AmAJp°ri[;i90oarm'}        Professionalism  vs.  Commercialism.  165 
to  draw  or  find  the  line  of  demarkation.  Let  us  apply  this  general 
observation  to  medicine  and  pharmacy.  The  principal  aim  of  medi- 
cine of  to-day  is  not  directed  to  combat  disease  by  ordering  reme- 
dies, the  tendency  is  rather  to  prevent  disease,  and  hygiene  and 
sanitation  have  become  such  important  branches  that  they  form 
almost  a  science  by  themselves.  And  here  arises  at  once  the 
demand  for  an  innumerable  number  of  articles  and  apparatus 
tending  to  promote  hygiene  and  sanitation,  and  it  is  natural  that 
the  pharmacist  should  supply  them.  It  is,  for  instance,  quite 
natural  that  where  antiseptics  and  prophylactics  that  are  used  and 
ordered  for  the  purpose  of  sanitation,  as  mouth  washes  and  other 
dental  preparations,  are  sold,  also  the  articles  for  their  application, 
as  tooth-brushes,  etc.,  are  kept ;  or  to  step  from  dermatological 
preparations  to  brushes,  combs  and  similar  implements.  Aromatic 
liniments  may  without  strain  of  argument  lead  to  perfumery,  and 
new  methods  in  practical  medicine  to  a  large  number  of  sundries,  as 
electro-batteries  and  various  glassware.  All  these  appear  like  natu- 
ral and  legitimate  side  lines,  and  even  the  strongest  advocate  of  pro- 
fessionalism cannot  exclude  them  entirely  from  his  pharmacy.  But 
they  should  remain  what  they  are — side  lines,  not  principal  lines — 
and  their  handling,  as  well  as  the  whole  arrangement  of  the  store, 
should  be  managed  accordingly. 
The  history  of  civilization  shows  us  that  wherever  it  became 
necessary  that  people  of  different  degrees  of  civilization  lived 
together,  the  inferior  race  must  yield  to  the  more  enlightened  one. 
Superior  education  will  enforce  its  demands  in  every  instance,  if 
necessary  even  by  brute  force,  in  order  to  elevate  the  lower  race. 
When  the  opposite  takes  place  and  higher  civilization  succumbs,  we 
have  a  retrogression  to  barbarism.  Applying  this  general  observa- 
tion to  our  little  sphere  of  pharmacy,  we  must  let  professionalism 
take  the  lead.  We  can  never  consent  to  arrange  our  professional 
calling  as  a  mere  commercial  practice.  Our  aim  must  rather  be  to 
elevate  the  commercial  part  of  our  vocation  and  make  it  subservient 
to  professionalism.  And  it  can  be  done  and  has  been  done.  It  is 
a  fact  that  since  the  time  of  the  present  pharmaceutical  crisis  the 
complaints  about  unbearable  conditions  have  come  mostly  from  the 
so-called  commercial  pharmacists,  while  the  professional  man  has 
complained  little,  if  at  all.  He  is  not  blind  to  existing  conditions — 
as  is  so  often  claimed — but  rather  by  prudent  foresight  and  keen  per- 
