AljanJu"v  1913™' }    R?tail  Pharmacist  and  Pure  Drugs.  n 
has  before  him  and  that  the  physician  should  insist  on  his  living 
up  to,  and  this  is  the  disposition  for  mutual  co-operation  between 
the  members  of  the  two  professions.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
grounds  for  the  pessimistic  attitude  of  physicians  a  decade  or  so 
ago  toward  the  pharmaceutic  calling  I  firmly  believe  that  the  radical 
changes  that  have  been  going  on  in  pharmacy  during  the  past  few 
years  give  cause  for  a  healthy  optimism,  that  is.  an  optimism  based 
on  a  belief  in  real  progress  and  an  earnest  desire  on  the  part  of 
pharmacists  to  render  the  best  service  in  their  power.  This  does 
not  mean  that  physicians  shall  cease  to  be  critical,  but  that  we  shall 
state  our  criticisms  with  candor  and  fairness  in  joint  meetings  where 
they  can  be  discussed  and  measures  for  improvements  suggested. 
And  here  let  me  say  that  to  my  mind  nothing  augurs  more  for  the 
mutual  progress  of  therapeutics  and  pharmaceutical  practice  than 
those  agencies  which  promote  the  coming  together  of  the  members 
of  the  two  callings  for  discussion  of  the  properties  of  drugs  and 
their  preparations  as  exemplified  in  this  Section  and  the  work  of 
the  Council  on  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  of  the  American  Medical 
Association,  as  well  as  in  the  "  get  together  meetings  "  of  the  local 
medical  organizations  with  the  various  local  pharmaceutic  asso- 
ciations. In  other  words,  if  we  are  to  make  true  progress  we  can- 
not well  afford  to  be  entirely  independent.  The  words  of  the  late 
Dr.  Musser,8  an  honored '  ex-president  of  this  Association,  in  a 
brief  address  which  he  delivered  before  the  members  of  the  Phila- 
delphia College  of  Pharmacy,  still  ring  in  our  ears  and  have  done 
an  incalculable  amount  of  good  in  stimulating  us  to  attain  a  higher 
goal  in  the  practice  of  pharmacy.    He  said : 
I  plead,  therefore,  that  you  make  the  calling  of  pharmacy  not  a  pro- 
fession, but  a  science,  and  that  you  insist  that  its  conduct  must  be  on  the 
highest  scientific  plane  to  the  end  that  those  who  are  its  devotees  may  be 
counted  on.  in  season  and  out  of  season,  as  men  having  no  code  and  no  regu- 
lation, breathing  only  the  spirit  of  doing  unto  others  as  you  would  be  done  by. 
SUMMARY. 
In  summarizing  the  points  that  I  have  attempted  to  make  in 
this  paper.  I  may  say  that  the  professional  pharmacist  recognizes 
his  obligations  to  the  medical  profession  and  the  dependence  which 
the  physician  has  on  him  in  the  dispensing  of  pure  drugs.  Further- 
s  Musser.  J.  H. :  Am.  Jour.  Pharm.,  1905.  lxxvii.  60. 
