52 
Pharmacy  and  Medicine. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm, 
I    February,  1905 
to  be  wanting,  and,  happily,  in  this  period  of  human  progress,  be- 
ginning to  engage  the  serious  attention  and  partial  supervision  of 
Government. 
Control,  therefore,  of  the  conferred  right  to  formulate  a  prescrip- 
tion, to  compound  the  same,  and  to  superintend  its  use,  discovers 
two  professions,  related  by  many  similar  conditions,  which  for  their 
observance  and  requirements  demand  co-operation,  if  their  normal 
growth  and  development  and  consequent  usefulness  is  to  be  vouch- 
safed, and  mankind  to  profit  from  their  inherent  utilitarianism. 
A  fellow-being  is  stricken  with  some  illness,  or  is  the  victim  of 
an  accident  or  deformity  that  impairs  his  usefulness,  which,  in  addi- 
tion to  inflicting  discomfort  and  suffering,  seriously  interferes  with 
the  exercise  of  those  functions  which  secure  the  necessities  not 
only  of  his  own  but  dependent  lives. 
The  sciences  and  art  of  pharmacy  and  medicine  are  his  principal 
means  of  relief — his  almost  only  hope  for  restoration.  Can  any- 
thing be  of  greater  value  under  such  sore  affliction  ?  Can  anything 
demand  so  important  a  degree  of  qualification  to  cope  with  the 
involved  complex  and  profound  problems  as  the  professions  we 
represent  ? 
A  word  as  to  the  science  feature  of  our  professions : 
Medicines  are  derived  from  the  vegetable  and  mineral  world,  and 
the  specific  use  of  the  forces  is  also  to  be  included  in  the  term. 
This  fact  renders  it  necessary  that  a  knowledge  of  those  principles 
which  affect  the  functions  of  the  human  economy,  be  possessed  by 
some  characteristic  group  of  mankind. 
Of  the  vegetal  origin  of  remedial  agents,  for  illustration,  it  must 
be  known  at  what  period  of  the  growth  of  an  herb,  tree  or  what 
not,  its  medicinal  active  principles  are  most  advantageously  ob- 
tained ;  also  what  these  are,  and  whether  to  be  extracted  from  the 
root,  rhizome,  bulb,  stem,  bark,  leaves  or  fruit,  and  how. 
Separation  of  the  various  active  principles,  so  commonly  existing 
in  a  given  vegetal  organism,  is  essential,  especially  as  one  or  more 
possess  properties  which,  when  administered  to  the  human  being, 
frequently  exert  diverse  and  even  antagonistic  influences. 
Again,  the  season  or  time  of  year  at  which  the  various  plants, 
etc.,  possess  these  principles,  in  their  fulness,  must  be  known — a 
science  of  no  mean  value,  and  essential  for  the  best  achievements 
of  pharmacy  and  medicine. 
