FEBRUARY MEETING.
The regular stated meeting of the Philadelphia Branch of the American Pharmaceutical Association was held on the evening of Tuesday, February 5, 1907, in the Hall of the College of Physicians.
The subject under discussion, “Higher Educational Requirements for Pharmacists,” has attracted considerable attention during the past year or more, and it was therefore not surprising to find that retail pharmacists attending this meeting were comparatively well informed on questions relating to education, and fully appreciated the need for more rapid advancement along educational lines in the future.
The first speaker on the subject, Mr. William L. Cliffe, in discussing “The Practical Needs for Higher Education in Pharmacy,” called attention to the fact that the people at large are rapidly becoming more thoroughly familiarized with the needs and the wants of the practice of pharmacy.
He believes that with the further elimination of empiricism and mysticism from the science of medicine more will be expected of pharmacists, and they in turn will be required to be educated in every way.
Prof. Henry Kraemer, in speaking on “Standards in Pharmaceutical Education,” (see p. [101]) called attention to the fact that up to the present time the progress of pharmacy in this country had been comparatively slow and that we are now entering on an era of more rapid development. He believes that the enactment of pure food and drug laws will add great additional responsibility to the duties of the retail pharmacist and will also tend to more sharply define the corresponding duties of the colleges and of the boards of pharmacy.
Dr. Horatio C. Wood, Jr., in speaking on “The Future Elaboration of a Course in Pharmacy,” said that, as a commercial pursuit, the business of pharmacy must necessarily be one of limited scope and possibilities; as a profession, however, pharmacy can be developed into an occupation of laudable aims and high ideals. He believes that the pharmacist should develop as the assistant and the adviser of the physician, who in turn must depend more and more on the efforts of the pharmacist to select for him and to improve on the efficiency of the available articles of the materia medica.
Prof. I. V. S. Stanislaus, in opening the general discussion, gave it as his opinion that the pharmacist of the future would again hold the same relative position to the public as did the apothecary of old.
The pharmacist of the future will be the chemist of the people, the food and drug analyst, the assistant and adviser of the physician, in all matters relating to materia medica and chemistry, and will, therefore, practically be the sanitarian of the community.
The subject was further discussed by Messrs. John K. Thum, Franklin Apple, Jacob Eppstein, M. I. Wilbert, H. C. Blair, E. Fullerton Cook, John Hahn and Dr. F. E. Stewart. From the general trend of this discussion it was plainly evident that the better informed retail pharmacists deeply appreciate their responsibility to the public, and are willing and even anxious to meet their obligations fully. At no time in the history of pharmacy in this country has it been so evident that the mentally and morally poor man should not be allowed to jeopardize the health and even the lives of his fellow beings as now.