Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
October,  1920. 
Editorial. 
693 
tnaceutical  research  that,  we  are  convinced,  is  merited  by  the  im- 
portance of  the  subject  and  its  benefit  to  the  national  strength  and 
well  being. 
It  is  known  that  the  National  Research  Council  has  named 
as  one  of  its  divisions  "the  medical  sciences,"  but  we  are  not  advised 
that  pharmacy  is  to  be  organized  as  a  subdivision  thereof  or  that 
pharmaceutical  research  is  to  be  given  special  recognition  or  en- 
couragement. We  unhesitatingly  assert  that  the  thorough  study 
of  the  numerous  products  supplied  by  pharmacists  and  the  processes 
employed  in  the  preparation  of  medicines,  will  open  boundless 
fields  for  exploration  with  innumerable  research  problems  the  possi- 
bilities of  which  and  the  value  thereof  to  mankind  cannot  be  pre- 
estimated.  We  are  firm  in  our  conviction  that  "the  sum  of  scien- 
tific knowledge  for  the  benefit  of  the  national  strength  and  well 
being,"  acquired  thereby  will  hold  no  secondary  place. 
Mr.  W.  Kirby,  in  his  presidential  address  before  the  British 
Pharmaceutical  Conference  last  year,  fully  set  forth  the  need  for 
pharmaceutical  research  and  the  duty  of  the  government  to  en- 
courage and  foster  this.  At  the  recent  meeting  of  the  American 
Pharmaceutical  Association,  in  responding  to  the  address  of  Dr. 
C.  E.  McClung  representing  the  Division  of  Medical  Sciences  of 
the  National  Research  Council,  Prof.  John  Uri  Lloyd  eloquently  por- 
trayed how  the  supplies  of  the  pharmacist  were  drawn  from  every 
portion  of  the  Natural  Kingdoms  and  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe 
and  that  these  products  alone  presented  an  endless  variety  of  prob- 
lems of  the  utmost  importance  for  investigation  for  the  advance- 
ment of  human  knowledge  to  the  benefit  of  mankind. 
These  representative  leaders  in  pharmaceutic  thought  in  their 
respective  countries,  comprehend  fully  the  importance  of  comprehen- 
sive pharmaceutical  research  as  a  national  asset  and  likewise  its 
direct  influence  upon  the  development  of  professional  pharmacy. 
If  the  entire  membership  of  the  pharmaceutical  and  drug  trade 
organizations  were  imbued  with  the  same  spirit  and  comprehensive 
view  of  the  subject,  the  internal  indifference  would  give  way  to 
earnest,  enthusiastic  support  and  a  national  pharmaceutical  re- 
search endowment  would  be  promptly  established  and  in  its  func- 
tioning maintain  the  proper  professional  status  of  pharmacy  and 
demonstrate  the  sphere  of  usefulness  of  pharmacy  to  society  and  the 
.service  that  it  renders. 
Pharmacy  is  not  medicine  nor  is  it  chemistry,  although  closely 
