854 
Professional  Training. 
5  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(      Dec,  1921. 
defensive  tactics,  the  new  art  at  first  hardly  appreciated 
the  strategy  to  which  her  evolution  was  indirectly  due. 
With  tireless  zeal  and  constant  courage,  medicine,  in  the  field  of 
practice,  has  striven  for  four  millenia  to  prevent  sickness  on  de- 
fensive lines.  But  history  delights  to  repeat  herself,  and  medicine, 
apprised  by  her  institutes  as  to  man's  original  strategy,  has  at  last 
adopted  the  tactics  of  husbandry.  Passing  from  the  defensive  to 
a  vigorous  offensive,  she  now  attempts  to  abolish  disease. 
THE  SPHERE  OF  PHARMACY. 
The  secondary  object  of  medicine  being  the  cure  of  disease, 
pharmacy  was  no  longer  called  upon  to  alleviate  its  symptoms.  But 
pharmacy  still  had  to  supply  the  necessary  materia;  hence  the 
friendly  relationship  between  the  new  calling  and  the  old,  which 
teaches  mankind  how  misleading  propaganda  may  be.  But  while 
both  callings  are  equally  concerned  with  the  virtues  of  their  materia, 
pharmacy,  with  the  wisdom  which  is  one  of  her  outstanding  char- 
acteristics, concentrates  her  attention  on  their  "qualities,"  and 
leaves  medicine  to  study  their  "uses."  On  this  scientific  basis  the 
respective  responsibilities  of  the  two  professions  towards  their  com- 
mon materia  are  at  present  clearly  defined.  Should  the  new  policy 
adopted  by  medicine  succeed,  some  further  adjustment  may  become 
necessary;  its  success  may  end  medical  practice  and  convert  these 
materia  into  historic  lumber. 
The  hope  that  the  new  medical  dream  may  be  fulfilled  explains, 
though  it  does  not  justify,  the  complaint  that  pharmacy  with  her 
materia  retards  the  advent  of  a  sanitary  millennium.  Enthusiasm, 
even  when  infectious,  hardly  replaces  fact.  Already  we  hear  warn- 
ings as  to  the  risk  we  run  when  we  carry  sterilisation  too  far.  We 
have,  besides,  to  reckon  with  a  system  of  public  instruction  which 
inhibits  education  so  effectively  that  a  constant  supply  of  "conscien- 
tious objectors"  to  hygienic  enactment  is  assured.  Pharmacy,  more- 
over, has  powerful  allies  in  chemical  industries,  with  synthetic  prod- 
ucts to  push  and  a  subsidised  reclamatory  organisation.  This  may 
explain  why  "prescribing"  and  "dispensing"  are  not  yet  penal  of- 
fences. This  chemical  support  creates  a  risk  that  the  "natural" 
materia  of  pharmacy,  even  if  they  remain  officinal,  may  fall  out  of 
use,  for  medical  fashion  differs  mainly  from  the  sartorial  kind  in 
