332 
Brief  -of  Philadelphia  Drug  Exchange.  {  Am-^;^m' 
France,  Germany,  Italy,  Japan  and  other  countries.  And  he  is 
doing  the  best  he  can  under  very  untoward  circumstances. 
In  official  Army  medical  circles,  the  claim  is  made  that  phar- 
macy is  a  "  non-essential  specialty,"  so  far  as  the  Army  is  concerned, 
and  that,  therefore,  pharmacists  could  serve  the  Army  only  in  a  lim- 
ited, special  capacity. 
The  answer  to  this  is,  of  course,  that  scientific  pharmacy,  such 
as  is  required,  for  example,  in  the  preparation,  compounding  and 
dispensing  of  the  drugs  contained  in  the  "  drug  table  "  of  the  Army 
hospital,  is  just  as  essential  in  military  life  as  it  is  in  civil  life. 
The  official  "  drug  table  "  referred  to  is  now  the  vade  mecum  of 
the  Army  physician.  It  is  an  excellent  work,  so  far  as  it  goes,  em- 
bracing a  large  proportion  of  the  drugs  and  drug  products  of  the  U.  S. 
Pharmacopoeia  and  National  Formulary.  But  rarely  can  these  ar- 
ticles be  prescribed  alone.  They  must  be  given,  as  a  rule,  with  dilu- 
ents, flavors,  excipients,  etc.,  and  yet  we  learn  through  a  high  medical 
authority  at  Washington,  D.  C,  that  "  Many  (medical)  men  feel 
that  there  is  no  need  of  pharmaceutical  workers  in  the  Army,  inas- 
much as  the  use  of  the  '  drug  table '  is  the  proper  procedure  when 
prescribing." 
If  it  is  the  proper  procedure  to  use  such  a  "  drug  table,"  and  no 
one  questions  this,  it  is  equally  proper  that  its  articles,  when  pre- 
scribed, shall  be  compounded  and  dispensed  with  proper  pharma- 
ceutical skill. 
The  importance  of  pharmaceutical  service  in  the  Army  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  provisions  are  now  being  made  for  250,000  hospital- 
beds  for  sick  and  wounded  American  soldiers  and  yet  it  is  alleged 
that  pharmacy  is  not  essential  in  the  Army. 
In  addition,  clinical  laboratory  analysis,  such  as  chemical',  micro- 
scopical, bacteriological  and  radiographical  work  by  trained  phar- 
macists, would  be  an  invaluable  diagnostic  aid  to  physicians  in  Army 
hospital  practice. 
The  possibilities  of  the  poisoning  of  soldiers  by  men  who  have 
had  no  technical  training  in  pharmacy  is  sufficient,  alone,  to  justify 
the  establishment  of  a  scientific,  properly  systematized,  pharma- 
ceutical corps  in  the  Army.  "Safety  First"  is  the  American  sol- 
diers' first  right  in  medical  treatment. 
If  pharmacy  is  the  non-essential  specialty  claimed  by  the  Med- 
ical Department,  why  is  it  that  the  Medical  Department  recently 
had  transferred  to  it  (Nov.,  1917),  by  the  War  Department,  as  en- 
