534  Needs  of  the  Business  Pharmacist.  {^Vembef,hi!^ 
prevent  or  to  resent  the  usurpation  of  our  functions  either  by  the 
medical  profession  or  the  chemist.  As  above  indicated  progress  will 
be  slow  if  left  to  individual  workers.  We  need  to  follow  the  ten- 
dency of  the  times  and  co-operate  in  our  work.  Many  scientific 
bodies  to-day  adopt  the  plan  of  holding  symposia  on  given  subjects 
from  time  to  time.  This  idea  has  many  advantages.  If  adopted  by 
us  it  would  systematize  to  a  large  extent  the  work  of  this  section, 
render  it  more  interesting  to  the  business  pharmacist,  because  more 
definite  results  are  thus  obtained,  and  it  would  in  particular  aid  the 
revisers  of  future  editions  of  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia.  It 
would  not,  moreover,  interfere  with  the  work  of  individuals,  and  its 
good  results  have  already  been  exhibited  in  the  reports  of  the 
Special  Committee  on  Indicators  and  the  co-operative  work  on  opium 
assays. 
The  by-laws  of  the  association  instruct  the  officers  of  this  section 
to  prepare  a  list  of  suitable  subjects  for  investigation.  This  instruc- 
tion has  been  more  honored  in  the  breach  than  in  the  observance 
thereof,  because  each  worker  has  been  free  to  follow  the  line  of 
investigation  in  which  he  is  especially  interested,  and  this  frequently 
has  been  of  little  direct  pharmaceutical  interest.  With  the  adoption 
of  the  co-operative  idea  it  would  be  possible  either  for  the  officers 
of  this  section  or  for  a  special  committee  not  only  to  prepare  a  list 
of  practical  subjects  for  discussion,  but  to  select  the  investigators 
best  fitted  to  carry  out  the  work.  It  should  not  be  difficult  to  select 
some  subjects  which  would  induce  business  pharmacists  to  interest 
themselves  in  the  work. 
SCIENTIFIC  SIDE  LINES  FALLING  INTO  OTHER  HANDS. 
Perhaps  the  greatest  advance  of  recent  years  has  been  the  appli- 
cation of  physical  methods  to  chemical  research.  It  is  a  branch  of 
chemistry  which  has  already  produced  brilliant  results,  and  it  is  a 
side  which  is  bound  to  develop  more  and  more  every  year.  It  would 
seem  that  more  attention  should  be  paid  to  physical  problems,  not 
only  in  our  schools  of  pharmacy,  but  in  the  contributions  offered  to 
this  section.  Already  certain  discoveries  in  physical  science  are 
being  applied  to  medical  purposes,  and  here  and  there  a  pharmacist 
has  been  quick  enough  to  see  the  business  possibilities  therein,  but 
it  should  be  the  duty  of  the  leaders  in  this  section  to  point  out  to 
their  confreres  the  application  of  these  discoveries  to  pharmacy.  One 
