486  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  {A™'ctoberPi90Lm' 
standing  this  reduction  in  time  and  the  fact  that  the  Section  on 
Practical  Pharmacy  and  Dispensing  held  a  simultaneous  meet- 
ing on  Friday  morning,  the  work  of  the  section  was  eminently 
successful,  the  number  of  papers  considered  being  more  than  usual. 
The  chairman,  Oscar  Oldberg,  delivered  the  annual  address  which 
we  publish  nearly  in  full. 
Scientific  medicine  can  accomplish  little  or  nothing  without  the  aid  of 
scientific  pharmacy.  The  recognition  of  this  truth  is  not  as  pronounced  and 
general  as  it  might  be  ;  but,  feeble  as  it  is,  it  accounts  for  the  Scientific  Section 
of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  Signs  of  scientific  activity  in 
American  pharmacy  are  by  no  means  wanting.  The  American  Pharmacopoeia 
is  scientific  and  technical  to  a  degree  which  gives  it  high  rank  among  the  phar- 
macopoeias of  the  world.  None  of  them  are  perfect ;  but  the  unscientific  fea- 
tures seen  in  them  are  being  gradually  eliminated.  The  progress  in  medicine 
is  rapid.  The  progress  in  pharmacy  must  keep  pace  with  it.  New  remedies 
are  discovered  almost  daily.  These  must  be  studied,  analyzed,  described  ;  and 
means  provided  for  their  identification  and  examination.  All  of  this  work 
must  be  done  by  scientifically  trained  specialists — the  pharmacists. 
The  Pharmacopoeia  must  be  understood  and  obeyed.  It  can  be  fully  under- 
stood only  by  pharmacists  of  proper  scientific-technical  education.  We  all 
subscribe  to  the  principle  that  the  training  of  the  pharmacist  must  not  fall 
below  that  which  is  necessary  to  an  intelligent  interpretation  and  application 
of  the  text  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  and  that  as  the  Pharmacopoeia  is  improved, 
pharmacy  and  pharmacists  must  improve  with  it. 
The  only  truly  practical  pharmacist  is  the  educated  pharmacist.  If  the 
papers  read  before  this  Section  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association 
may  be  taken  as  a  reliable  index  of  the  scientific  progress  of  American  phar- 
macy we  would  have  little  cause  for  regret.  But  these  papers  do  not  indicate 
what  proportion  of  the  pharmacists  of  our  country  are  actually  doing  their 
work  in  a  scientific  manner. 
During  the  past  ten  years  218  papers  were  read  before  the  Scientific  Section 
of  this  Association .  Of  these  218  papers  165  came  from  the  pharmaceutical 
schools,  twenty-two  from  the  laboratories  of  manufacturing  pharmacists,  and 
thirty-one  from  other  sources.  Not  all  of  the  thirty-one  others  were  practicing 
pharmacists.  It  is  quite  natural  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  scientific  papers 
read  here  should  come  from  the  schools  and  from  the  laboratories  of  manufac- 
turers. We  have  a  right  to  expect  it  of  them.  But  may  we  not  expect  more 
than  thirty  papers  in  ten  years  from  the  practicing  pharmacists  of  this  great 
and  progressive  country  ?  I  believe  that  the  technical  knowledge  and  training 
of  the  members  of  this  Association  ought  to  bear  more  abundant  fruit  in  the 
Scientific  Section. 
This  Section  is  vitally  concerned  in  the  question  of  pharmaceutical  educa- 
tion and  legislation.  If  we  do  not  sow  the  seed  and  diligently  cultivate  the 
ground,  neither  can  we  reap. 
The  most  direct,  simple  and  rational  method  of  ascertaining  whether  or  not 
a  man  has  really  prepared  himself  in  any  serious  way  for  the  responsible  duties 
of  pharmacy  is  to  require  him  to  state  specifically  what  he  has  done  in  that 
