486 
Editorial. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
^    November,  19 17. 
and  wounded  by  the  utilization  of  the  most  scientific  and  approved 
method  and  to  thus  increase  the  percentage  of  human  salvage  and 
maintain  the  army  at  its  maximum  efficiency,  is  now  acknowledged 
by  intelligent  commanders  to  be  an  imperative  need  of  the  modern 
army.  Japan  and  the  European  continental  countries,  such  as 
France  and  Germany,  who  have  maintained  efficient  armies  have 
recognized  the  importance  of  taking  advantage  of  and  using  to  the 
fullest  extent  the  scientific  knowledge  of  pharmacists  and  their 
special  training  along  professional  and  commercial  lines. 
Those  responsible  for  the  organization  and  service  of  the  Med- 
ical Department  of  our  national  military  service,  cannot  continue  to 
ignore  the  disparity  existing  between  the  pharmaceutical  service 
assured  to  the  French  soldier  and  that  stintingly  granted  to  his 
American  ally  now  fighting  as  his  compatriot.  A  comparison  be- 
tween the  highly  scientific  and  important,  pharmaceutic,  hygienic 
and  chemical  services  performed  by  the  French  military  pharmacists 
and  the  very  limited  pharmaceutical  service  permitted  to  be  exer- 
cised in  the  American  army  is  not  at  all  creditable  to  the  Medical 
Department  of  the  Army.  Obsolete  methods  of  dispensing  and  the 
lack  of  any  pharmaceutical  organization  or  control  of  army  medica- 
tion can  only  be  considered  as  incongruous  and  incompatible  with 
the  standing  and  dignity  of  the  United  States  and  with  the  status  of 
the  medical  practices  in  America. 
Pharmacists  are  fully  justified  in  insisting  that  there  shall  be 
organized  pharmaceutical  corps  in  the  government  service,  through 
which  the  members  of  this  branch  of  the  medical  profession  can 
render  most  efficiently  their  proper  services  to  the  nation.  The 
pharmacists  of  the  United  States  are  not  less  competent  than  those 
of  foreign  countries  nor  are  they  less  patriotic,  and,  if  given  a 
chance  to  develop,  the  military  chemists  and  pharmacists  will,  un- 
doubtedly, as  in  other  branches  of  their  professional  services,  vie 
with  the  most  advanced  of  foreign  nations. 
That  the  War  Department  continues  to  entrust  the  dispensing  of 
medicines  in  the  army  to  men  who  lack  the  special  education  and  ex- 
perience required  of  pharmacists  in  civil  practice  is  inexplicable, 
this  foolhardy  exposure  of  our  soldiers  to  the  grave  danger  of  un- 
timely death  from  poisoning  is  as  untenable  as  it  is  unwarranted 
and  is  an  inexcusable  national  blunder.  Instances  already  reported 
prove  this  to  be  a  serious  menace  to  life  and  not  an  imaginary 
danger. 
