THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
i 
0 
DECEMBER,  igoi. 
MODERN  EVIDENCES  OF  PHARMACEUTICAL  PROGRESS 
AND  THEIR  VALUE. 
By  Henry  P.  Hynson. 
"  Modern  Drug  Store  Methods"  was  the  title  suggested  for  this 
paper  by  the  gentleman  who  kindly  invited  me  to  read  it  before 
you.  The  suggestion  conveyed  to  me  not  only  his  wishes  regard- 
ing the  kind  of  matter  I  should  present,  but  it  told  me  just  why  I 
happened  to  be  so  greatly  honored  ;  yet,  this  very  knowledge  brings 
me  considerable  embarrassment.  It  is  because  I  have  given  so 
freely  of  my  little  store  during  three  consecutive  years  that  I  was 
asked,  and  it  is  because  I  have  given  so  freely  during  the  same  years 
that  the  "  well  has  gone  dry." 
If,  therefore,  I  borrow  much  from  the  proceedings  of  the  Ameri- 
can Pharmaceutical  Association — a  rich  store-house,  by  the  way — 
I  trust  I  will  be  pardoned.  It  is  better  to  present  the  old  that  is 
good  than  the  bad  that  is  new. 
Modern  and  improved  pharmaceutical  methods  have  developed 
so  gradually,  and  have  been  added  to  the  whole  in  such  regular 
order,  that  their  practical  utility  and  helpfulness  is  often  overlooked. 
We  must  needs  occasionally  bring  ourselves  to  a  fair  and  sudden 
realization  of  exactly  what  they  are  before  we  can  place  upon  them 
their  individual  or  collective  values.  The  question  which,  an- 
swered, brings  most  satisfaction  and  comfort  is  not  "What  am  I?" 
but  "  What  have  I  become?"  The  one  is  answered  by  a  compari- 
son with  something  I  may  be,  the  other  by  a  comparison  with  what 
I  was.    In  the  latter  test  the  past  is  vividly  brought  before  us,  as  in 
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