Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  j 
January,   1917-  * 
Editorial. 
4i 
tionably  be  best  fitted  to  give  that  protection  which  the  public  has  a 
right  to  demand. 
Those  who  have  made  a  careful  study  of  the  development  of 
pharmacy  and  medicine  in  this  country  are  not  quick  to  condemn  in 
inexcusable  terms  the  practice  of  dispensing  by  physicians,  or  the 
sale  of  articles  included  in  the  so-called  side  lines  of  the  pharmacist. 
These  practices  have  arisen  in  most  instances,  no  doubt,  not  from  a 
matter  of  choice,  but  rather  from  necessity.  The  country,  a  few 
years  ago,  was  being  oversupplied  with  graduates  in  medicine.  At 
the  present  time  we  have  one  physician  for  approximately  every  700 
persons.  Before  this  time  many  physicians  sought  to  increase  their 
revenue  from  other  sources  than  professional  fees.  Physicians 
could  not  well  engage  in  the  sale  of  miscellaneous  merchandise,  but 
they  could  sell  drugs,  and  the  result  was  dispensing  physicians.  For- 
tunately for  medicine,  and  the  public  as  well,  the  annual  number  of 
graduates  from  our  medical  schools  is  now  less  than  half  of  what  it 
was  a  few  years  ago.  This  change  has  been  brought  about  by  in- 
creasing educational  requirements,  the  only  manner  in  which  such 
control  can  be  regulated  under  our  system  of  government. 
The  public  needs  not  more  physicians,  but  better  physicians,  and 
likewise  in  pharmacy  the  real  need  is  not  for  a  larger  number  of 
pharmacists,  but  rather  for  better  pharmacists.  Such  conditions 
can  obtain  only  when  the  number  of  pharmacists  is  not  in  great  ex- 
cess of  the  professional  service  demanded,  as  at  present. 
The  profession  of  pharmacy  is  gradually  going  through  an  evo- 
lution similar  to  that  through  which  medicine  has  passed.  Higher 
educational  requirements  for  pharmacists  will  in  time  reduce  the 
number  of  drug  stores  to  a  point  more  nearly  in  accord  with  the 
pharmaceutical  requirements  of  the  public.  Pharmacists  and  the 
general  public  are  rapidly  coming  to  appreciate  the  importance  of 
legislation  along  these  lines,  and  prerequisite  bills  will  be  introduced 
in  the  legislatures  of  the  following  states  this  month :  Indiana,  New 
Jersey,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Colorado,  Michi- 
gan, Montana,  Iowa,  Virginia,  Louisiana,  Illinois,  West  Virginia 
and  Minnesota. 
When  standards  commensurate  with  the  profession  are  estab- 
lished, pharmacy  will  develop  professionally.  The  public  demands 
professional  pharmaceutical  service  and  pharmacy  should  therefore 
be  maintained  under  such  conditions  that  the  public  may  receive  the 
best  expert  service. 
