46      National  Pharmaceutical  Service  Association.  {  Atj^°^j  FigTgm' 
in  1852,  and  that  the  National  Pharmaceutical  Service  Association, 
sixty-five  years  later,  owes  its  inception  and  organization  to  a  meet- 
ing held  in  the  same  college.  At  this  meeting  it  was  pointed  out 
that  a  medical  reserve  corps  was  a  very  appropriate  organization  to 
support  the  medical  corps  of  the  Army,  but  as  no  pharmeceutical 
corps  was  now  established  in  the  Army,  a  reserve  pharmaceutical 
corps  was  not  practicable. 
The  objects  of  this  association  as  set  forth  in  the  preamble  and 
constitution  adopted,,  are  to  mobilize  all  of  the  phamaceutical 
interests  to  the  support  of  the  nation;  to  protect  the  lives  and  health 
of  those  in  the  military  service  of  the  country  by  providing  supplies 
of  dependable  medicine  and  educated  pharmaceutical  service  for 
the  dispensing  thereof ;  to  develop  the  pharmaceutical  service  of  the 
government  according  to  the  most  advanced  professional  standard; 
to  secure  the  establishment  of  a  pharmaceutical  corps  in  the  U.  S. 
Army,  with  ranking  commensurate  to  the  services  rendered  by  the 
enlisted  pharmacists ;  to  improve  the  standing  of  the  pharmacists 
in  the  Navy;  to  secure  pharmaceutical  representation  on  the  Ad- 
visory Council  to  the  Committee  on  National  Defense;  to  cooperate 
with  the  government  and  the  medical  profession  in  providing  the 
best  medical  attention  for  those  in  the  service. 
The  growth  of  the  association  was  comparatively  rapid  and  its 
propaganda  for  the  recognition  of  pharmaceutical  service  in  the  de- 
partments of  the  government  has  spread  all  over  the  country.  It 
was  at  once  seen  that  the  army,  with  its  preponderate  need  for  men 
and  for  medical  service,  offered  alike  the  greatest  need  and  the 
greatest  opportunity  for  approved  pharmaceutical  service.  The 
absence  of  a  pharmaceutical  corps  in  the  United  States  Army, 
although  such  corps  have  been  established  in  most  of  the  foreign 
armies  and  are  rendering  efficient  service  therein,  has  for  many  years 
been  recognized  as  a  defect  in  the  medical  department  of  our  army 
and  various  pharmaceutical  organizations,  notably  the  American 
Pharmaceutical  Association,  have  for  years  advocated  the  establish- 
ment of  a  pharmaceutical  corps  with  appropriate  rank  as  a  branch 
of  the  medical  department  of  the  army. 
An  effort  was  made  to  obtain  an  interview  with  Surgeon-General 
Gorgas  for  the  purpose  of  presenting  the  need  for  a  pharmaceutical 
corps  as  a  branch  of  the  medical  service  of  the  Army.  On  July  24, 
191 7,  a  conference  was  held  between  a  Board  of  Army  Medical 
Officers  appointed  by  the  Surgeon-General  and  a  committee  com- 
