  order  to  further  business  proposi- 
tions. Our  several  lines  of  work  are  entirely  too  diversified  to 
permit  of  this.  However,  we  technical  men  perhaps  misjudge  our 
collegiate  and  research  co-workers  when  we  ascribe  to  them  only 
qualities  of  abstruse  reasoning.  Questions  touching  upon  the  prac- 
tical side  of  the  businesses  represented  in  our  local  section  of  the 
American  Chemical  Society  could  with  propriety  be  more  often 
dwelt  upon  with  profit  to  all  concerned ;  and  I  am  pretty  sure  that 
our  college-professor  membership  would  be  most  highly  interested 
in  any  discussion  as  to  ways  and  means  to  raise  their  salaries  and 
increase  their  incomes. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  rank  and  file  of  the  members  of  the 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association  have  so  little  time  left  for 
truly  scientific  pharmacy,  after  devoting  the  time  necessary  for 
looking  after  the  commercial  side  of  their  business,  that  it  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at  that  during  the  first  year  of  the  life  of  our  local 
section  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  practically  no 
papers  or  discussions  on  the  professional  side  of  our  business  have 
been  either  called  for  or  offered. 
True,  the  peculiar  conditions  which  have  obtained,  during  the 
first  year  of  our  existence  as  a  local  section,  have  had  much  to  do 
with  this  state  of  affairs.    The  year  has  been  one  of  great  legislative 
