A A«SS; ^9rm' >   Makin9  Money  out  °f  (<B»gs-'      .  523. 
Through  pharmacy  the  spirit  of  gain  has,  in  some  measures,  run 
like  a  choking  weed.  The  same  condition  is  apparent  in  the  status 
of  the  medical  profession.  Nowadays  a  doctor  is  simply  one  of  the 
many  engaged  in  the  fierce  struggle  for  existence,  in  the  race  for 
wealth.  It  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  much  good  has  not  been 
achieved  in  the  struggle  for  gain.  We  cannot  deny  the  achievement 
of  commercial  pharmacy,  of  commercial  chemistry,  nor  should  we 
detract  one  jot  from  the  wonderful  achievements  of  the  worthy 
specialists  in  medicine  and  surgery. 
The  point  to  be  urged  is  that  where  the  gain  and  profit  is  to  sub- 
ordinate all  other  ends,  our  work  is  crippled.  In  approaching  such 
a  task  as  the  revision  of  the  pharmacopoeia,  we  must  hope  that  the 
spirit  of  gain  which  rules  our  lives  will  emerge  as  a  spirit  of  service. 
Gain  in  one  branch  of  the  trade  as  against  another,  gain  in  one 
class  of  medicine  or  pharmacy  over  another  class,  the  preeminence 
of  any  college,  school  or  clique  must  be  made  to  disappear. 
While  recognizing  the  commercial  conditions  which  surround 
the  making,  selling  and  administration  of  medicine,  we  must  ap- 
proach our  task  seriously  in  the  spirit  of  service.  The  mission  of 
the  pharmacopoeia  is  to  serve  the  art  of  healing,  to  serve  mankind. 
The  ultimate  end  to  which  the  application  of  the  pharmacopoeia  is 
designed  is  that  of  the  suffering  patient.  In  pharmacy  and  in  medi- 
cine more  than  in  any  other  art  in  making  a  thing  a  better  thing  or 
an  old  thing  in  a  better  way,  we  are  doing  a  good  that  shall  never 
pass  away. 
The  recognition  of  the  spirit  of  service  above  the  spirit  of  gain 
in  the  revision  of  the  pharmacopoeia  is  full  of  promise.  It  is  with 
this  spirit  we  must  look  to  its  uplift,  its  moving  forward  and  its 
permanency. 
MAKING  MONEY  OUT  OF  "BUGS," 
BY  USING  INFORMATION  FROM  "UNCLE  SAM."1 
By  George  M.  Beringer,  Jr.,  P.D. 
CAMDEN,   N.  J. 
"Mister!  Gimme  sumthin  good  for  bedbugs.  They  nearly  et 
my  little  Jimmy  up  last  night,",  or  "  Can't  you  recommend  something 
for  roaches  ?  I  don't  have  any,  but  my  next-door  neighbor  is  house- 
cleaning  and  they  are  coming  to  me  in  droves." 
1  Read  before  the  New  Jersey  Pharmaceutical  Association  at  its  annual 
session,  June,  1919. 
