PROGRESS OF PHARMACY

Hokitika Guardian, 21 August 1929, Page 8

PROGRESS OF PHARMACY

EXPERT KNOWLEDGE APPLIED TO PUBLIC SERVICE. A hundred year** ago there was no public safeguard such as we have today in the service rendered by the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and its highly skilled members. Then there was no such thing as qualification for the sale of drugs. If there was any sort of privilege it was not based on proved knowledge and ex perionce.

The succeeding years, however, have seen the foundation of the Pharmaceutical Society in 1841, and the itan'dards of efficiency set by this body for membership raised from time to time; until the “M.P.S.” of the present day is a highly trained and reliable dispenser of the many and varied drugs and prescription in daily use. His training is spread over a period of no less than two years, while qualiacation for a pharmaceutical chemist or a registered chemist and druggist necessitates passing a number of examinations in the various branches of science. In order to dispense prescriptions for the doctor he must he thoroughly acquainted with the numerous Latin terms used to denote all manner of drugs and compounds. The pharmacist must also possess a knowledge of the. uses of drugs and also their sources. Outside professional circles few people are aware'of the activities of the explorers and scientists who are ever working behind the scenes to provide us with these invaluable substances.

,In the cause of science the mineral resources of the whole world and the vegetable and ’ animal kingdoms are constantly being exploited' to keep pace with the increasing demands of civilisation.

A WORLD-WIDE SEARCH. Pharmacy and the study of medicines although latterly concerned more with those drugs derived from mineral substances has ever found in the vegetable kingdom—rich in medicinal properties—a wide field for investigation, and still acknowledges the value of herbs and their compounds for the preparation of treatments and specifics. A world-wide senrch continues not nly after new herds and plants, but also to determine.where those of proved value can be obtained in their purest and most potent forms. Certain regions are definitely associated with.ithe plant life for which these lands are best suited, or are alone able to produce. Cloves from Zanzibar, benzoin from Sumatra, sarsparilla from Honduras and Jamaica,, a-nd opium from Turkoand India, are instances of established sources of supply.

A CENTURY OF PROGRESS. It must.bje n admitted, however, that in the supervision, handling, and distribution of drugs and medicines progress lias been as marked as in the discoveries of scientists, and the work of analytical and synthetic chemists. In other directions, too, there have been many, developments. There are more proprietary articles on the market to-day than ever there were, in the manufacture of which many highly skilled scientists are engaged. But these compounds, in the same way as the simple drugs, naturally come within the sphere of the retail chemist whose profession is therefore widely versatile and whose business is augmented even further by the supply of the various toilet requisites, nursery needs, photographic supplies, and all' the side-lines associated with liis service to the public.

In innumerable ways the chemist’s store bears evidence of the enterprise of its proprietor, while public confidence is placed unhesitatingly in tbe three letters, “M.P.S.”