Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
February,  1909.  j 
Inaugural  Address. 
77 
INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  AS  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  WASH- 
INGTON BRANCH  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PHAR- 
MACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION  * 
By  H.  W.  Wiley. 
Members  of  the  Association,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 
I  desire  first  of  all  to  thank  you  most  cordially  for  the  great  honor 
you  have  bestowed  upon  me  by  choosing  me  as  the  first  President 
of  this  new  organization.  I  accept  the  honor  and  the  office  with  a 
full  sense  of  the  fact  that  I  as  a  pharmacist  would  be  entirely  un- 
qualified for  this  position.  Perhaps  my  selection  may  be  due  to  the 
fact  that  I  occupy  somewhat  of  a  unique  position,  being  a  Doctor 
of  Medicine  without  clients  and  dealing  in  drugs  without  being  a 
graduate  in  pharmacy.  Two  more  contradictory  positions  could 
hardly  be  imagined. 
In  another  sense,  however,  I  am  in  full  sympathy  with  the  pur- 
pose of  this  organization.  The  profession  of  pharmacy  is  rapidly 
assuming  that  position  among  the  learned  and  exact  sciences  to 
which  it  is  justly  entitled.  The  science  of  pharmacy,  in  fact,  is  much 
more  an  exact  science  than  that  of  medicine.  Its  related  branches 
of  learning,  namely,  pharmacognosy  and  pharmacology,  bring  it 
into  direct  and  immediate  contact  with  the  medical  profession. 
In  fact  pharmacy  and  medicine  may  be  regarded  as  twin  sisters, 
united  as  Siamese  twins,  by  the  bonds  of  pharmacognosy,  phar- 
macology, and  physiology.  This  emphasizes  the  idea  that  physicians 
and  pharmacists  should  act  in  harmony  and  sympathy  and  not  in 
an  antagonistic  way.  To  a  certain  extent  a  pharmacist  is  also  a 
physician,  and  to  a  certain  extent  the  physician  is  also  a  pharmacist. 
Especially  in  districts  which  are  thinly  settled  the  physician  becomes 
an  ambulant  pharmacist,  and  in  more  densely  peopled  regions  the 
pharmacist  becomes  a  stationary  physician. 
One  great  object  which  will  be  secured  by  the  combined  efforts  of 
pharmacists  in  an  organized  manner  will  be  a  rapprochement  with 
the  great  medical  profession.  This  bringing  together  of  the  twins 
will,  however,  perhaps  never  result  in  a  single  being,  but  the 
rapprochement  will  be  of  an  asymptotic  character.  I  know  that 
there  has  been  at  times  a  considerable  degree  of  friction  between 
*  Read  Monday,  Dec.  14.  1908. 
