694 
A  Dream  of  the  Future 
( Am.  Jour,  Pharm. 
|       Oct.,  1921. 
of  his  laboratory,  and  argues  that  it  is  better  to  demonstrate  by 
actual  work  of  this  kind  than  to  advocate  it  by  discussions  and 
papers  upon  the  subject.  Surely  such  work  can  be  carried  out  at 
other  centres  by  men  adequately  trained  for  the  purpose. 
A  pharmacist  who  is  actively  engaged  in  clinical  work,  and 
thus  closely  co-operating  with  medical  men,  is  obviously  bound  to 
attract  much  of  the  important  work  of  the  preparation  and  dispens- 
ing of  drugs.  This  will  tend  to  relieve  the  commercial  firms  of  some 
of  the  occupations  and  duties  which  they  frequently  assert  do  not 
bring  a  commensurate  profit.  The  exploiting  of  dispensing  at  un- 
remunerative  rates  to  act  merely  as  a  "bait"  for  other  business 
is  reprehensible  and  unprofessional.  If  pharmacy  is  really  to  rise, 
phoenix-like,  from  the  ashes  to  which  it  has  been  reduced,  I  am 
convinced  it  can  only  be  by  the  evolution  of  a  higher  grade  of  phar- 
macists who  shall  be  trained  to  do  this  kind  of  work  and  entitled 
to  practice  as  clinical  analysts  and  so  make  pharmacy  a  more  definite 
professional  entity. 
PHARMACY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.* 
During  the  war  I  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  spending  a  year 
in  the  United  States 'of  America,  and  visited  many  pharmacies  in 
different  States  and  cities.  It  is  neither  untrue  nor  unkind  to  say 
that  in  the  drug  stores  there  pharmacy  is  very  much  more  "mixed" 
than  in  Great  Britain,  but  occasionally  one  did  meet  with  firms  where 
little  else  than  dispensing  of  prescriptions  and  sale  of  drugs  took 
place.  On  the  other  hand,  the  schools  and  colleges  of  pharmacy 
are  of  a  very  high  order,  and  invariably  connected  with  one  of  the 
State  universities.  The  pharmaceutical  syllabus  consists  of  a  mini- 
mum course  of  instruction  of  1200  hours,  and  in  addition  to  the 
subjects  required  for  our  own  examination  includes  physiology,  toxi- 
cology, and  the  action  of  drugs  upon  healthy  and  diseased  organs. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  a  Committee  of  the  American 
Pharmaceutical  Association  has  recently  reported  upon  and  outlined 
a  scheme  for  the  institution  of  two  classes  of  pharmacies — (a) 
drug-stores  and  (b)  pharmacies.  This  scheme  is  given  in  detail  in 
the  Pharmaceutical  Journal,  May  29,  1920,  and  well  deserves  care- 
ful consideration.  I  refer  to  this,  not  with  a  view  of  suggesting  that 
we  should  copy  their  ideas,  but  to  indicate  the  trend  of  thought  that 
is  taking  place  in  the  United  States  of  America.   In  short,  therefore, 
