Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  "> 
November,  19 17.  ' 
Editorial. 
487 
The  responsibility  must  be  fixed  for  this  failure  to  mobilize  the 
pharmaceutical  asset  of  the  nation  and  to  organize  this  into  a  phar- 
maceutical corps  that  will  give  to  our  soldiery  a  proper  medical  dis- 
pensing service;  a  service  worth  having. 
It  is  in  order  for  the  Department  to  explain  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  citizens  of  the  United  States  why  their  kinsmen  and  loved  ones 
whom  they  are  sacrificing  to  the  cause  of  the  nation  are  not  given 
the  same  care,  attention  and  the  scientific,  hygienic  and  pharma- 
ceutical service  provided  for  the  soldiers  in  the  modern  armies  of 
both  our  allies  and  enemies. 
The  necessity  for  organized  pharmaceutical  service  in  the  Army 
was  conclusively  proven  by  the  Japanese  in  the  Russo-Japan  War 
and  in  the  present  gigantic  conflict  has  been  demonstrated  again  by 
both  France  and  Germany.  The  lack  of  such  proper  and  needed 
service  in  the  American  Army  can  no  longer  be  attributed  to  igno- 
rance and  this  nation  cannot  continue  to  condone  blind  jealousy  or 
medical  indifference  to  the  functions  of  pharmacy. 
G.  M.  B. 
THE  ANTISEPTICS  AND  THE  WAR. 
By  Louis  Gershexfeld,  P.D.,  B.Sc. 
The  treatment  and  prevention  of  infection  have  been  studied  for 
centuries  and,  even  as  far  back  as  1756,  a  book  was  published  by 
Smollett  in  which  he  discussed  this  subject.  Sterilization  and  anti- 
septic methods  have  undoubtedly  been  greatly  improved  since  the 
day  of  Smollett,  but  the  improvements  effected  have  not  yet  reached 
perfection  and  these  remain  as  serious  factors  in  the  present 
world  war. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  present  conflict,  the  medical  profession 
was  considerably  confused  in  adjusting  itself  to  definite  antiseptic 
methods.  Trench  warfare  was  a  new  condition,  heretofore  not 
faced  by  any  army.  Besides  the  caring  for  the  cleanliness  of  the 
trenches,  the  problems  of  wound  infection  became  more  serious, 
due  to  the  extreme  abundance  of  all  sorts  of  organisms  present  in  the 
richly  fertilized  soil,  as  well  as  in  the  air,  which  was  always  laden 
with  dust  due  to  the  continual  heavy  shell  fire.  Still  a  larger  factor, 
perhaps,  than  the  latter,  was  the  occurrence  of  sepsis,  due  to  the 
destruction  and  devitalization  of  tissue  by  fragments  of'  the  most 
