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.
It is clearly evident that pharmacists are beginning to realize that a
full and complete appreciation of their duties to society at large must
of necessity react to their own pecuniary advantage and will in addition
procure for them the respect and the admiration of their fellow men.
M. I. WILBERT,
_Secretary_.