Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
JanuaQs,  1913.  J 
The  Future  of  Pharmacy. 
23 
Medical  Examiners  propound  a  question  regarding  the  possible 
uses  and  action  of  some  little  known  or  practically  obsolete  drug. 
This  latter  obstacle  is  now  in  a  fair  way  of  being  overcome  and 
with  the  co-operation  of  the  several  state  boards  and  the  teachers 
of  materia  medica  and  therapeutics  the  Council  has  reasonable 
hopes  of  being  able  to  issue  a  list  of  reliable  medicaments  to  which 
systematic  instruction  in  materia  medica  can  largely  be  confined. 
This  then  leads  up  to  the  most  recent  and  perhaps  the  most 
important  piece  of  investigative  work  as  yet  undertaken  by  the 
Council ;  a  systematic  review  and  study  of  the  mooted  points  in 
drug  therapy.  While  it  is  true  that  here  the  individual  problems 
are  legion  it  is  nevertheless  expected  that  many  of  them  can  be 
satisfactorily  studied  in  a  reasonably  short  period  of  time  and  that 
this  work  once  thoroughly  established  will  be  taken  up  and  con- 
tinued by  individual  investigation  and  by  other  medical  investi- 
gators. 
It  is  not  expected  to  revolutionize  the  materia  medica  of  the 
country  in  any  given  period  of  time  but  it  is  expected  that  a  sys- 
tematic, and  conscientious  investigation  of  the  truth  or  falsity  of 
certain  statements  made  in  connection  with  more  or  less  well-es- 
tablished remedies  will  serve  to  put  the  practice  of  drug  therapy 
on  a  foundation  against  which  the  "  isms  "  and  "  pathies  "  of  the 
future  will  rail  in  vain. 
The  program,  as  outlined,  is  broad  enough  for  all  who  are  in- 
terested in  the  development  of  scientific  medicine  to  participate 
in  and  it  is  to  be  sincerely  hoped  that  the  members  of  the  American 
Pharmaceutical  Association  both  individually  as  well  as  collectively 
will  lend  their  aid  in  clearing  up  some  of  the  many  perplexing 
questions  in  connection  with  the  origin,  composition  and  uses  of 
well-established  drugs. 
THE  FUTURE  OF  PHARMACY  IN  RELATION  TO  THE 
MODERN  DEVELOPMENT  OF  MEDICINE. 
By  William  G.  Toplis. 
The  year  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-one,  is  destined  to  be- 
come known  in.  Medical  and  Pharmaceutical  History,  as  the  be- 
ginning of  the  most  revolutionary  epoch,  in  all  of  the  experience 
of  those  branches  of  endeavor.  That  year  brought  forth  a  dis- 
covery whose  importance  is  not  yet  generally  recognized.  Not 
