136 
Editorial. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\      March,  1900. 
some  years  ago,  nevertheless  it  is  evident,  as  indicated  in  the  report 
of  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Practical  Pharmacy  and  Dis- 
pensing of  the  A.Ph.  A.  at  the  last  meeting,  that  not  only  an  equal  de- 
gree of  knowledge  is  required  in  the  compounding  of  galenicals,  but 
even  a  more  intimate  knowledge  of  the  subjects  involved,  or,  in  other 
words,  greater  professional  skill.  When  we  consider  what  analyti- 
cal and  synthetical  chemistry  have  given  us  in  the  nature  of  alka- 
loids, essential  oils  and  new  remedies,  and  when  we  look  at  the 
array  of  elegant,  tasteless  and  at  the  same  time  efficient  prepara- 
tions furnished  by  galenical  pharmacy,  it  is  apparent  that  the  phar- 
macist is  no  longer  concerned  in  merely  dispensing  the  more  or  less 
crude  products  of  the  vegetable  and  mineral  kingdoms,  but  rather 
in  dealing  with  those  that  are  the  products  of  the  brain  and  skill 
of  those  engaged  in  the  application  of  the  sciences  to  modern 
pharmacy. 
If  no  one  scientist  is  master  of  even  a  very  small  part  of  a  divi- 
sion of  science,  how  little  hope  is  there  for  a  pharmacist  of  to-day 
to  become  a  master  of  the  different  sciences  the  results  of  which  are 
employed  in  the  manufacture  of  the  medicaments  of  to-day,  and 
when  we  consider  the  number  of  experts  who  are  engaged  in  devis- 
ing new  furniture,  new  apparatus,  new  preparations  and  medicaments 
involving  a  knowledge  of  the  different  departments  of  science,  we 
expect  the  practical  pharmacy  and  dispensing  of  to-day  to  be  dif- 
ferent from  what  they  were  some  years  ago. 
Formerly  the  professor  was  intimately  associated  with  the  retail 
pharmacist  and  not  infrequently  had  at  least  an  interest  in  a  retail 
store.  In  his  work  of  instructing  the  students  at  college  he  colla- 
borated the  results  of  his  own  experience  and  those  of  others ;  he 
also  instituted  experiments  and  encouraged  others  in  investigations 
relating  to  pharmacy.  The  teacher  is  now  more  concerned  in 
expounding  the  principles  and  theories  of  the  sciences  than  in 
working  out  the  minor  problems  which  his  students  and  the 
pharmacists  with  their  advanced  training  may  and  ought  to  do  for 
themselves.  At  the  same  time  the  results  of  the  investigations  of 
the  professor,  as  shown  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  A.Ph.  A.,  of  recent 
years  indicate  that  his  thoughts  and  energies  are  now  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  applied  sciences  and  arts.  While  the  professional  side 
of  pharmacy  has  been  advancing,  as  shown  in  the  teachings  of  the 
colleges  as  well  as  by  the  report  of  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
