Am.  Jour.  Phaem.  ) 
Feb.  1, 1874.  J 
Pharmacy  in  Southern  Illinois. 
61 
States.  It  is  consequently  sunk  to  the  level  of  the  other  commercial 
trades  in  this  country.  The  causes  of  this  sad  and  deplorable  degra- 
dation of  our  noble  profession  in  America  are  numerous,  among  which 
I  will  only  mention  the  principal  ones : 
1st.  The  neglect  of  the  pharmacist  to  respect  his  profession  (lack 
of  scientific  self-respect),  not  only  as  a  commercial  but  also  especially 
as  a  scientific  one ;  caused  by  the  great  deficiency  in  scientific  educa- 
tion of  many  apothecaries. 
2d.  The  erroneous  ideas  of  our  American  people  concerning  ethics 
of  trade  and  pecuniary  compensation,  especially  as  relating  to  the 
pharmaceutical  profession. 
3d.  The  most  injurious,  oppressive  and  overwhelming  influence  of 
the  patent  medicine  system,  which  in  no  country  of  the  civilized 
world  has  attained  such  dimensions  as  in  the  United  States. 
Want  of  intelligence  and  of  scientific  (pharmaceutical)  education 
renders  a  large  class  of  pharmacists  unable  to  comprehend  the  great 
importance  of  pharmacy  and  its  mission  and  standing  among  the 
other  sciences,  as  well  as  the  venerability  which  it  should  enjoy  in  the 
eyes  of  the  public :  they  consider  it  to  be  a  mere  commercial  business 
and  totally  disregard  its  scientific  mission.  This  and  the  ruinous  in- 
fluence of  the  patent  medicine  trade  are  the  principal  inimical  causes 
and  powers  which  endanger  the  commercial  and  scientific  elevation  of 
pharmacy,  and  which  therefore  have  diminished  and  endangered  the 
scientific  and  commercial  worth  of  our  noble  profession. 
Hard  will  be  the  struggle  against  these  powers — ignorance  and 
quackery  of  every  description — but  nevertheless  it  is  a  holy  struggle, 
to  be  accepted  in  the  interest  and  for  the  welfare  of  pharmacy,  and 
which  undoubtedly  must  be  taken  up,  at  least  by  all  well-minded 
members  of  the  profession. 
The  existence  of  these  dangerous  evils,  further  the  evidence  that 
the  influence  of  the  same  was  growing  stronger  from  year  to  year, 
endangering  the  life  and  the  vitality  of  our  profession,  were  sufficient 
to  open  the  eyes  of  the  thoughtful  and  honest  pharmacists  in  our  sec- 
tion of  the  country,  and  to  exhibit  the  dangers  arising  from  the  per- 
manence of  the  status  quo  ;  and  in  the  year  1871  the  earnest  desire 
was  expressed  by  many  apothecaries  of  Belleville  and  the  surrounding 
country  to  organize  a  pharmaceutical  association  for  the  southern  por- 
tion of  the  State  of  Illinois. 
But  this  desire  remained  only  a  project,  and  nothing  could  be  accom- 
