516  THOUGHTS   ON  "  MANUFACTURING  PHARMACY." 
done  by  those  who  know  better.  But  it  is  not  necessary  to  enlarge 
further  in  this  direction.  Let  us  consider  the  effects  of  this  policy 
of  purchasing  preparations  on  pharmacy  and  pharmaceutists. 
Pharmacy  may  be  defined  to  be  the  art  of  preparing  and  dis~ 
pensing  medicines,  and  embodies  the  knowledge  and  skill  requisite 
to  carry  them  out  in  practice.  But  if  the  preparation  of  medicines 
is  taken  from  the  apothecary  and  he  becomes  merely  the  dispenser 
of  them,  his  business  is  shorn  of  half  its  dignity  and  importance, 
and  he  relapses  into  a  simple  shopkeeper.  How  can  an  apothe- 
cary properly  educate  his  apprentices,  unless  he  affords  to  them 
an  opportunity  to  make  the  medicines  they  dispense  ?  He  cannot 
do  it,  and  hence  this  policy  has  the  gradual  but  certain  effect  to 
depreciate  the  standard  of  pharmacy  and  the  status  of  its  practition- 
ers. Young  men  who  enter  such  establishments  scout  the  idea  of 
its  requiring  four  years  to  learn  the  business;  and  after  a  two  years' 
experience  in  vending  preparations  and  compounding  prescriptions, 
are  qualified  clerks!  at  least  in  their  own  estimation.  Of  what 
avail  is  it  to  urge  on  such  young  men  the  advantages  of  chemical 
and  pharmaceutical  studies,  or  of  graduating  at  a  pharmaceutical 
institution,  when  they  see  that  practical  pharmacy  means  the  retail- 
ing of  drugs  and  preparations  furnished  ready  for  use  by  the  druggist 
and  "  manufacturing  pharmaceutist?"  What  is  the  object  of  our 
Association  but  to  elevate  the  standard  of  practice — to  give  uniformity 
and  value  to  the  officinal  preparations — to  infuse  so  much  of  science 
and  accuracy  into  our  art  that  it  shall  cease  to  be  a  trade  only— and 
above  all,  in  the  language  of  the  original  preamble  to  our  Constitu- 
tion, to  "  elevate  the  professional  character  of  Apothecaries  and 
Druggists  throughout  the  United  States,"  by  making  them  what  they 
°ught  to  be,  masters  of  their  art,  in  the  sense  of  understanding  its 
theory  as  well  as  its  practice?  In  Germany  and  Poland,  the  Apothe- 
cary is  required  by  law  to  make  most  of  the  preparations  he  sells,  and 
thus  is  accountable  for  their  quality.  If  it  were  so  here,  our  numbers 
would  dwindle  down  to  a  fraction  of  that  great  array  that  constitutes 
the  dealers  in  medicine  of  all  grades. 
In  making  these  remarks,  it  is  from  a  sense  of  the  importance  of 
the  subject  to  the  lasting  interest  of  our  profession.  Most  of  the 
gentlemen  who  are  very  largely  engaged  in  manufacturing  pharmacy 
are  friends  of  the  writer,  who  is  moved  by  not  the  slightest  degree  of 
