Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
January,  ,1913.  j 
The  Future  of  Pharmacy. 
25 
in  pure  culture,  upon  a  piece  of  boiled  potato.  This  is  the  corner- 
stone upon  which  has  been  built  the  whole  science  of  modern  bac- 
teriology. With  these  facts  confronting  us  and  others  of  like 
nature  to  follow,  we  naturally  turn  to  inquire  what  effect  these 
changes  are  likely  to  exert  upon  the  practice  of  Pharmacy. 
Every  pharmacist  has  observed  the  greatly  increased  develop- 
ment of  the  commercial  side  of  the  drug  business  as  compared 
with  its  scientific  side,  which  rather  seems  to  be  accorded  to  sec- 
ondary place  in  the  conduct  of  its  affairs,  regardless  of  the  fact 
that  this  feature  is  the  one  that  gives  it  character,  and  the  only 
one  that  distinguishes  it  from  ordinary  merchandising. 
Thirty  years  ago  the  physicians  whom  we  knew  were  high- 
minded,  dignified  gentlemen,  who  held  the  ethics  of  their  profes- 
sion in  such  esteem  that  they  scorned  to  violate  them.  We  could 
not  imagine  any  of  those,  passing  out  a  handful  of  tablets  to  an 
office  patient  for  a  fifty  cent  fee.  And  yet  the  man  of  to-day  who 
practices  medicine  under  such  conditions  is  to  be  condemned,  no 
more  than  his  predecessors  are  to  be  commended,  because  each 
of  them  is  a  product  of  the  conditions  of  his  day.  Truly  the  change 
is  to  be  deplored  and  the  remedy  is  not  yet  ready.  Thus  we  have 
a  dreary  spectacle,  the  most  noble  calling  on  God's  green  foot- 
stool, degraded  through  its  commercial  side,  into  a  mad  competi- 
tion for  existence.  There  are  some  other  causes,  beside  those 
noted  that  contribute  to  the  same  effect  such  as  increased  numbers 
of  individuals  practicing  both  medicine  and  pharmacy.  The  latter 
causes,  however,  are  self-limiting  and  not  necessarily  fatal,  to  the 
calling  as  a  business  proposition,  where  as  with  preventive  meas- 
ures well  established,  it  is  plain  to  all  that  both  the  practice  of 
medicine  and  pharmacy  as  now  conducted,  come  to  their  end. 
This  does  not  mean  that  both  doctors  and  druggists  will  disappear 
completely,  but  it  certainly  means  that  a  new  order  of  things  is 
upon  the  threshold. 
This  is  the  year  nineteen  hundred  and  thirteen.  Between  the 
years  1922  and  1932,  we  may  expect  to  have  established  a  National 
Board  of  Health,  with  a  chief  officer  in  the  cabinet  and  an  organi- 
zation similar  to  that  of  the  Army,  and  in  which  every  physician  and 
every  Pharmacist  will  be  an  officer  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment. Those  physicians,  under  the  new  order  who  remain  in  the 
office  awaiting  the  call  of  the  sick  will  be  comparatively  few  in 
number.  The  remainder  will  be  out  in  the  broad  domain  of  prac- 
tical hygiene,  every  factory,  farm,  field,  forest,  stream,  mine,  and 
