AFebJr°uarVTi905m'}     The  Pharmacist  and  the  Physician.  63 
ever,  could  be  corrected  in  the  future  if  members  of  this  Association, 
who  are  influential  in  their  communities,  will  direct  the  attention  of 
hospital  authorities  to  their  shortcomings  in  this  respect. 
One  of  the  most  widespread  abuses  in  hospital  and  dispensary 
practice  is  due  to  the  fact  that,  apart  from  a  rather  limited  number 
of  routine  stock  mixtures,  the  medicines  dispensed  consist  largely 
of  proprietary  preparations  that  have  been  donated  by  charitable 
manufacturers  with  a  view  to  having  them  brought  to  the  attention 
of  the  medical  men  connected  with  the  institution,  and,  if  possible, 
securing  from  them  suitable  endorsements  for  publication.  It  need 
not  surprise  us,  therefore,  that  physicians  who  have  had  hospital 
experience  are  frequently  more  hopelessly  dependent  on  the  use  of 
proprietary  remedies  than  graduates  who  have  not  had  the  so-called 
advantages  of  a  hospital  training.  Much  of  this  could  and  would  be 
changed,  if  hospitals,  particularly  the  larger  and  more  influential 
institutions,  were  to  employ  competent  pharmacists  who  could 
secure  and  hold  the  confidence  of  the  visiting  as  well  as  of  the  res- 
ident staff  of  physicians,  and  who  could  and  would  be  consulted  on 
the  probable  standing  of  new  remedies. 
This  brings  us  to  a  consideration  of  the  intellectual  needs  and 
wants  of  men.  capable  of  holding  such  positions.  If  the  hospital 
pharmacist  of  to-day,  or  the  professional  pharmacist  of  to-morrow, 
is  to  have  and  to  hold  the  confidence  of  medical  practitioners,  he 
must  be  at  least  the  equal  of  the  medical  man  in  education,  in  ideas 
and  in  ideals — so  much  so  that  with  the  increase  in  the  requirements 
made  of  medical  students  there  must  be  a  corresponding  increase  in 
the  demands  that  are  made  on  the  general  information  possessed  by 
the  future  pharmacist.  He  must  be  a  well-educated,  thoroughly 
scientific  and  altogether  capable  man,  well  versed  in  all  the  branches 
of  knowledge  connected  with  his  own  profession,  and  gifted  with  a 
breadth  of  view  that  will  readily  place  him  above  the  average  of  his 
fellow-men.  In  return  for  his  knowledge  and  acquirements  he  must 
not  expect  to  be  eminently  successful  from  a  monetary  point  of 
view,  but  he  will  be  assured  of  a  comfortable  existence  and  the  op- 
portunity of  doing  considerable  original  work  that  may  in  turn 
revert  to  the  material  advantage  of  himself  and  his  fellow- workers 
in  the  same  field. 
Those  of  us,  however,  who  have  not  had  the  educational  advan- 
tages that  must  be  provided  for  the  men  of  the  future,  and  who 
