Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
November,  19 19.  > 
Editorial. 
707 
support  the  officials  in  their  enforcement.  Nevertheless  Congress 
in  its  lawmaking  and  the  Departments  in  the  framing  of  regulations 
should  obtain  the  advice  of  the  professions  or  trade  interests  that 
are  directly  concerned.  If  this  co-operation  was  sought  and  advice 
accepted  many  of  the  inconsistencies  could  be  avoided.  The  legisla- 
tion and  the  regulations  here  commented  upon  are  practical  illustra- 
tions of  the  impracticabilities  that  result  from  the  ignoring  of  such  a 
common-sense  principle. 
G.  M.  B. 
PHARMACEUTICAL  PESSIMISM. 
In  a  recent  letter  to  the  editor,  a  valued  correspondent  wrote: 
"A  friend  of  mine,  who  is  in  the  advertising  business,  states  that  in 
reading  the  literature  of  pharmacy  it  is  very  pessimistic  and  so  far 
he  has  been  unable  to  obtain  an  optimistic  view.  This  is  quite  the 
contrary  to  some  of  the  writings  he  has  read  in  regard  to  medicine, 
which  have  a  tendency  to  glorify  the  profession." 
This  comment  illustrates  again  "  The  Evil  of  Disparagement "  to 
which  attention  was  directed  in  our  editorial  column  in  the  April 
issue.  It  is  based  upon  the  only  too  evident  tendency  among  many 
pharmacists  and  likewise  some  American  Pharmaceutical  journals 
to  disparage  the  work  and  position  of  pharmacy.  This  internal 
belittling  of  pharmacy  is  too  often  made  the  foundation  for  ex- 
ternal criticism  and  the  public's  slight  estimation  of  the  pharmacists. 
The  fad  of  speaking  disparagingly  of  pharmacists  and  their 
efforts  should  long  ago  have  run  its  course  in  pharmaceutical  circles. 
It  cannot  be  too  strongly  condemned.  The  evil  that  it  has  already 
accomplished  cannot  be  estimated,  and  the  quotation  above  given  is 
but  another  evidence  of  the  impressions  conveyed  to  those  who  are 
outside  of  pharmacy.  It  has  been  disheartening  to  the  writer,  at 
times,  to  have  belittling  and  prejudicial  statements  from  pharma- 
ceutical publications  offered  by  government  officials,  legislators  and 
members  of  other  professions  as  evidencing  the  true  status  of 
pharmacy. 
It  is  unjust  to  the  vocation  that  we  represent,  that  the  scientific 
attainments  and  many  public  services  rendered  to  mankind  by  many 
eminent  pharmacists  in  America  as  well  as  in  other  countries  should 
be  ignored  and  that  the  public  should  be  given  an  absolute  miscon- 
ception of  the  part  performed  by  pharmacy  in  the  discharge  of  its 
duty  to  society  as  one  of  the  branches  of  professional  medicine. 
