Pharmacy

PHARMACY, the art of preparing, preserving and com pounding medicines, according to the prescriptions of physicians. The term was first used in this sense in 1597. The International Congresses of Pharmacy, held at intervals from 1865 to 1913, afforded opportunity for the discussion of questions of inter national importance. Much time and effort were expended in the endeavour to produce an international Pharmacopoeia and to ensure that all medicinal preparations should be the same, no matter in what country they were prescribed. The attempt failed, but it paved the way for the adoption of useful international regulations. (See PHARMACOPOEIA.) International Uniformity.—The congress held in Paris in 1900 recommended that a comparative table should be prepared showing the difference in the strength of medicaments bearing the same name in different pharmacopoeias. This table was considered at a conference of accredited delegates from various nations in Sept. 1902 and a list of preparations was issued upon which agree ment as to strength had been reached. An international agreement embodying this list was signed in 5906 by the representatives of 18 nations and, substantially, all the decisions contained in it have been observed in the new issues of the pharmacopoeias of the signatory nations. A similar conference was held in Paris in 1925 to revise some of the decisions of the first conference and to take further steps towards the unification of the pharmacopoeial formulas for potent drugs and their preparations.

The loth international congress held at Brussels in 1910 decided to establish a Federation Internationale Pharmaceutique for the protection of pharmacy as a profession and as an applied science. The federation was established in 1912 at The Hague with Prof. Van Itallie and Dr. Hofman, the first president and secretary respectively. Twenty-four national societies of pharmacy are now included in it, although Austria, Denmark, Germany, Hungary and Russia have retired since the World War. The Federation Internationale Pharmaceutique has held meetings annually since 1922.

Modern Pharmacy and Science.

The demands made upon the scientific knowledge and technical skill of the pharmacist have continually increased as shown by successive editions of the British, United States and other pharmacopoeias. The definition of the drugs has become more precise ; tests of identity, limits of impurity, methods of assay have been introduced, and the use of the microscope required for the examination of many vegetable drugs. The introduction into medical practice of countless syn thetic chemicals, of such organotherapeutical substances as the thyroid gland, pituitrin, etc., and of various vaccines and sera has imposed upon pharmacists the necessity of special study in order to understand them. The same may be said of the X-rays, and of the vitamins, the latter, in an impure form, being used in the form of compressed tablets or of capsules. Hypodermic injections are now commonly supplied sterilised and in ampoules, and the pharmacist must therefore be acquainted with the principles of sterilisation and with the action upon sensitive alkaloids of the heat used and the alkalinity of the glass of which the ampoules have been made.

The Qualifications of the Pharmacist.

In addition, there fore, to a knowledge of chemistry and botany as applied to phar macy the pharmacist must be an expert microscopist. He must keep himself informed as to the new developments of therapeutics and must be competent to supply such medicines as the physician may prescribe. Disinfection and hygiene also come within his purview. To ensure his competency the Federation Internationale Pharmaceutique agreed that the following subjects should find a place in the studies of the pharmaceutical student : chemistry (analytical, biological, physiological and pathological), pharmacy (chemical and galenical), pharmacognosy, micrography, toxi cology, hygiene, legislation, pharmacology, botany, microbiology, mathematics, crystallography, disinfection, sterilisation and optics.