Am*iJayr'i9?8rm"  )  Pharmaceutical  Corps  in  U.  S.  Army.  323 
and  pharmacognosy  of  the  standards  as  well  as  most  of  the  formulas 
contained  therein.  The  other  legal  authority  for  medicines,  the 
National  Formulary,  has  been  prepared  entirely  by  a  committee  of 
the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  It  is  inconceivable  that 
the  War  Department  should  ignore  this  important  branch  of  the 
medical  profession  and  to-day  has  not  commissioned  in  its  service  a 
single  eminent  pharmacist.  Pharmacists  are  not  unpatriotic  and 
are  not  unwilling  to  serve  their  country  but  they  resent  being  ad- 
vised that  there  are  but  "two  avenues  open  for  pharmacists  in 
general  at  the  present  time :  ( 1 )  To  enter  the  Hospital  Corps  as  a 
private.  (2)  As  a  non-commissioned  officer  in  the  Medical  En- 
listed Reserve  Corps."  The  acceptance  of  such  advice  they  realize 
means  destruction  of  their  professional  and  business  success  for  a 
service  in  which  after  possibly  years  of  duty  and  even  with  reenlist- 
ment  they  might  attain  the  rank  of  master  hospital  sergeant  and 
without  future  prospect  either  in  civil  or  military  life. 
Equally  are  they  ready  to  resent  the  imputation  that  this  bill  "  is 
designed  for  the  benefit  of  the  persons  desiring  to  enter  service — 
through  increased  rank  and  pay."  Pharmacists  are  fully  justified 
in  insisting  that  there  shall  be  organized  pharmaceutical  corps  in  the 
government  service,  through  which  the  members  of  this  branch  of 
the  medical  profession  can  render  their  most  efficient  service  to  the 
nation.  In  civil  life  both  the  practitioners  of  medicine  and  of 
pharmacy  are  essential  for  the  conservation  of  life  and  health.  Will 
not  the  conservation  of  the  lives  and  health  of  our  soldiers  also 
require  the  exercise  of  both  of  these  professions?  Physicians  are 
not  called  upon  to  enlist  as  privates  and  to  work  up  from  such  to 
the  higher  position  in  the  medical  corps.  Then  why  must  pharma- 
cists be  so  unjustly  treated? 
Pharmaceutical  Service  a  National  Asset. 
Pharmacy  is  recognized  in  civil  life  as  the  right  arm  of  medicine 
and  there  is  no  reason  why  this  position  is  lost  in  military  duty.  It 
is  a  waste  of  the  nation's  resources  to  utilize  medical  men  to  per- 
form duties  for  which  pharmacists  are  especially  trained  and  for 
which  the  medical  man  has  no  liking.  Especially  so,  when  there  is 
urgent  need  for  the  skill  of  the  medical  man  along  the  very  lines  of 
his  special  education. 
It  is  gratifying  to  note  that  the  leaders  in  the  medical  profession 
