ADoctoher,li906ym'}     Education  and  Legislation  in  Pharmacy.  473 
cult  task  and  I  shall  call  your  attention  to  only  a  few  of  the  problems 
which  I  believe  we  are  called  upon  to  solve. 
Our  Relations  to  the  Public. — Pharmacists  stand  in  a  peculiar  rela- 
tion to  the  public.  This  relation  is  too  generally  overlooked  or 
ignored,  or  it  is  recognized  only  in  a  onesided  fashion. 
We  are  all  willing  that  the  practice  of  pharmacy  shall  be  restricted 
to  our  hands — that  none  but  pharmacists  shall  be  permitted  to  pre- 
pare, dispense  or  sell  medicines  to  the  public,  but  we  are  delinquent 
in  paying  the  price.  Pharmacy  laws  have  been  enacted  by  which 
the  people  say  to  the  pharmacist:  in  consideration  of  the  protection 
afforded  the  public  health  by  your  special  education  and  skill  and 
your  faithful  service  the  exclusive  right  to  sell  drugs  and  medicines 
shall  be  yours. 
In  fact  the  people  have  virtually  turned  over  to  the  pharmacists 
themselves  the  regulation  of  the  practice  of  pharmacy,  so  that  we 
are  put  upon  our  honor  in  carrying  out  our  end  of  the  contract. 
The  question  we  must  be  able  to  answer  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
people  is  this  :  What  are  the  results  of  our  administration  ?  if  these 
results  are  plainly  unsatisfactory  and  it  is  found  that  the  rights  of 
the  public  and  the  medical  profession  are  not  reasonably  satisfied, 
then  will  our  stewardship  be  taken  from  us. 
The  public  generally  believes  that  all  druggists  are  required  by 
law  to  be  competent  pharmacists.  But  the  pharmacy  laws  are  such 
that  if  our  pharmacists  were  not  in  fact  better  educated  than  these 
laws  require  them  to  be  the  public  would  be  without  that  protection 
which  it  demands. 
The  agitation  of  the  quack-nostrum  evil,  the  enactment  of  pure 
food  and  drug  laws,  the  public  awakening  to  the  abuse  of  habit-pro- 
ducing drugs — these  and  other  topics  of  the  day  must  sooner  or  later 
place  the  pharmacy  laws  and  the  practice  of  pharmacy  in  the  lime 
light.  The  public  will  then  discover  the  wretchedly  low  legal  stand- 
ards of  education  for  the  practice  of  pharmacy  and  will  inevitably 
proceed  to  change  them  without  consulting  us.  The  changes  may 
be  drastic.  Shall  we  follow  the  example  of  the  meat  packers  and 
let  the  storm  overtake  us  unprepared,  or  shall  we  put  our  house  in 
defensible  order  ? 
7he  Attitude  of  the  Druggist  toward  Better  Education. — Druggists 
complain  that  their  business  is  highly  unsatisfactory.  Competition 
is  excessive.    Profits  are  small.    Expenses  are  heavy.    They  say 
