328  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.    { AmjJuoiy^9P06arul' 
seen,  snatch  a  patient  out  of  the  jaws  of  death,  and  in  which  the 
dirt  commonly  dispensed  for  musk  is  worse  than  useless  ? 
A  tremendous  responsibility  rests  on  the  conscientious  pharmacist. 
He  is  always  the  active  assistant  of  the  physician ;  he  is  frequently 
the  path-finder  and  guide  of  medical  progress  in  certain  directions* 
Therapeutics,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  drugs,  must  advance  in  the  future 
through  the  active  and  intelligent  co-operation  of  chemistry  and 
biology,  of  pharmacy  and  medicine.  In  such  advance  I  look  to  this 
Society  confidently  for  leading  and  for  light. 
REMARKS  AT  THE  ORGANIZATION  MEETING  OF  THE 
PHILADELPHIA  BRANCH  OF  THE  AMERICAN 
PHARMACEUTICAL  ASSOCIATION. 
By  Dr.  Henry  Beates,  Jr. 
Being  honored  with  an  invitation  to  be  present  this  evening  and 
listening  to  the  remarks  indulged  during  organization,  I  made  brief 
notes  of  a  few  thoughts  that  perhaps  can  be  advantageously  con. 
sidered ;  and  the  first  point  desired  to  be  emphasized  is  that  the  very 
existence  of  the  science  and  art  of  pharmacy  is  determined  by  the  suc- 
cessful practice  of  medicine,  and  the  successful  practice  of  medicine 
depends  upon  a  higher  degree  of  qualification  than  has  ever  obtained 
in  the  past. 
Thus  the  principal  problem  confronting  the  two  professions  is  the 
same  for  each,  to  wit. :  the  establishment  of  conditions  which  must 
result  in  foundationing  a  higher  standard  of  qualification.  This 
embodies  two  conditions,  applicable  alike  to  our  professions,  which 
have  unavoidably  and  prominently  forced  themselves  upon  our  atten- 
tion ;  and  the  first  is  the  recognized  necessity  for  the  eradication  of 
degenerate  commercialism  ;  and  the  second,  the  establishment  of 
those  conditions  which  will  assure  to  both  the  highest  standard 
of  qualification. 
In  medicine,  commercial  degeneracy  manifested  itself  by  prosti- 
tution of  the  degree,  and  took  shape  in  the  morally  rotten  and 
unprincipled  commercial  medical  college,  which  is  the  undeniable 
source  of  that  large  percentage  of  illiterate  and  incompetent  prac- 
titioners of  medicine,  and  a  great  public  menace  of  the  day,  and,  in 
pharmacy,  a  like  prostitution  of  the  output  of  remedial  agencies,  by 
processes  which  are  suicidal  to  both  the  science  and  art  of  pharmacy 
and  of  medicine. 
