626 
Editorial. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
^      Sept.,  19 18. 
crease  their  professional  work  or  cause  them  to  see  that  the  respon- 
sibility required  for  this  did  not  give  them  an  adequate  remuneration 
for  their  pains  "  (italics  mine). 
The  knowledge,  equipment,  skill  and  ideals  have  not  been  erad- 
icated, but  measured  now  by  the  yardstick  proposed  by  the  professor 
our  model  could  no  longer  be  classed  as  a  pharmacist.  Public  sen- 
timent and  the  laws  of  the  land  will  have  to  be  changed  before  such 
a  standard  for  pharmacists  as  that  proposed  can  be  given  serious 
consideration. 
Much  of  the  talk  about  "who  are  the  pharmacists"  and  "  what 
constitutes  the  professional  work  of  the  pharmacist,"  is  twaddle. 
Our  model  pharmacist  is  performing  just  as  useful  service  and  as 
much  a  professional  duty  when  he  sells  a  nursing  bottle  or  infant  food 
as  when  he  compounds  a  prescription  for  the  baby  and  his  advice 
to  the  young  mother  on  these  may  be  of  greater  benefit  to  the  baby 
than  the  medicine.  Many  of  the  non-medicinal  commodities  sup- 
plied by  the  apothecaries  have  always  been  looked  upon  by  the  public 
as  public  necessities  coming  within  the  line  of  his  purveying  and  in 
supplying  these  pharmacists  are  only  fulfilling  their  legitimate  pur- 
pose in  the  present  status  of  society. 
While  admiring  the  attainments  and  the  zeal  and  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  professional  elevation  of  pharmacy  of  many  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Conference  we  cannot  refrain  from  calling  attention  to 
inconsistencies  and  radicalism  that  would  defeat  the  very  purpose 
for  which  they  are  striving.  Their  pedagogic  ideals  and  the  rarified 
esthetic  atmosphere  in  which  they  live  and  the  personal  hobbies 
ridden,  leads  them  to  expect  that  a  pharmacist  must  measure  up  to 
their  ideals.  To  one  research  in  pure  science  is  indicative  of  pro- 
fessional standing  as  a  pharmacist  to  another  application  to  study 
along  strictly  laboratory  work  or  clinical  analysis  would  appeal  as 
the  essential.  Their  lack  of  acquaintance  with  the  problems  that 
confront  the  practical  practicing  pharmacist  is  too  often  too  ap- 
parent and  their  limited  actual  experience  under  the  strenuous  con- 
ditions now  confronting  the  apothecary  all  tend  to  make  them 
hardly  a  safe  guide  to  follow  implicitly  in  matters  outside  of  their 
special  educational  branch. 
The  second  proposition  submitted  in  this  presidential  address, 
namely,  that  the  conference  take  measures  to  provide  for  the  or- 
ganization and  conduct  of  two  classes  of  colleges,  the  Colleges  of 
Druggists  and  the  Colleges  of  Pharmacy,  will  likewise  merit  careful 
