142 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
j  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(      March,  1909. 
The  meeting  itself  was  probably  the  most  successful,  best 
attended,  most  interesting  and  most  promising  meeting  that  the 
American  Chemical  Society  has  ever  held  and  the  enthusiasm  that 
was  manifested  in  connection  with  the  sessions  of  the  several 
divisions  and  sections  could  not  be  otherwise  than  encouraging  to 
the  members  of  the  society  who  were  more  directly  interested  in 
pharmaceutical  chemistry,  and  their  enthusiasm,  in  turn,  manifested 
itself  in  a  resolution  expressing  their  desire  for  a  continued  inde- 
pendent existence  and  their  preference  for  the  ultimate  formation 
of  a  Division  on  Pharmaceutical  Chemistry. 
It  is  quite  probable  that  such  a  division  will  be  organized  at  the 
coming  meeting  of  the  American  Chemical  Society,  in  Detroit  next 
June,  and,  when  formed,  it  will  surely  mark  a  distinct  advance  in 
the  progress  of  American  pharmacy. 
There  can  be  no  gainsaying  the  fact  that  pharmacy,  particularly 
the  science  of  pharmacy,  is  closely  related  to,  and  in  many  respects 
dependent  on,  the  progress  that  is  made  in  other  sciences ;  and  the 
efforts  that  have  been  made  in  the  past  to  encourage  the  pharmacist 
in  holding  aloof  from  scientific  organizations  devoted  more  specifi- 
cally to  the  development  of  other  lines  of  work  have  been  unfor- 
tunate in  that  they  have  really  hampered  the  progress  of  pharmacy 
rather  than  concentrated  the  energies  of  its  votaries  to  aid  in  its 
advancement. 
Of  the  many  scientific  organizations,  in  this  country,  that  are 
deserving  of  the  support  of  the  pharmacist,  few  if  any  compare,  in 
possible  returns,  with  the  American  Chemical  Society.  This  society 
now  has  upwards  of  three  thousand  members,  all  of  them  intensely 
interested  in  some  one  phase  of  the  science  of  chemistry,  and  the 
society  itself  is  an  excellent  illustration  of  the  possibility  of  having 
general  meetings,  with  simultaneous  sessions  devoted  to  the  reading 
and  discussion  of  scientific  papers,  ample  time  for  meeting  the 
members  in  a  social  way,  and  practically  no  time  wasted  on  the  con- 
sideration of  the  more  purely  administrative  business  of  the  society, 
which  is  delegated  to  the  Council.  As  an  object  lesson  alone,  attend- 
ance at  a  meeting  of  the  American  Chemical  Society  would  be  of 
value  to  American  pharmacists,  and,  particularly,  to  the  more  active 
members  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association. 
With  the  formation  of  a  division  on  pharmaceutical  chemistry 
the  American  Chemical  Society  should  become  more  than  ever  an 
attraction  for  pharmacists  who  are  interested  in  the  science  of  their 
