322  Future  of  Pharmacy  in  Germany.  {AMjJf™;5?f^ 
pharmacies."  (Pettenkofer.)  How  far  these  assertions  represent 
the  reality,  may  be  judged  not  only  from  the  pharmaceutical  papers, 
but  far  better  from  the  number  and  quality  of  popular  science  publi- 
cations covering  the  field  of  hygiene  and  sanitary  and  medical 
sciences  ;  the  widely-known  popular  works  which  have  passed  through 
many  editions  and  translations,  of  Professors  Bock  and  Reclam,  of 
Leipzig,  may  be  mentioned  as  instances. 
The'medical  schools  have  skeptically  discarded  a  large  portion  of 
the^old  array  of  remedial  agents,  and  retained  comparatively  few  sub- 
stances of  certain  chemical  composition  and  hence  proportionable 
with  exactness  ;  these  are  more  and  more  administered  by  subcuta- 
neous injection  or  in  minute  concentrated  doses,  and  in  forms  which 
are  more  handsomely  prepared  by  the  confectioner  than  the  apothe- 
cary, while  the  preparation  of  the  chemicals  has  been  transferred 
from  the  laboratory  of  the  latter  to  that  of  the  manufacturer,*  so 
that  the  sphere  of  the  apothecary  has  been  materially  narrowed  and 
simplified,  and  a  chemical  knowledge,  though  always  desirable,  is  not 
in|the  same  degree  requisite  as  heretofore. 
When,  therefore,  we  hear  of  a  decline  of  pharmacy  and  of  a  de- 
crease of  its  efficiency  in  Germany  and  other  European  countries,  as 
yet  not"  a  degeneration  of  pharmaceutical  education  and  proficiency, 
nor  of  the  status  of  pharmacy,  is  intended ;  but  principally  the  reac- 
tion of  the  conditions  briefly  sketched  above  upon  pharmacy.  An 
increased  medical  skepticism  and  a  lessening  in  the  public  mind  of 
the  value  of  remedies  must  certainly  be  followed  by  the  lowering 
of  the  importance  of  pharmacy.  Medicine  cannot  well  be  subject  to 
such  a  retrogression,  because  its  successful  practice  lies  in  an  unalter- 
able path,  concerning  the  instability  of  human  nature  and  life,  and 
presupposes,  besides  actual  knowledge,  an  individual  fitness,  technical 
skill,  experience  and  judgment,  with  which  the  educated  physician 
can  always  successfully  encounter  the  ignorant  or  half  educated 
competitor,  while  the  competition  amongst  pharmacists  scarcely  exists 
upon  the  scientific,  but  almost  exclusively  upon  the  mercantile  field. 
The  future  status  of  pharmacy  in  Germany,  as  influenced  by  these 
factors,  and  in  consequence  of  the  rapid  intercourse  of  nations  and 
the  generalization  of  ideas,  their  influence  upon  pharmacy  in  other 
*  See  synopsis  of  lecture  in  Druggists'  Circular,  1874,  March,  p.  57 ;  and 
Pharm.Jour.  and  Trans.,  March  28.  1874,  p.  781 ;  also  Prof.  Redwood's  lecture 
on  the  "Past,  Present  and  Future  of  Pharmacy."   Ibid.,  April  25, 1874,  p.  863. 
