514 
Debasing  Influence  of  Monotony. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharnu 
I  November,  1906. 
case  has  not  been  a  case  of  robbery ;  it  has  been  a  case  of  forfeit. 
Wherever,  for  any  long-continued  period,  the  day  has  ceased  to  be 
used  as  a  day  of  worship  there  has  come  at  length  to  be  no  day  of 
rest.  Let  other  men  in  other  fields  profit  by  example  before  they 
are  taught  by  experience. 
Now,  if  this  great,  main,  central  principle  is  sound  the  three  fore- 
going  minor  ones  may  be  studied  at  leisure  and  with  profit.  Having 
reached  this  point,  but  only  then,  one  can  turn  squarely  about  and 
in  reverse  order  retrace,  the  line  ol  this  argument,  taking  up  the 
three  aspects  or  phases  of  the  main  problem  for  what  they  really 
are.  He  will  then  see  them  in  a  new  light  and  in  a  new  importance. 
Of  course  men  ought  to  go  to  church ;  of  course  the  amount  of 
labor  on  Sunday  should  be  limited  within  the  very  narrowest  pos- 
sible range  of  works  of  necessity  ;  of  course,  among  those  main 
three  things  that  fill  men's  waking  hours,  amusement,  work  and 
worship,  amusement  is  as  far  below  work  in  the  scale  as  worship  is 
above  it.    But  all  these  things  must  be  adjusted  one  by  one. 
I  am  sorry  if  I  have  seemed  to  fail  of  some  duty  in  not  applying 
this  principle  to  the  druggist  especially  as  a  member  of  a  special  class. 
But  I  have  refrained  from  doing  this  on  purpose.  I  cannot  apply  it 
for  him ;  he  must  do  this,  as  everyone  must,  for  himself  and  in  his 
own  peculiar  field.  I  have  tried  to  treat  a  subject,  not  a  phase;  to 
frame  a  theorem,  not  a  theory ;  to  do  this  in  entirety  and  not  in 
part,  and  to  allow  this  address  as  a  unit  to  take  its  place  in  this 
symposium  as  a  whole. 
THE  DEBASING  INFLUENCE  OF  MONOTONY. 
By  John  K.  Thum, 
Assistant  Apothecary  at  the  German  Hospital,  Philadelphia. 
Herbert  Spencer  says  "  Monotony,  no  matter  of  what  kind,  is  un- 
favorable to  life."  If  this  be  accepted  as  a  truism,  what  could  be 
more  unfavorable  and  more  detrimental  to  the  proper  development 
of  a  pharmacist  than  the  monotony  of  seven  days  a  week  behind  a 
drug-store  counter  ? 
Spencer  also  says  that  "A  periodical  cessation  of  daily  business 
is  requisite  as  a  means  of  mental  health."  A  sound  mind  in  a  sound 
body  is  a  duty  that  the  pharmacist  owes  not  only  to  himself  but  also 
