536 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Oct.,  1884. 
sation  for  the  time,  labor  and  money  expended  in  producing  competency. 
When  the  average  citizen  awakes  to  the  fact  that  skilled  labor  in  pharmacy 
differs  in  no  respect  from  that  in  other  professions,  or  if  you  like,  trades, 
and  the  general  standard  of  education  has  attained  a  point  when  that  aver- 
age citizen  will  feel  that  his  interest  is  best  subserved  through  the  employ- 
ment of  the  skillful  and  experienced  in  all  branches,  then  will  our  tertiary 
period  be  reached,  and  it  will  be  Pharmacy  with  a  big  P. 
Cincinnati,  August,  1884. 
THIRTY-SECOND  MEETING  OF  THE  AMERICAN 
PHARMACEUTICAL  ASSOCIATION. 
This  meeting  was  held  in  the  city  of  Milwaukee  in  the  hall  of  the  West 
Side  Turnverein,  and  was  called  to  order  by  President  W.  S.  Thompson 
of  Washington,  D.  C,  on  Tuesday  August  26,  at  3.15  P.  M.,  when  Hon.  Mr. 
Walber,  Mayor  of  Milwaukee,  addressed  the  Association  in  words  of  wel- 
come and  commendation  of  its  aims. 
The  annual  address  of  President  Thompson  referred  to  the  gradual  elimi- 
nation of  the  druggists'  stock  of  many  articles  which  in  the  infancy  of  our 
country  were  supplied  from  the  drug  store,  but  by  the  strong  current  of 
lower  prices  have  been  gradually  drawn  into  other  channels  of  trade.  Simi- 
lar causes  now  influence  a  particular  class  of  medicines — proprietary,  but 
nevertheless  medicines— the  sale  of  which  forms  a  large  item  of  the  busi- 
ness of  many  druggists.  Without  considering  the  temporary  expedients 
suggested,  President  Thompson  sees  the  ultimate  solution  of  the  problem 
either  (1)  in  the  pharmacist  maintaining  his  present  position  as  purveyor 
of  medicines  by  furnishing  this  class  as  cheaply  as  may  be  done  by  others  ; 
or  (2),  in  abandoning  their  sale  to  those  who  may  be  willing  to  supply  them 
at  lower  rates,  and  in  confining  himself  exclusively  to  the  technical  affairs 
of  pharmacy.  The  latter  course  would  lead  pharmacy  to  that  elevated 
jjlane  where  it  should  be  firmly  placed.  But  the  chief  evil  of  the  situation 
is  the  superabundance  of  drug  stores.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  evident  that 
pharmacy  throughout  the  country  is  continually  progressing  towards  more 
elevated  standards.  The  President  then  made  various  suggestions  in  regard 
to  the  internal  affairs  of  the  Association,  and  to  the  use  of  the  special  funds 
the  interests  of  which  are  at  its  disposal.  Referring  to  the  history  of  the 
organization,  and  to  the  clause  of  its  constitution  which  declares  one*of  the 
principal  aims  to  be  "  to  improve  and  regulate  the  drug  market  by  prevent- 
ing the  importation  of  inferior,  adulterated  and  deteriorated  drugs  and  by 
detecting  home  adulterations  ;"  the  President  made  suggestions  looking 
towards  a  more  systematic  course  for  disseminating  information  as  to  the 
quality  of  commercial  drugs  and  for  exposing  fraudulent  adulterations  with 
the  view  of  preventing  them. 
The  suggestions  of  the  President  were  referred  for  consideration  and 
report  to  a  committee  consisting  of  Messrs.  W.  J.  M.  Gordon,  H.  B.  Parsons 
and  Alonzo  Bobbins. 
