Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Sept;  1, 1872.  J 
Pharmaceutical  Colleges,  etc. 
423 
The  Maryland  College  of  Pharmacy  held  a  regular  meeting  July  11th,  the 
President,  Prof.  J.  Faris  Moore,  in  the  chair.  Mr.  B.  Scheffer,  of  Louisville, 
Ky.,  presented,  through  Dr.  J.  Brown  Baxley,  samples  of  pepsin  and  his  prepar- 
ations of  pepsin,  which,  on  motion,  were  accepted,  and  the  thanks  of  the  Col- 
lege voted  for  the  handsome  donation. 
The  Treasurer  presented  his  semi  annual  Report,  which  was  read  and  referred 
to  an  Auditing  Committee.  The  semi  annual  election  of  officers  resulted  in  the 
re-election  of  the  present  incumbents,  viz.: — President,  Prof.  J.  Faris  Moore  ; 
Treasurer,  Dr.  J.  Brown  Baxley;  Secretary,  Dr.  Edwin  Eareckson ;  one  of 
the  Board  of  Examiners,  Mr.  Louis  Dohme. 
The  following  gentlemen  were  elected  delegates  to  the  next  annual  meeting 
of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  :  Messrs.  A.  P.  Sharp,  Joseph 
Roberts,  Louis  Dohme,  J.  Faris  Moore  and  J.  F.  Hancock. 
Prof.  J.  Faris  Moore,  Claude  Baxley  and  M.  J.  De  Rosset  were  elected  Del- 
egates to  the  Conference  of  Teaching  Colleges  of  Pharmacy.  The  questions 
submitted  by  the  Committee  of  the  Conference  to  the  Colleges  of  Pharmacy, 
which  are  to  be  brought  up  at  the  Conference,  were  taken  up  in  regular  order, 
discussed  and  voted  upon,  and  the  Delegation  instructed  accordingly. 
After  listening  to  an  essay  by  Mr.  John  F.  Hancock,  and  receiving  it  with  a 
vote  of  thanks,  the  College  adjourned  to  the  second  Thursday  of  September. 
We  give  below  an  abstract  of  Mr.  Hancock's  able  Essay  on  "  Pharmacy  and 
Toxicology,"  in  which  he  portrayed  the  phases  of  pharmaceutical  fashions,  past 
and  present,  indicating  the  excesses  to  which  trades  and  professions  naturally 
tend.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Pharmacy  had  made  rapid  strides  within  the 
past  few  years,  and  had  grown  to  be  far  more  scientific  in  the  United  States, 
the  retrograde  movement  was  also  perceptible  and  manifest  in  what  are  known 
as  trade  specialties.  The  manufacturing  pharmacist  was  represented  as  send- 
ing out  his  salesman  with  price  lists  in  one  hand  and  sample  bottles  in  the  other, 
—  one  for  the  pharmacist  and  the  other  for  the  physician — and  in  too  many 
cases  both  are  easily  duped  by  soothsayings  and  palate  tickling,  while  the 
patrons  of  these  two  representatives  of  medical  science  pay  the  penalty.  This 
is  not  the  only  evil  issuing  from  this  modern  fashion  in  Pharmacy;  another,  al- 
most as  great,  is  that  young  men  are  taken  into  these  huxtering  establishments 
under  the  pretence  of  learning  Pharmacy,  while  there  is  almost  a  total  absence 
of  means  to  teach  it.  The  laws  of  Germany,  which  compel  the  tutor  to  instruct 
his  pupil,  would  be  profitable  to  the  rising  generation  of  pharmacists  in  the 
United  States,  if  speedily  applied.  Pharmacy  should  be  a  profession  equal  in 
moral  and  intellectual  standing  to  any  of  the  branches  of  the  physical  sciences, 
and  in  point  of  education  the  pharmacist  should  be  the  equal  of  the  preacher, 
the  lawyer  and  the  physician. 
If  a  high  degree  of  professional  attainment  was  demanded  of  the  pharmacist, 
and  that  coupled  with  habits  of  industry,  iutegrity  and  care,  he  would  then  be 
able  to  faithfully  serve  the  office  to  which  the  agony  of  sufferers  has  called  him. 
The  offices  of  the  physician  and  pharmacist  were  represented  as  being  pecu- 
liarly responsible,  from  the  fact  that  they  are  the  custodians  of  the  lives  and 
well-being  of  their  patrons,  and  when  the  question  of  responsibility  is  seriously 
considered,  it  seems  too  great  for  mortal  man  to  bear.  A  casual  glance  at  the 
duties  of  the  two  professions  renders  it  evident  that  the  responsibility  of  the 
pharmacist  is  greater  than  that  of  the  physician,  from  the  fact  that  the  physi- 
cian is  only  responsible  for  his  own  acts,  while  the  proprietor  of  a  pharmacy  is 
morally  responsible  for  all  of  those  in  his  employ. 
