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The Drug Store—A Physiological Institution
322
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION
therefore a welcome sign of recognition of the necessity for offering opportunities to drug clerks to spend several days each year on the college campus to review recent progress in the art and science of pharmacy. Doubtless other colleges of pharmacy will provide similar opportunities. Progress in
modern therapeutics and the development of drugs is so rapid that the recent graduate must keep pace with these developments to the same extent as the graduate of some years' standing and he should be given the opportunity to do so.
The Drug Store-A Physiological Institution By DR. RUFUS A. LYMAN Dean, College oj Pharmacy, University oj Nebraska
T
Hl5 is the day when things "practical" ern drug store from the viewpoint of the layman occupy the center of the stage. To get the is a physiological or, in a broader sense, a bioear of an audience one must begin by shouting logical institution. When a patron goes into a the word "practical. " It applies to everything drug store, whether it is to have a prescription from rail splitting to education. Just now one of compounded, or to obtain some aspirin for the the most discussed problems in education is the relief of pain, or some strychnine to kill the vercontent of the course of study in the high school. min around his place, or to buy a patent medicine The discussion is being carried on between the or an arsenical to rid his potatoes of bugs, or some university group on the one hand and "practical" copper carbonate to treat his seed wheat, or a school men on the other. The university group serum to control diphtheria, or a hot-water botmaintains that in the high-school curriculum we tle, or an ice bag, or a tooth brush, or a glass of are getting dangerously near the minimum of coca cola, or a package of cigarettes, he has en"academic" subjects, below which it is not safe to tered for a physiological reason. What could be go if the student is to enter an institution of the more practical then than to include in the pharcollege level. The "practical" school men main- maceutical curriculum those biological sciences, tain that the high school should train the student botany, zoology, pharmacognosy, bacteriology, for the field into which he goes, so that he will physiology, pharmacology, bioassay and biohave some understanding of the practical prob- chemistry, which are not only essential for the lems in the "practical" world in which he is to student of pharmacy to grasp the problems of live, and that world for the great majority of high- pharmacy, but just as essential for the retail school students is not the college level world. 'druggist to run his store intelligently and give an We meet the same problem of the "practical" on intelligent service to the community. Furtherthe professional level. The demand in pharmacy more it is the biological group of sciences and not for "practical" instruction in our colleges has physics and chemistry that makes pharmacy a come and is coming from the retail druggist. public health profession. The value of physics Some of us may differ as to what "practical" in- and chemistry to the practice of retail pharmacy struction consists of. That ought to be deter- has never been questioned. They are essential, mined by what a drug store is. The British call so is arithmetic and good English. But it reit a "chemist's shop." But with the British, tra- mained for the Commonwealth study to ::onvince dition is strong. A tradition frequently outlives the skeptical that in the intelligent functioning the facts of the case. A drug store from the of the pharmacist, physiology and the other bioviewpoint of an apothecary might perhaps have logical sciences are supreme. been called a chemist's shop in the days when Scheele was working with nitrogen compounds or Cranberry skins are found to yield ursolic acid. Serturner was isolating morphine. But the mod- useful in making oil and water mix.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION
therefore a welcome sign of recognition of the necessity for offering opportunities to drug clerks to spend several days each year on the college campus to review recent progress in the art and science of pharmacy. Doubtless other colleges of pharmacy will provide similar opportunities. Progress in
modern therapeutics and the development of drugs is so rapid that the recent graduate must keep pace with these developments to the same extent as the graduate of some years' standing and he should be given the opportunity to do so.
The Drug Store-A Physiological Institution By DR. RUFUS A. LYMAN Dean, College oj Pharmacy, University oj Nebraska
T
Hl5 is the day when things "practical" ern drug store from the viewpoint of the layman occupy the center of the stage. To get the is a physiological or, in a broader sense, a bioear of an audience one must begin by shouting logical institution. When a patron goes into a the word "practical. " It applies to everything drug store, whether it is to have a prescription from rail splitting to education. Just now one of compounded, or to obtain some aspirin for the the most discussed problems in education is the relief of pain, or some strychnine to kill the vercontent of the course of study in the high school. min around his place, or to buy a patent medicine The discussion is being carried on between the or an arsenical to rid his potatoes of bugs, or some university group on the one hand and "practical" copper carbonate to treat his seed wheat, or a school men on the other. The university group serum to control diphtheria, or a hot-water botmaintains that in the high-school curriculum we tle, or an ice bag, or a tooth brush, or a glass of are getting dangerously near the minimum of coca cola, or a package of cigarettes, he has en"academic" subjects, below which it is not safe to tered for a physiological reason. What could be go if the student is to enter an institution of the more practical then than to include in the pharcollege level. The "practical" school men main- maceutical curriculum those biological sciences, tain that the high school should train the student botany, zoology, pharmacognosy, bacteriology, for the field into which he goes, so that he will physiology, pharmacology, bioassay and biohave some understanding of the practical prob- chemistry, which are not only essential for the lems in the "practical" world in which he is to student of pharmacy to grasp the problems of live, and that world for the great majority of high- pharmacy, but just as essential for the retail school students is not the college level world. 'druggist to run his store intelligently and give an We meet the same problem of the "practical" on intelligent service to the community. Furtherthe professional level. The demand in pharmacy more it is the biological group of sciences and not for "practical" instruction in our colleges has physics and chemistry that makes pharmacy a come and is coming from the retail druggist. public health profession. The value of physics Some of us may differ as to what "practical" in- and chemistry to the practice of retail pharmacy struction consists of. That ought to be deter- has never been questioned. They are essential, mined by what a drug store is. The British call so is arithmetic and good English. But it reit a "chemist's shop." But with the British, tra- mained for the Commonwealth study to ::onvince dition is strong. A tradition frequently outlives the skeptical that in the intelligent functioning the facts of the case. A drug store from the of the pharmacist, physiology and the other bioviewpoint of an apothecary might perhaps have logical sciences are supreme. been called a chemist's shop in the days when Scheele was working with nitrogen compounds or Cranberry skins are found to yield ursolic acid. Serturner was isolating morphine. But the mod- useful in making oil and water mix.