ANoViShef,hi906T'}     Education  and  Legislation  in  Pharmacy.  531 
Board  and  I  may  yet  be  informed  of  the  hidden  significance  of  the 
lines  referring  to  graduates. 
I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  Congress  took  the 
enforcement  of  the  pharmacy  law  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Board  of 
Pharmacy  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  placed  it  in  the  hands  of 
the  medical  men,  reducing  the  Board  of  Pharmacy  to  a  committee 
of  examiners  in  pharmacy  without  any  other  functions.  Is  not  that 
fact  a  significant  straw  ?  If  the  execution  of  the  pharmacy  law  is 
transferred  to  medical  men  at  the  capital,  how  long  will  it  be  before 
this  precedent  is  followed  in  the  States  ?  Not  long,  indeed,  if  the 
present  neglect  of  reasonably  respectable  educational  requirements 
continues. 
In  Iowa  the  new  law  which  is  to  take  effect  October  i,  1906,  pro- 
vides that  graduates  of  reputable  schools  of  pharmacy  shall  be 
eligible  to  take  the  examination  and  be  licensed  without  any  expe- 
rience whatever  in  drug  stores.    Just  think  of  it  ! 
The  Boards  of  Pharmacy  have  a  hard  time  of  it.  With  such 
absurd,  vague,  contradictory,  stupid  laws  as  we  have,  they  find  it 
difficult  to  remedy  the  grossest  evils.  The  rights  of  the  people  are 
heartily  supported  by  self-respecting  professional  pharmacists  who 
favor  respectable  educational  standards.  The  purely  commercial 
druggist  blindly  opposes  better  education  because  he  imagines  that 
educational  requirements  must  hit  his  pocket-book,  and  does  not 
care  about  his  obligations  to  the  public. 
Politicians  and  grafters  want  to  use  the  pharmacy  laws  for  other 
ends. 
Members  of  the  Boards  of  Pharmacy  should  be  experienced 
druggists  who  have  been  in  business  on  their  own  account  for  at 
least  five  if  not  ten  years,  conducting  pharmacies  in  which  the  pre- 
scription department  is  a  large  part  of  the  whole  establishment. 
Every  Board  member  should  possess  all  the  educational  qualifica- 
tions which  may  be  reasonably  exacted  of  all  licentiates.  They 
should  have  a  general  education  equivalent  to  that  signified  by  high- 
school  graduation.  Hereafter,  since  graduation  in  pharmacy  is  now 
a  requirement  for  license  in  two  States,  they  should  also  be  graduates 
of  good  pharmaceutical  schools.  Not  all  good  practical  pharma- 
cists are  fit  to  be  Board  members.  Not  all  graduates  are  fit.  But 
men  who  are  both  experienced  and  well  educated  are  the  kind  that 
should  be  selected  if  they  are  at  the  same  time  matured,  broad- 
