Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
March,  J 900.  / 
Editoi'ial, 
135 
EDITORIAL. 
THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  PHARMACY. 
If  one  takes  the  pains  to  compare  the  Proceedings  of  the  Ameri- 
can Pharmaceutical  Association  of  recent  years  with  those  of  twenty 
or  twenty-five  years  ago,  it  is  very  apparent  that  the  problems  and 
affairs  pertaining  to  pharmacy  now  are  very  different  from  what  they 
were  then. 
The  problems  of  a  quasi-business  character  or  those  peVtaining  to 
the  shop  have  been  almost  entirely  replaced  by  more  or  less  scien- 
tific investigations.  We  find  that  the  collecting  and  preserving 
of  drugs  were  then  frequent  subjects  of  papers ;  the  Committee 
on  Drug  Markets,  Adulterations  and  Sophistications  of  Drugs  pre- 
sented painstaking  and  valuable  reports  ;  graduated  measures  and 
general  apparatus  for  chemical  and  pharmaceutical  uses  were  chosen 
as  themes  for  articles ;  the  labelling  of  shop  furniture,  stock  bottles 
and  vials  was  a  subject  that  was  given  closest  attention ;  the  devis- 
ing of  formulae,  with  criticisms  on  the  same,  as  well  as  useful  notes 
on  the  Pharmacopoeia  and  exhibitions  of  specimens,  also  tended  to 
make  the  meetings  peculiarly  valuable  to  the  retail  pharmacist.  If 
we  look  carefully  into  all  of  these  contributions  we  find  that  it  was  the 
teachers  and  those  closely  allied  with  pharmaceutical  colleges  who 
were  giving  their  best  energies  and  unselfish  labors  for  the  benefit  of 
the  pharmacist.  Since  those  days  gradual  changes  have  been  taking 
place  in  pharmacy  and  necessarily  in  the  character  of  the  contents 
of  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association. 
Marked  changes  may  be  said  to  date,  however,  from  the  formation 
in  the  Association  of  the  various  ^sections  on  science,  education,  etc. 
About  this  time  a  marked  division  of  labor  or  specialization  was 
developed,  the  manufacturers  took  up  the  problems  relating  to  the 
furnishings  and  equipment  of  the  pharmacy,  and  while  one  has  sup- 
plied shop  furniture,  another  has  made  a  specialty  of  glassware,  etc. 
At  the  same  time  the  retail  pharmacist  has  been  supplied  with 
drugs  and  preparations  the  purity  of  which  was  guaranteed  by  tests, 
etc.,  that  he,  for  economic  reasons,  apparently  could  not  well  apply. 
The  result  has  been  that  little  by  little  the  modern  pharmacy  has 
been  converted  in  many  instances  into  a  shop  in  which  some  one  else's 
preparations,  be  they  patent  or  pharmacopceial,  may  be  purchased. 
While  the  pharmacist  is  apparently  not  as  independent  as  he  was 
