756  What  of  the  Edmonds  Bill?  .     { A%J0™%9P1h8?rm- 
have  tried  too  precipitously  to  force  themselves  upon  the  Army,  but 
now  enough  time  has  passed  to  gain  a  perspective  for  both  medicine 
and  pharmacy  and  to  obtain  experience  with  the  old  American 
method  and  the  plan  of  the  modern  European  armies,  and  the  time 
is  near  at  hand,  it  would  seem,  when  a  conference  could  adjust  the 
present  differences,  and  establish  a  model  department  in  which  phar- 
maceutical claims  would  find  adequate  recognition  and  yet  be  in 
complete  harmony  with  the  most  effective  development  of  the  medi- 
cal corps. 
The  war  is  providing  an  opportunity  for  the  establishment  of 
professional  pharmacy  in  accordance  with  the  ideals  and  desires  of 
many  in  the  profession.  Leaders  in  pharmacy  and  pharmaceutical 
colleges  have  been  developing  a  new  pharmacy  in  the  last  few  years. 
The  filling  of  prescriptions  becoming  less  frequent  in  many  localities, 
drug  stores  have  been  compelled,  for  financial'  reasons,  to  largely 
commercialize  their  business  and  become  merchants.  This  phase  of 
pharmacy  has  swept  the  country  and  has  been  accepted  by  the  medi- 
cal department  of  the  Army  as  the  sole  representation  of  modern 
American  pharmacy.  That  the  pharmacist,  however,  should  be  an 
efficient  aid  to  the  physician  in  every  phase  of  his  practice,  as  was 
the  pharmacist  of  fifty  years  ago,  it  has  been  necessary  for  an  ex- 
tensive development  of  the  scientific  work  of  the  pharmacist,  and 
of  the  character  of  his  equipment.  It  is  true  that  there  are  only  a 
limited  number  who  have  established  professional  pharmacy  on  lines 
as  broad  as  here  indicated,  but  there  are  many  who  have  secured 
the  necessary  training  to  qualify  them  for  these  modern  professional 
requirements  of  pharmacy.  These  conditions  should  of  themselves 
give  to  the  medical  department  of  the  Army  an  added  incentive  for 
the  establishment  of  a  pharmaceutical  corps.  Thousands  of  physi- 
cians will  be  trained  in  the  Army  to  depend  upon  laboratory  methods 
of  diagnosis,  and  upon  the  use  of  bacterial  vaccines,  sterile  products, 
intravenous  methods  of  treatment,  etc.,  and  when  these  men  return 
to  civil  practice,  they  will  need  skilled  medical  aid  of  the  type  just 
described  in  their  daily  practice. 
By  the  establishment  of  a  pharmaceutical  corps  of  the  kind  which 
professional  pharmacy  desires,  and  is  anxious  to  cooperate  in  the 
establishment  of,  a  large  group  of  pharmacists  would  be  trained  for 
this  kind  of  aid  to  the  medical  profession,  when  the  war  is  over. 
Will  the  medical  department  of  the  Army  see  this  wonderful  oppor- 
tunity and  assist  in  establishing  professional  pharmacies  throughout 
