Am.  Jour.  Pbarm.  \ 
October,  1894.  J 
Editorial. 
493 
EDITORIAL. 
THE  AMERICAN  PHARMACEUTICAL  ASSOCIATION. 
A  detailed  report  of  the  proceedings  of  this  Association,  which  met  at  Ashe- 
ville,  N.  C,  September  3,  1894,  will  be  found  on  another  page. 
The  work  of  the  Association  may  be  considered  under  the  following  headings: 
(1)  General  Sessions,  including  the  President' s  Address ;  (2)  Scientific  Sec- 
tion ;  (3)  Section  on  Legislation  and  Education  ;  (4)  Section  on  Commercial 
Interests. 
(1)  General  Sessions. — As  usual,  the  President's  address  is  a  feature  of  the 
first  meeting,  and  Professor  Patch  met  the  demand  for  something  valuable  and 
interesting  from  the  executive  head  of  the  Association. 
While  we  have  nothing  to  say  concerning  the  merits  or  demerits  of  his  rec- 
ommendations, yet  is  it  not  about  time  for  this  feature  of  the  President's 
address  to  cease  ?  It  has  grown  to  be  a  custom  to  have  recommendations,  and 
no  President,  in  recent  years,  has  had  the  independence  to  ignore  this  custom. 
The  appointment  of  a  committee  to  consider  such  recommendations  always 
follows,  and  that  committee  usually  finds  itself  in  a  difficult  position,  between 
fear  of  offending  the  President  on  one  side  and  duty  to  the  Association  on  the 
other.  The  result  often  is  a  non-committal  report,  which,  after  much  discus- 
sion in  the  meeting,  is  so  arranged  as  to  "let  the  President  down"  without 
hurting  his  feelings.  When  reforms  are  so  necessary  as  to.  be  apparent,  let  the 
President  suggest  them;  but,  it  usually  being  otherwise,  he  should  not  hunt  for 
them.  A  brief  review  of  the  advancement  in  some  department  of  science 
related  to  pharmacy  would  be  of  interest  to  most  members,  and  give  the  Presi- 
dent an  opportunity  to  express  his  views. 
(2)  The  Scientific  Section. — The  chairman  of  the  Scientific  Section  did 
something  of  that  kind  this  year  by  omitting  the  usual  address,  and  it  was  to 
his  credit.  There  were  an  unusually  large  number  of  papers  contributed  to 
this  section  (about  fifty),  a  few  only  of  which  were  of  special  merit.  The  great 
bulk  of  them  were  mediocre,  and  a  number  should  be  very  carefully  read  by 
the  committee  on  publication,  and  by  them  only,  and  not  be  allowed  to  appear 
in  the  Proceedings.  A  few  years  of  natural  selection  with  the  survival  of  the 
fittest  would  exert  a  powerful  influence  in  raising  the  value  of  the  published 
Proceedings,  and  in  adding  interest  to  the  meetings  of  this  section. 
(3)  Section  on  Legislation  and  Education. — If  the  number  of  papers  pre- 
sented in  the  sessions  of  a  section  be  an  indication  of  its  usefulness,  then  the 
meetings  of  this  section  ought  to  satisfy  the  most  exacting  critic.  More  than 
half  a  hundred  papers  were  presented,  but,  owing  to  the  liberality  with  which 
the  discussion  was  conducted,  comparatively  few  of  them  were  read. 
A  large  amount  of  the  time  was  consumed  in  disposing  of  a  resolution  offered 
at  Chicago  last  year  by  Prof.  Hallberg.  The  negative  report  of  the  committee 
on  that  resolution,  signed  by  S.  A.  D.  Sheppard,  Wm.  Simon  and  C.  M.  Ford, 
is  one  of  the  most  valuable  documents  which  has  been  presented  to  the  Associa- 
tion for  a  long  time.  The  following  quotation  contains  much  concentrated 
good  sense  :  "  The  connection  between  the  Association  and  the  schools  and 
colleges  is  one  entirely  of  courtesy,  and  in  no  sense  one  of  judicial  authority.'''' 
If  the  section  had  amended  this  so  as  to  include  boards  of  pharmacy,  and  then 
