596 
The  Triple  Alliance 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
December,  1 9 1 7. 
ceaselessly  vigilant,  first-class  experts  in  testing  all  suspicious  ob- 
jects, sources  of  lurking  perils  among  which  are  drinking  water, 
foods,  soils,  infective  agencies,  environments,  climates,  dwelling  or 
sojourning  sites,  whether  outdoors. or  indoors  or  in  a  ship.  There 
is  included  demand  for  expertness  in  chemistry,  in  bacteriology,  in 
all  the  departments  of  clinical  laboratory  proficiencies.  The  time 
and  strength  and  multitudinous  demands  made  on  the  surgeon, 
notably  in  time  of  active  participation  in  war,  bring  him  to  the 
verge  of  overstrain  and  then  he  absolutely  must  have  expert  help 
because  he  cannot  do  it  all  and  act  as  administrator  beside. 
Frankly  the  development  of  military  medicine  has  long  outgrown 
the  archaic  and  wholly  unsatisfactory  methods  and  practices  of  even 
as  late  as  1898  and  demands  complete  readjustment  in  certain 
particulars. 
The  one  outstanding  deficiency  is  in  the  domain  of  expert  phar- 
macy. All  demurrers,  all  hesitation  to  supply  full  quota  of  modern 
pharmacists,  can  be  met  by  making  clear  what  he  is  now  uniformly 
trained  to  supply,  viz.,  expert  knowledge  in  physiologic  and  patho- 
logic (medical)  chemistry,  proficiencies  in  laboratory  tests  of  urine, 
feces,  gastric  contents,  of  blood  Wassermann,  Widal,  etc.,  and  trans- 
fusions of  blood,  intravenous  treatments,  surgical  dressings  and 
diverse  allied  subjects  and  facilities;  also  examination  of  drinking 
water,  foods,  soils,  localities,  drainage,  details  of  sanitation,  also  in 
diverse  clinical  laboratory  manipulations  at  least  as  to  details  of 
matters  to  which  the  surgeon  may  be  wholly  unable  to  do  justice. 
There  is  therefore  fullest  justification  for  a  triple  alliance  be- 
tween surgeons,  dental  surgeons  and  expert  pharmacists ;  otherwise 
the  practical  efficiency  of  the  fighting,  the  executive  and  the  financial 
personnel,  must  indubitably  and  seriously  suffer. 
The  status  of  pharmacy  as  a  profession  in  this  country  lacks 
much  of  what  it  deserves  largely  through  the  neglect  or  apathy  of 
the  profession  of  medicine  and  one  reason  is  the  crass  commercial- 
ism which  still  lingers  in  her  territories.  Now  pharmacy  is  just  as 
much  a  profession  per  se  as  any  other  high-class  industry  progress- 
ing on  a  plane  of  lofty  ethics  and  strict  scientific  conditions. 
Pharmacy  is  as  full  a  correlate  of  medicine  as  is  dentistry  or 
veterinary  surgery,  and  her  proponents  are  qualified  to  enjoy  full 
recognition  of  the  military  and  other  bureaus.  And  yet  to-day  the 
medical  profession,  or  corps,  in  the  military  service,  fails  to  give 
scientific  pharmacy  that  just  encouragement  and  support  essential 
