Am.  Jour.  Pharm.\ 
April.  1905.  J 
Ethical  Pharmaceutical  Practice, 
157 
"The  little  more  and  how  much  it  is, 
The  little  less  and  what  worlds  away." 
I  believe  it  can  be  successfully  shown  that  in  the  large  majority 
of  our  better  pharmacies  the  changes  required  and  the  sacrifices 
necessary  to  make  them  entirely  acceptable  to  the  masses,  the  rea- 
sonable members  of  the  medical  profession,  would  be  very  few  and 
immaterial.  And  why  should  they  be  acceptable  to  the  medical 
profession  ?  may  be  asked.  I  answer  that  a  pharmacist  who  for 
cause  is  not  in  touch  with  the  medical  practitioners  around  him  has 
lost  his  true  mission.  He  is  as  much  unlike  the  real  pharmacist  as 
is  the  ostracised  medical  man  unlike  the  ethical  physician  ;  as  unlike 
his  acceptable  brother  as  is  the  disbarred  lawyer  unlike  the  recog- 
nized attorney.  The  feeling  that  would  lead  us  to  disregard  the 
good  will,  endorsement  and  confidence  of  medical  men  must  be 
closely  akin  to  the  feeling  that  leads  the  advertising  specialist  to 
become  a  world  unto  himself — a  feeling  for  which  the  supposed  or 
real  faults  and  objectionable  practices  of  a  few  medical  men  offer 
no  reasonable  excuse. 
Assuming  the  possibility  of  pharmacy  at  last  becoming  a  special 
branch  of  medicine,  or  even  an  allied  profession,  what  would  it  cost? 
Let  us  picture,  if  possible,  one  of  medicine's  most  distinguished 
and  respected  branches,  surgery,  and,  if  not  presumptuous,  see  if  we 
cannot  from  it,  sketch  the  outlines  of  pharmacy  as  we  would  most  like 
to  find  it,  at  the  same  time  discovering  some  of  pharmacy's  present 
greatest  defects.  The  physician  who  elects  to  practise  surgery 
acquires,  of  course,  a  general  knowledge  of  medicine,  but  secures  a 
special  knowledge  of  those  subjects  with  which  his  art  has  most  to 
do :  anatomy,  histology,  the  pathology  of  surgical  diseases.  Having 
become  learned  in  the  sciences  he  begins  to  practise  the  art,  until 
he  is  proficient  also  in  that. 
Enjoying  this  proficiency  in  both  the  science  and  art  of  his 
specialty,  he  judiciously  selects  a  location  with  due  regard  for  con- 
venience and  prominence.  Next  he  seeks  to  fully  and  properly 
equip  himself.  His  reception  rooms  may  be  elegant  with  handsome 
furnishings,  but  yet  are  neither  gaudy  nor  extravagant.  No  matter 
how  attractive  they  may  be,  they  will  be  inexpensive  and  altogether 
incomparable  in  detail  and  exactness  with  his  operating  room.  To 
the  light  and  capacity  of  this  operating  room  all  other  considera- 
tions will  be  sacrificed ;  the  equipment  of  utensils,  appliances  and  in 
