438 
Editorial. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1  September,  1900. 
EDITORIAL. 
THE  NEEDS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PHARMACEUTICAL  ASSOCIATION. 
It  has  been  said  of  Daniele  Manin  that  he  was  made  a  delegate 
to  a  convention  in  Italy,  where  the  subject  of  the  improvement  of 
that  country  was  to  be  considered,  and  in  particular  the  subject  of 
the  introduction  of  railroads.  Manin  protested  that  he  should 
not  be  appointed  a  delegate,  as  he  knew  nothing  about  railroads ; 
but  finally  he  accepted  the  honor  and  attended  the  convention  to 
please  his  friends.  In  the  discussions  which  followed  he  was  called 
upon  for  an  opinion  and  said:  "  Gentlemen,  I  know  nothing  about 
railroads,  but  I  do  know  something  about  the  needs  of  Italy.  What 
Italy  needs  is  not  railroads,  but  liberty." 
It  seems  to  us  that  in  institutions  and  associations,  as  well  as  in 
nations,  the  greatest  evils  arise  from  the  fact  that  the  members  do 
not  recognize  or  attend  to  the  fundamental  needs  of  those  whom 
they  would  benefit. 
In  a  previous  editorial  (this  Journal,  1900,  p.  356)  the  peculiar 
province  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  was  consid- 
ered, and  it  was  suggested  that  it  might  be  well  to  distribute  copies 
of  Article  I  of  the  constitution  of  the  Association  among  the  retail 
pharmacists  of  the  United  States.  Since  it  was  considered  desirable 
or  necessary  to  appoint  a  committee  to  consider  measures  for  better- 
ing the  welfare  of  the  Association,  it  is  all  the  more  evident  that  a 
discussion  of  this  subject  will  be  welcomed,  no  doubt,  by  the  members 
of  this  committee  as  well  as  by  members  of  this  Association.  In 
considering  this  matter,  it  has  occurred  to  us  that  what  this  Associ- 
ation needs  to  increase  its  membership  from  retail  pharmacists  is  a 
concentration  of  its  energies  particularly  in  two  or  three  directions  : 
(1)  The  development  of  the  new  section  on  Pharmacy  and  Dis- 
pensing ;  (2)  the  concentration  of  considerable  energy  in  its 
Commercial  Section ;  and  (3)  looking  after  the  Legislation  in 
Pharmacy. 
If,  in  the  first  instance,  the  problems  relating  to  the  general  prac- 
tice of  pharmacy  were  discussed  ;  and,  in  the  second,  the  methods 
of  increasing  general,  and  particularly  the  prescription,  trade  were 
considered,  and  finally,  in  the  third,  matters  pertaining  to  the  laws 
relating  to  poisons,  pure  foods,  etc.,  were  to  be  debated  and  a  con- 
sensus of  opinion  developed,  we  cannot  but  believe  that  the  Associ- 
