Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  "> 
October,  1919.  > 
Editorial. 
639 
be  undertaken  for  purely  commercial  reasons  but  in  an  altruistic 
spirit  for  the  service  that  such  investigations  may  render  to  science 
and  humanity. 
The  current  issues  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  and 
of  at  least  several  of  the  other  pharmaceutical  journals,  as  well  as 
the  past  issues,  contain  many  valuable  contributions  that  evidence 
scientific  study  and  research  work  and  demonstrate  that  there  is  no 
foundation  for  the  heedless  criticism  that  has  at  times  appeared  in 
some  quasi-pharmaceutical  journals  as  to  a  lack  of  research  work  in 
pharmaceutical  circles.  Nearly  every  monograph,  formula  or  stand- 
ard, in  the  U.S. P.  or  the  N.F.  is  the  result  of  study  and  in  many 
cases  of  scientific  investigation  and  pharmaceutical  research  and 
contraverts  such  flippant  statements. 
The  truth  is  that  the  field  open  to  pharmaceutical  research  is  of 
such  a  wide  scope,  that  the  work  already  accomplished,  even  though 
of  great  magnitude,  serves  but  to  present  to  our  view  the  enormity 
of  the  possibilities,  the  unlimited  field  of  scientific  investigations  open 
to  pure  pharmacy  and  its  collateral  sciences  that  have  not  yet  been 
made  the  subject  of  complete  investigations. 
We  are  heartily  in  accord  with  the  proposition  so  ably  presented 
in  the  address  of  President  William  Kirby  of  the  British  Pharma- 
ceutical Conference,  that  cooperative  research  in  pharmacy  should 
be  undertaken  in  institutions  in  which  botanical,  chemical,  phar- 
macological and  bacteriological  work  can  be  carried  out.  In  this 
connection,  it  is  not  amiss  to  direct  attention  to  the  fact  that  at  least 
some  of  our  colleges  of  pharmacy  are  well  equipped  with  such  de- 
partments and  the  several  laboratories  essential  and  are  prepared  to 
carry  out  such  cooperative  research  work,  and  this  should  be  kept 
continuously  in  mind  in  the  selection  of  subjects  and  the  making  of 
awards  for  such  scientific  investigations. 
The  Mellon  Institute  has  performed  valuable  service  in  the  mak- 
ing of  many  able  scientific  investigations,  but  it  is  probably  not 
better  equipped  to  undertake  pharmaceutic  investigations  than  are 
some  of  our  colleges  of  pharmacy  with  their  laboratories  and  their 
libraries  of  literature  pertaining  to  pharmaceutic  subjects  and  mem- 
bers of  their  faculties  more  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  distinct 
problems  of  pharmacy  and  the  investigation  already  made  and  the 
methods  of  pharmaceutical  research,  and  whose  students  are  likewise 
in  a  position  to  render  aid  by  cooperative  studies. 
The  drug  trade  organizations  should  not  overlook  the  possibility 
