692 
Editorial. 
{Am.  Jour.  Pharm, 
October,  1920. 
The  National  Research  Council,  we  are  advised,  "is  no  longer 
government  supported  and  while  maintaining  a  close  cooperation 
with  the  government  scientific  bureaus,  it  is  in  no  sense  a  government 
bureau  but  is  now  entirely  supported  by  other  than  government 
sources,  and  is  entirely  controlled  by  its  own  representatively  selected 
membership  and  democratically  chosen  officers."  The  problems 
of  peace  are  no  less  important  than  are  those  of  war.  The  applica- 
tion of  scientific  principles  to  the  development  of  the  peaceful  arts 
and  industries  assures  a  great  increase  in  the  productiveness,  effi- 
ciency and  wealth  of  the  Nation  and  a  larger  measure  of  comfort 
and  enjoyment  to  the  individual.  This  means  higher  ideals  in 
literature,  art,  industry  and  commerce,  in  fact  in  all  proper  lines 
of  human  effort,  and  far  more  toward  the  world's  progress  and  happi- 
ness than  can  ever  come  from  the  destruction,  devastation,  destitu- 
tion and  misery  resulting  from  the  dire  necessities  of  war. 
The  world  has  had  its  surfeit  of  war  with  the  profligate  waste  of 
life  and  property.  The  time  has  now  come  for  the  inauguration  of 
grand  national  movements  by  which  scientific  investigations  shall 
be  thoroughly  and  systematically  organized  and  coordinated  and 
the  results  obtained  be  applied  intensely  to  the  benefit  of  mankind. 
The  conservation  of  our  national  resources  and  the  stimulating  of 
our  industrial  development  in  accordance  with  the  highest  scientific 
attainments,  should  now  become  our  national  problems.  It  is 
gratifying  to  observe  that  in  England  there  has  been  established  by 
government  grant  the  Committee  for  Scientific  and  Industrial 
Research  and  in  our  own  country  that  the  National  Research  Council 
has  been  permanently  reorganized  and  to  note  the  efforts  and  the 
progress  so  far  made  by  these  movements. 
Pharmacists  are  concerned  that  the  necessity  for  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  comprehensive  plan  for  pharmaceutical  research  be  recog- 
nized and  that  the  value  to  mankind  of  the  results  that  may  be 
obtained  thereby,  shall  be  fully  appreciated.  So  far  the  importance 
of  the  drug  industry  has  not  been  publicly  understood,  and  the  in- 
sufficiency of  our  knowledge  concerning  nearly  every  potent  medicine 
dispensed  by  pharmacists  has  not  been  given  the  consideration  that 
is  due  either  by  the  government  authorities  or  by  the  philanthropists 
who  have  created  research  endowments  or  by  those  subsequently  in 
control  of  such  establishments.  It  is  only  too  evident,  that  neither 
of  these  two  national  research  foundations  has  yet  given  the  serious 
consideration  to  the  formulating  of  a  plan  for  comprehensive  phar- 
