320  Pharmaceutical  Corps  in  U.  S.  Army.  {Am-^T-^svm' 
vidual  benefit  of  the  soldier  and  if  they  failed  in  their  duty  to  him 
they  were  not  faithfully  discharging  their  obligation.  The  ultimate 
soldier  was  the  person  whom  they  all  served." 
How  Drugs  Are  Dispensed  in  the  United  States  Army. 
The  dispensing  of  potent  remedial  agents,  whether  in  civil  prac- 
tice or  in  the  military  service,  should  be  restricted  to  those  who  have 
been  especially  educated  and  trained  as  compounders  and  dispensers 
of  medicines.  This  principle  is  so  thoroughly  established  that  the 
states,  and,  likewise,  the  District  of  Columbia  and  our  insular  pos- 
sessions, in  the  exercise  of  their  police  power,  have  by  legal  enact- 
ment provided  for  boards  of  pharmacy  to  examine  and  license  those 
to  whom  authority  only  is  given  to  compound  and  dispense  medi- 
cines. Nevertheless,  in  the  Medical  Department  of  the  Army,  this 
principle,  firmly  established  in  the  laws  for  the  protection  of  the 
lives  of  the  people,  is  ignored  and  the  dispensing  of  medicines  to 
our  soldiers  is  permitted  to  be  done  frequently  by  the  unqualified 
private  who  has  had  no  pharmaceutical  training.  From  one  camp 
comes  the  information:  "A  motorman,  a  butterman  and  an  appren- 
tice machinist  are  over  me  (a  graduate  of  a  school  of  pharmacy) 
and  according  to  army  regulations  are  dispensing  and  compounding 
medicines  to  men  in  the  army." 
The  Army  medical  supplies  necessarily  include  such  poisonous 
drugs  or  their  preparations  as  aconite,  atropine,  belladonna,  cocaine, 
colchicum,  hyoscyamus,  morphine,  nux  vomica,  opium  and  strophan- 
tus. "  The  dispensing  of  drugs  or  compounding  of  prescriptions 
is  done  by  the  non-commissioned  officers  of  the  Medical  Depart- 
ment," we  are  officially  informed  and  the  information  is  at  hand 
that  in  many  cases  these  sergeants  are  without  any  special  education 
or  training  and  would  not  be  admitted  to  the  examinations  of  any 
board  of  pharmacy.  Surely  the  soldier  is  entitled  to  pharmaceutical 
service  and  protection  equal  at  least  to  that  which  his  state  provides 
for  him  in  civil  life. 
Under  such  conditions,  we  are  compelled  to  accept  as  facts 
such  reported  errors  as  "the  dispensing  of  antiseptic  tablets  of 
bichloride  of  mercury  instead  of  phenacetin  and  normal  salt  solution 
tablets,"  "  morphine  tablets  for  calomel,"  "  digitalis  tablets  for  Brown 
mixture  tablets  "  and  "  liniment  tablets  given  internally." 
The  statement  has  been  officially  made  that  "the  pharmaceutical 
