Am'iJay/i9?8rm'  )  Argument  of  Dr.  J.  Madison  Taylor. 
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ready  to  hand  and  in  perfect  condition  to  apply  instantly  in  ever- 
widening  clinical  problems  in  any  line  of  specialization.  During 
stress  of  overwhelming  work  these  skilled  technicians,  thoroughly 
trained  in  chemical  and  manipulative  niceties,  will  prove  invaluable. 
Of  course,  the  number  of  these  exceptionally  educated  men  is 
still  limited.  They  are  increasing  every  year.  Requirements  in  the 
schools  of  pharmacy  are  being  rapidly  raised.  They  aim  to  pro- 
duce a  group  of  men  just  as  highly  educated  in  their  domain  as  are 
the  medical  students  in  theirs. 
The  preliminary  educational  requirements  are  also  now  much 
higher  than  was  the  case  only  a  few  years  ago.  In  contrast  with 
what  these  requirements  were  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  modern 
pharmacy  graduates  are  incomparably  superior.  In  fact,  primary 
requirements  for  the  pharmacist  today  are  equivalent  to  those  for 
medicine  in  many  states. 
A  point  I  wish  to  emphasize  is  that :  "  Many  of  the  subjects  phar- 
macists are  required  to  study  are  the  same  as  many  of  those  the 
medical  students  pursue.  They  overlap,  constituting  a  close  asso- 
ciation,, an  interdependency  with  scientific  medicine." 
They  have  become  so  necessary  to  the  profession  of  medicine 
that  they  supplement  in  essential  particulars  all  the  advances  of  medi- 
cine, each  having  a  definite  domain,  yet  fully  interrelated  and  in- 
teracting. "  As'the  string  unto  the  bow  is,"  so  is  pharmacy  to  med- 
ical science  at  its  best. 
Let  it  be  clearly  understood  that  these  pharmacists,  while  orig- 
inally, and  still  to  a  large  extent,  merchants  and  manufacturers  of 
drugs  and  remedies,  number  among  them  groups  of  research 
workers  so  highly  trained  as  to  be  fully  qualified  to  bear  similar, 
indeed,  equal,  responsibility  with  physicians. 
It  is,  of  course,  desirable  that  in  making  selection  of  pharmacists 
for  military  service,  examinations  shall  be  as  exacting  as  shall  meet 
the  requirements  of  examining  boards  of  the  Army  and  Navy. 
Hence,  the  protection  of  the  service,  hence  the  welfare  and  lives  of 
the  enlisted  men  and  officers,  will  be  amply  secured. 
I  am  credibly  informed  that  those  pharmacists  who  now  qualify 
and  who  seek  military  service  must  often  surrender  positions  which 
remunerate  them  many  times  over  what  they  would  receive  in  service 
pay.  Hence,  their  aim  is  a  patriotic,  not  a  selfish  one.  They  ex- 
pect rank  for  the  purpose  of  securing  attention  and  exercising 
authority  within  their  domain. 
