'Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  j 
December,  19 17.  J 
in  Military  Medicine. 
597 
not  only  for  its  best  growth  and  development  but  also  for  acting  as 
the  cordial  handmaid,  contributing  to  the  solidarity  of  medicine  as  a 
whole. 
Not  more  so-called  pharmacists  are  needed  in  the  service  but 
real  ones,  trained  in  the  full  scientific,  as  well  as  practical  methods 
now  demanded  of  students  in  the  better  schools  of  pharmacy.  In- 
deed the  use  of  drugs  has  notably  diminished  of  late  because  of  the 
increasing  efficacy  of  preventive  and  reconstructive  measures. 
The  number  of  drug  stores,  apothecary  shops  or  pharmacies  are 
rapidly  becoming  more  numerous  than  needed,  yet  they  are  of  much 
use  and  the  proprietor  must  live,  hence  the  temptation  to  deal  in 
nostrums  and  blatantly  overpraised  objects  correlated  with  remedies. 
The  correction  of  abuses  it  would  seem  might  be  affected  by  a 
greater  sympathy  and  mutual  appreciation  of  the  domain  of  each, 
especially  when  the  pharmacist  is  called  upon  more  to  exercise  his 
skill  as  chemist,  analyst,  laboratory  clinician  and  in  other  ways  to 
cooperate  in  the  day's  work  of  the  physician.  The  scientific  spirit 
among  pharmacists  is  absorbing  attention,  devotion  and  increasing 
personal  sacrifices  with  great  speed  and  force. 
My  interests  in  therapeutics  are  in  other  measures  than  drugs, 
yet  for  years  I  have  been  impressed  by  the  splendid  research  work 
that  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  has  been  doing  for 
our  benefit,  quietly,  unobtrusively,  honestly  and  practically  unknown 
to  the  medical  profession.  This  is  set  forth  candidly  in  the  annual 
report  on  the  Progress  of  Pharmacy  in  its  exceedingly  able  Journal; 
also  the  research  work  of  the  splendid  American  Journal  of  Phar- 
macy for  nearly  a  century  past ;  these  publications  embracing  thou- 
sands of  pages  of  scientific  matter  better  known  and  appreciated  in 
foreign  countries,  I  believe,  than  it  is  in  our  own. 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  time  has  come  for  full  correlationships 
in  which  the  medical  profession  should  do  all  in  its  power  to  get 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  its  sister  professions.  The  first  step  could 
well  be  that  advocated  by  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  As- 
sociation when  it  urges  the  recognition  of  pharmacy  as  a  profession 
by  the  medical  department  of  the  U.  S.  Army  and  Navy.  Such  a 
recognition  would  go  a  long,  long  way  toward  placing  the  practice 
of  pharmacy  in  this  country  in  a  satisfactory  position  to  the  world 
and  to  demonstrate  its  effectiveness. 
What  stands  in  the  way?  Apparently  the  attitude  of  the  sur- 
geon-general of  the  Army  who  has  expressed  himself  as  opposed  to 
