276 
Correspondence. 
I  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
*■      June,  1917. 
At  this  time  the  object  of  the  communication  is  centered  to  enlist 
your  support  in  securing  due  recognition  for  pharmacists  in  the  gov- 
ernment service  and  particularly  apprise  the  government  officials 
that  pharmacists  can  be  of  efficient  and  valuable  service.  Your 
prompt  cooperation  will  therefore  be  appreciated. 
Thanking  you  and  with  fraternal  greetings, 
The  Journal  of  the  A.  Ph.  A. 
E.  G.  Eberle, 
Editor. 
It  appears  that  pharmacy  has  no  adequate  representation  in  the 
Army  and  Navy  and  that  no  representation  has  been  accorded  it  on 
the  Council  for  National  Defense.  Medicine  is  strongly  represented. 
Medicine  is  not  pharmacy,  nor  does  it  include  pharmacy,  as  evi- 
denced by  the  existence  of  the  separate  pharmaceutical  profession. 
National  defense  without  adequate  pharmaceutical  representation 
and  recognition  can  never  be  as  effective  as  it  can  be  with  pharma- 
ceutical participation  under  proper  standard  of  recognition.  Medical 
men  are  not  pharmacists  and,  as  far  as  I  know,  do  not  claim  to  be. 
They  cannot  any  more  give  expert  pharmaceutical  service  than 
pharmacists  can  give  medical  or  surgical  service.  In  the  failure  to 
recognize  and  employ  the  expert  pharmaceutical  services  available, 
the  country  falls  short  in  that  degree,  as  I  see  it.  It  is  fallacious  to 
claim  that  pharmaceutical  service  in  war  or  peace  is  negligible  or  of 
so  low  a  grade  that  it  shall  be  a  hand-maiden  to  any  other  division  of 
the  service. 
The  Council  for  National  Defense  has  appointed  a  committee  of 
which  the  Secretary  of  War  is  chairman,  to  effect,  among  other 
things,  a  practical  standardization  of  pharmaceutical  supplies.  Who 
is  as  competent  as  a  highly  trained  expert  pharmacist  to  direct  this 
standardization  and  other  purely  pharmaceutical  activities?  Unless 
this  kind  of  work  is  under  the  direction  or  responsible  participation 
of  such  a  pharmacist,  the  country  is  deprived  of  the  best  kind  of 
service  in  this  field  and  yet  it  is  entitled  to  the  very  best  that  the 
country  affords.  This  kind  of  expert  service  is  freely  at  hand  and 
available  and,  as  president  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Asso- 
ciation, I  respectfully  request  and  urge  that  it  be  employed.  I  feel 
that  if  I  did  not  make  this  request  and  make  it  with  the  fullest 
strength  of  whatever  influence  my  office  carries,  I  would  not  be  doing 
my  duty  to  my  country,  not  to  speak  of  my  duty  to  my  calling. 
