4i8 
Quarterly  Review  on 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
<-    September,  1917. 
viding  for  commissions  as  officers,  would  attract  to  the  service  men, 
whose  scientific  ability  and  technical  training  as  pharmacists  could 
be  utilized  in  many  ways. 
It  is  gratifying  to  note  that  following  their  accustomed  initiative, 
the  allied  pharmaceutical  organizations  of  Philadelphia  have  com- 
bined to  form  an  organization  to  bring  about  this  very  thing.  This 
organized  body  has  been  named  the  Pharmaceutical  Military  Asso- 
ciation. 
There  is  also  cause  for  gratification  in  the  fact  that  the  Journal 
of  the  American  Medical  Association  favors  the  organization  of  such 
a  pharmaceutical  corps  and  in  a  recent  editorial  points  out  the  ad- 
vantages its  creation  would  bring  to  the  medical  men  of  the  army. 
In  a  recent  communication  to  the  New  York  Medical  Journal,  Dr. 
J.  Madison  Taylor  puts  the  case  so  well  for  the  pharmacist  that  we 
quote  him  as  follows  : 
"We  have  no  desire  to  be  hypercritical  of  the  Medical  Depart- 
ment of  the  army  and  navy — we  realize  fully  the  serious  burdens 
they  are  carrying — but  in  my  judgment  there  is  grave  peril  that  in 
the  near  future  the  demands  upon  the  military  medical  service  will 
be  so  many  and  serious  that  it  might  break  down  from  overwork. 
It  is  to  prevent  this,  to  anticipate,  that  we  make  the  constructive 
suggestion  that  steps  be  taken  immediately  to  provide  a  sufficient 
number  of  assistants  skilled  in  all  branches  of  service  required  for 
the  Medical  Corps. 
"  There  are  several  ways  through  which  this  assistance  can  be 
given — by  utilizing  medical  students  by  utilizing  nurses,  and  by 
utilizing  pharmacists.  The  first  is  economically,  unwise,  because 
medical  students  are  potential  physicians  and  surgeons,  and  will  be 
needed  later  on  to  take  the  places  of  the  medical  men  now  in  the  ser- 
vice. The  second  is  objectionable  by  reason  of  the  limitation  of  a 
nurse's  training  along  medical  lines  and  also  her  sex.  The  third  is 
the  most  promising,  because  it  furnishes  material  that,  with  but  little 
intensive  training,  could  be  made  most  helpful  to  the  physician  and 
the  surgeon.  He  could  cover  more  ground  more  throughly,  more 
deliberately,  and  more  creditably  to  himself,  to  the  service,  to  his 
country  and  to  all  of  humanity. 
"  The  skilled  pharmacist  of  today  has  had  collegiate  training  and 
years  of  practical  experience,  with  a  manipulative  skill  in  the  hand- 
ling of  materials  that  eminently  fits  him  for  minor  medical  and  sur- 
gical work.   At  the  present  time  the  pharmacist  is  taught  a  series  of 
