474  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  {^pimbef,1!^' 
ing  regretfully  and  lazily  into  the  shadow,  but  seems  to  linger  for  a  moment,  while  the  light 
of  the  Present  falls  upon  her." 
Thus,  it  seems  to  me,  it  is  with  this  Association.  The  past,  present  and  future  of  the  A. Ph.  A. 
will  give  to  the  coming  artist— a  painter  or  writer— an  ideal  of  unselfish  work,  scientific 
research,  helpful,  social  and  educational  progress. 
As  one  of  the  less  than  fifty  living  members  prior  to  i860,  and,  therefore,  properly  classed 
as  of  the  past,  I  unhesitatingly  declare  that  this  Association  has  been,  is,  and  will  continue  to 
be,  one  of  the  leading  educational,  guiding  and  helpful  organizations,  of  special  value  to  its 
members,  and  of  unparalleled  service  to  humanity. 
It  was  my  privilege,  soon  after  my  return  from  the  Minnetonka  meeting,  to  attend  the  one 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  famous  old  frigate  Constitution,  launched  from  Boston  in  1797 
saved  from  the  junk  shop  by  Dr.  Holmes'  poem,  "  Old  Ironsides,"  and  now  "resting  upon  the 
waters  into  which  she  rushed  as  she  left  the  builder's  waj-s  a  hundred  years  ago." 
As  I  listened  to  the  thrilling  history  and  glorious  achievements  of  this  noble  old  ship,  the 
courage,  skill  and  wisdom  of  her  brave  commanders,  Hull,  Bainbridge  and  Stewart,  my 
thoughts  wandered  to  the  craft  of  the  A. Ph.  A.,  and  I  saw  in  misty  form  the  faces  of  Maisch, 
Procter.  Parrish.  Taylor,  Squibb,  and  others  of  our  early  crew  ;  and  recalled  the  services  and 
loyal  contests  our  ship  and  crew  have  had  in  creating  colleges  of  pharmacy,  battling  success- 
fully against  ignorance  and  duplicity,  establishing  boards  of  pharmacy  to  enforce  and  increase 
educational  work  and  check  any  possible  piratical  craft,  like  the  quiz  book  and  cut-rate  per- 
sonal cramming.  We  have  many  instances  in  Massachusetts  of  these  ways  that  are  dark, 
even  to  the  taking  of  an  examination  by  an  expert  for  the  would-be  pharmacist,  for  which 
offence  each  man  paid  the  penalty  of  six  months'  service  in  the  House  of  Correction. 
The  A. Ph. A.  has  no  better  "  feeder"  to  draw  from,  than  the  State  Associations,  and  it  is  a 
personal  satisfaction  to  note  the  loyalty  of  our  members  to  this  branch  of  our  work.  If  any 
have  failed  to  appreciate  the  service  rendered  and  the  possibilities,  I  would  suggest  the  care- 
ful reading  of  the  several  State  Proceedings.  Time  forbids  the  allusion  to  more  than  one,  and 
that  one,  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association.  I  refer  particularly  to  their  Proceed- 
ings of  1895,  sent  me  by  one  of  its  members.  I  make  brief  quotations.  Professor  Remington, 
discussing  associations  and  organizations,  said  :  "There  is  a  need  in  this  country  for  an 
organization  of  a  totally  different  kind.  There  is  a  need  for  the  retail  druggists  to  get 
together  and  form  an  organization,  in  which  they  will  not  admit  the  wholesaler,  the  professor 
in  the  college  of  pharmacy,  or  any  school,  or  connected  with  an  educational  institution,  or  the 
proprietor  of  a  remedy  ;  but  a  retail  druggists'  association,  pure  and  simple,  which  shall  be 
controlled  by  the  retail  druggists  of  this  country.    There  is  a  need  for  it  " 
The  writer  of  a  paper  uses  these  words  :  "  The  manufacturers  are  the  managers  of  the 
incubator  where  the  cutter  is  hatched." 
I  cannot  resist  the  temptation  to  quote  briefly  from  a  paper  read  by  our  Mr.  Patton,  of 
York.  He  says  :  "  Thus  the  queer  anomaly  presented  by  reversing  the  order  of  therapeutics 
by  fitting  the  disease  to  the  remedy,  instead  of  the  medicine  to  the  disease.  The  enterprise 
of  the  manufacturer  does  not  stop  here.  We  observe  a  tendency  to  eliminate  the  physician 
also,  for  we  do  not  find  treatment  and  dosage,  with  other  information  conducive  to  self 
medication  plainly  printed  on  their  packages.  A  resolution  unanimously  adopted  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Medical  Society  at  their  last  meeting  called  upon  the  manufacturers  to  cease 
this  reprehensible  practice.  It  will  cease,  or  otherwise,  according  to  the  commercial  aspect 
of  the  question  from  the  manufacturer's  point  of  view.  Having  by  the  aid  of  the  physician 
introduced  their  products  to  the  consumer,  they  would  now  instruct  the  latter  to  do  without 
the  services  of  the  former,  a  case  of  base  ingratitude.  If  the  foregoing  statement  is  open  to 
question,  there  is  no  question  about  the  present  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  pharmacist  to 
take  care  of  himself.  He  has  awakened  to  the  tact  that  between  the  upper  and  nether  mill 
stone  of  the  cutter  and  manufacturer,  he  was  being  pulverized  very  fine.  As  the  operation  is 
not  a  pleasing  one,  especially  to  the  victim,  it  behooved  him  to  be  up  and  doing,  and  endeavor 
to  meet  them  on  their  own  ground.  Lessening  business,  and  diminishing  profits  cannot  go 
on  forever.    The  limit  will  be  reached  in  extinction." 
An  enthusiastic  worker  in  our  Association,  quoting  from  a  medical  journal,  says  : 
"  It  needs  no  prophetic  eye  to  see  the  extinction  awaiting  the  practicing  physician,  using 
the  term  in  contradistinction  to  the  hospital  or  dispensing  physicim.  Surgeons,  aside  from 
professors  and  hospital  and  dispensary  surgeons,  are  already  extinct.  The  drag  net  of  the 
ambulance,  dispensary,  clinic  and  hospital  have  secured  such  a  'corner'  in  surgery,  that  no 
man  outside  of  the  chosen  few  can  make  a  living.  What  has  occurred  in  surgery  is  now 
occurring  in  medicine.    No  patient,  able  to  walk  or  ride  to  a  hospital,  need  pay  a  cent  for 
