Am/POr1iir;i905arm"}     Council  on  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry.  179 
"  Our  duty,  therefore,  is  plain,  and  it  devolves  upon  every  one 
who  recognizes  the  great  necessity  for  having  more  thoroughly 
efficient  and  better  qualified  practitioners  of  the  professions  and  their 
art,  which  we  represent,  in  order  to  be  able  to  vouchsafe  to  fellow- 
man  safety  against  incompetency  and  fraud,  and  to  bring  about 
through  individual  influence  such  statutory  control  as  will  force  the 
practical  administration  of  the  self-evident  necessities." 
THE  COUNCIL  ON  PHARMACY  AND  CHEMISTRY  OF 
THE  AMERICAN  MEDICAL  ASSOCIATION. 
By  M.  I.  Whbert. 
The  American  Medical  Association,  through  its  Board  of  Trus- 
tees, has  recently  instituted  a  project  that  if  continued  and  conscien- 
tiously carried  out,  will  ultimately  result  in  a  marked  improvement 
in  the  professional  status  of  pharmacists  and  of  pharmacy. 
This  project,  as  published  in  a  recent  number  of  the  Journal  of  the 
American  Medical  Association  (March  4,  1905),  practically  consists 
ot  the  creation  of  an  advisory  board  to  be  known  as  the  Council  on 
Pharmacy  and  Chemistry,  whose  purpose  it  will  be  to  inquire  into 
the  composition  and  standing  of  the  several  medicinal  preparations 
of  a  proprietary  character  that  are  or  will  be  offered  to  the  medical 
profession,  and  by  comparing  them  to  the  requirements  embodied 
in  a  set  of  ten  rules  that  have  been  adopted  as  a  guide,  determine, 
so  far  as  is  possible,  whether  or  not  the  individual  preparation,  and 
the  firm  or  firms  exploiting  the  same,  are  deserving  of  the  patron- 
age and  confidence  of  physicians  and  pharmacists.  If  no  unforeseen 
obstacles  prevent,  it  is  proposed  to  publish  a  book  entitled  "  New 
and  Non-official  Remedies,"  which  is  to  contain  a  list  of  such  prepa- 
rations as  come  up  to  the  requirements,  with  such  additional  infor- 
mation on  the  composition,  properties  and  uses  of  the  same  as  might 
be  considered  necessary  or  of  advantage  for  the  rational  use  and  con- 
trol of  the  several  preparations. 
A  careful  perusal  of  the  appended  rules  of  the  Council  must  con- 
vince any  reasonable  pharmacist  that  they  do  not  contain  any  de- 
mands or  provisions  that  are  in  any  way  inconsistent  with  the 
practices  of  the  better  and  more  responsible  manufacturers  and 
dealers. 
