Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
February,  1920.) 
Editorial. 
79 
Publication  welcomed  constructive  criticism  that  will  improve  in 
any  way  the  publications  of  the  Association. 
The  subject  of  paramount  importance  considered  by  the  executive 
committee  was  the  creation  of  a  nation-wide  movement  for  pharma- 
ceutical research.  This  movement  is  destined  to  be  a  potent  factor 
in  the  development  of  the  professional  aspect  of  pharmacy  and  like- 
wise of  incalculable  value  to  the  public  welfare. 
The  committee  appreciated  that  much  has  already  been  accom- 
plished by  the  studies  of  individual  pharmacists  and  the  efforts  of 
the  faculties  of  some  of  the  schools  of  pharmacy.  The  numerous 
contributions  thus  made  to  our  knowledge  of  remedial  agents  but 
open  to  view  the  ever- widening  field  awaiting  pharmaceutical  re- 
search. Our  knowledge  of  but  very  few  of  the  drugs  that  are  in 
extensive  use  and  daily  prescribed  can  be  said  to  be  complete.  The 
advances  in  medicine,  chemistry  and  the  collateral  sciences  are 
adding  constantly  new  materials  to  the  innumerable  drugs  and  chem- 
ical substances  that  are  used  as  remedial  agents  and  require  thorough 
investigation  from  the  viewpoint  of  pharmacy. 
The  systematic  investigation  of  the  processes  of  pharmacy,  the 
sources  and  methods  of  preparation  of  many  drugs,  their  composi- 
tion and  the  valuable  therapeutic  and  economic  constituents,  their 
extraction,  estimation,  standardization  and  their  therapeutic  ap- 
plication are  some  of  the  avenues  open  to  pure  pharmaceutic  re- 
search or  to  investigations  in  collaboration  with  collateral  research. 
The  need  is  that  this  broad  field  open  to  pharmaceutic  research 
should  be  exploited  not  by  individual  or  by  sporadic  efforts  of  com- 
mittees too  often  lacking  in  both  the  necessary  moral  and  financial 
support  but  by  a  comprehensive  development  carefully  planned 
and  systematically  carried  on. 
The  various  endowments  for  research  already  created  or  in  con- 
templation have  given  little  or  no  consideration  to  the  needs  of 
pharmacy  and  the  importance  and  possibilities  of  the  benefits  that 
would  accrue  to  the  world's  welfare  and  progress  from  systematic 
scientific  investigations  in  the  field  that  is  peculiar  to  pharmacy. 
There  is  open  to  pharmacy  a  vast  domain  for  research  that  is  sep- 
arate and  distinct  from  the  specialized  fields  occupied  by  the  es- 
tablished research  endowments.  The  various  pharmaceutical  and 
drug  trade  organizations  have  long  recognized  this  and  through  the 
medium  of  various  committees  have  individually  aimed,  to  the  ex- 
