Atoctoberr^9oa6rm"}    American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  501 
PHILADELPHIA  BRANCH  AMERICAN  PHARMA- 
CEUTICAL ASSOCIATION. 
SHORTER  HOURS  AND  A  DAY  FOR  REST. 
Of  the  numerous  problems  that  confront  the  retail  pharmacist  of 
to-day  probably  few  are  of  more  immediate  importance,  and  certainly 
none  are  more  far-reaching  in  their  ultimate  possibilities,  than  the 
question  of  curtailing  the  inordinately  long  hours  of  confinement 
and  of  introducing  at  least  a  partial  day  of  rest  and  recreation  into 
the  more  or  less  monotonous  existence  of  at  least  many  of  the  retail 
pharmacists  of  the  present  time. 
In  the  larger  cities  and  towns  of  this  country  but  few  places  of 
business,  apart  from  tobacconists'  shops  and  saloons,  make  any 
attempt  to  cater  to  the  needs  and  the  wants  of  the  public  during 
anywhere  near  the  number  of  hours  that  retail  drug  stores  are 
widely  open  and  brightly  illuminated. 
It  has  long  been  acknowledged  that  the  fruit  of  uninterrupted 
labor  is  to  be  found  in  physical  as  well  as  moral  debasement,  and 
this  fact  appears  to  be  well  illustrated  in  the  practices  of  certain  so- 
called  pharmacists  or  druggists.  It  will  not  be  necessary  to  point 
out  in  this  connection,  that  the  practices  that  are  followed  by  at  least 
some  of  these  so-called  pharmacists  are  not  above  reproach,  and 
that,  in  some  sections  of  the  country  at  least,  pharmacy  is  used  as 
a  cloak  for  the  promiscuous  sale  of  liquors,  habit-forming  drugs, 
fraudulent  or  even  dangerous  nostrums,  abortifacients  and  a  variety 
of  other  more  or  less  objectionable  articles  and  appliances. 
It  is  practices  of  this  kind  that  have  brought  pharmacy  into  dis- 
repute in  some  quarters  and  have  caused  the  shadow  of  suspicion  to 
rest  on  all,  even  the  most  reputable  followers  of  our  craft.  It  will 
hardly  be  necessary  to  add  that  so  long  as  we  ourselves  are  not 
willing  to  assist  in  exposing  the  men  who  are  guilty  of  practices  of 
this  kind,  and  so  long  as  we  are  not  willing,  or  not  able  to  point  out 
to  our  neighbors  how  they  can  differentiate  between  the  honest, 
upright  pharmacist  and  the  ignorant,  or  arrant  knave  who  stoops  to 
use  pharmacy  as  a  cloak  for  unlawful  practices,  just  so  long  must 
we,  collectively,  suffer  under  the  frequently  expressed  suspicion  of 
being  ourselves  guilty  of  practices  of  this  kind. 
It  has  repeatedly  been  suggested  that  few  factors  have  contributed 
more  largely  to  develop  the  present-day  spirit  of  apathy  and  general 
disinterestedness,  so  frequently  evidenced  by  the  present-day  retail 
