^8  Lessons  from  the  Hearing  on  the  Edmonds  Bill.  (Am vJour-  Phcarm- 
OOu  J  i       May,  191 8. 
Some  of  the  Congressmen  wanted  to  know  why  a  pharmacist 
could  not  serve  just  as  well  as  an  enlisted  man  as  he  could  as  a  com- 
missioned man.  and  wherein  the  health  of  the  boys  in  the  army  would 
be  improved  if  commissions  were  granted  to  pharmacists.  In  an- 
swering this  question,  it  was  pointed  out  that  in  order  to  practice 
pharmacy  properly  the  pharmacist  must  have  authority  ;  he  must 
have  sufficient  standing  in  his  community  in  civil  life  to  converse 
intelligently  with  the  physician  and  to  take  up  with  him  matters  re- 
garding incompatibilities.,  etc.  The  army  system  prevents  such  close 
cooperation  between  pharmacists  and  physicians  because  of  the  .dis- 
tinction between  commissioned  and  non-commissioned  rank. 
Another  very  important,  question  that  was  raised  concerned  the 
number  of  commissions  that  would  be  required  in  order  to  supply 
enough  pharmacists  for  our  present  army.  The  committee.,  in  mak- 
ing its  recommendation  to  Congress,  is  desirous  of  being  specific  in 
its  statements,  and  wants  to  know  how  much  increase  in  the  expense 
of  operation  the  formation  of  a  pharmaceutical  corps  would  require. 
Every  member  of  the  committee  was  very  much  interested  in  the 
attitude  of  foreign  governments  toward  their  pharmacists,  and  many 
were  surprised  when  they  were  told  that  the  continental  armies  all 
have  pharmaceutical  corps  which  are  doing  very  efficient  work. 
Some  anxiety  was  expressed  by  one  or  two  members  as  to  the 
attitude  of  the  manufacturing  pharmacists  toward  the  creation  of  a 
pharmaceutical  corps.  They  believed  that  most  of  the  medicines 
used  were  the  "  ready  made  "  kind  and  simply  required  pouring  the 
contents  of  one  bottle  into  another.  They  overlooked  entirely  the 
present-day  training  of  the  pharmacist  and  his  ability  to  render  serv- 
ice in  sanitation,  bacteriology,  etc.  Xone  of  the  pharmaceutical 
representatives  who  spoke  before  the  committee  touched  sufficiently 
on  this  point.  However,  the  committee  granted  the  privilege  to  all 
of  them  of  extending  their  remarks,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  further 
information  along  this  line  has  since  been  supplied. 
What  are  the  lessons  to  be  learned  from  the  attitude  and  the 
questions  of  the  committee  ? 
1.  The  pharmaceutical  profession  has  been  clearly  shown  that 
very  few  people  know  anything  about  the  extent  of  training  which 
the  modern  pharmacist  receives.  All  judgment  regarding  pharmacy 
is  based  upon  the  average  corner  drug  store,  and  even  there  surface 
conditions  only  are  taken  into  consideration.  The  average  layman 
sees  nothing  in  a  drug  store  except  a  service  station  for  all  sorts  of 
