there from Iowa. Professor Linton came way from Seattle. Dr. W. C. Anderson was of course on deck, and Diekman and Rusby of the New York College. Professor Remington, during the summer, lives only eight or ten miles away at Longport, and of course he was on hand. Seltzer and Francis represented Detroit. Wilbert and Kebler brought the authority of the United States Government with them. At the press table were E. J. Kennedy of the Era; Caswell A. Mayo of the American Druggist; Mansfield of the Practical Druggist; Cousins, the broncho buster from Texas; and one or two cubs that I didn't happen to know. And there were many others-far too numerous to mention.

John F. Patton, present at an A. Ph. A. convention for the first time in several years.

AN APPEAL FOR RESEARCH WORK.

Judged by its permanent effect upon the fortunes of pharmaceutical science, the address of W. L. Scoville, as Chairman of the Scientific Section, was one of the most important features of the convention. Incidentally Mr. Scoville has been acting chairman of the N. F. during the last year or two, and was largely responsible for getting the final work done and for seeing the book through the press. He is a thinker who gets to the bottom of things, and his address showed grasp and wisdom.

It was an appeal for research work. If we can find space for it, we mean to print the entire address in this issue of the BULLETIN. Suffice it to say here, therefore, that Mr. Sco

ville indicated beyond a doubt that many problems faced by revisers of the Pharmacopoeia and National Formulary had by no means yet been solved, and that pharmacy would continue to suffer so long as they remained unsolved. It was a confession of defeat, for instance. when elixir of the phosphates of iron, quinine and strychnine was dropped from the new U. S. P. In other cases preparations were continued in the book although satisfactory formulas had not yet been worked out for them.

Not only is a greater amount of research work necessary in pharmacy if the U. S. P. and N. F. are to be made what they should be. but there is a deeper and more fundamental reason. Germany snatched away from England its preeminence in the field of chemical manufacture because it based chemical industry upon the most careful and elaborate research work. In the United States those manufacturing pharmacists who have done the greatest amount of original investigation have succeeded in building up the largest enterprises. The retail druggist, of course, is not in position to conduct scientific investigations, but organized pharmacy, in its larger aspect, must undertake this work if it is to hold its own, if it is to command the respect of the world, if it is to solve its problems satisfactorily, and if it is to continue to be what it pretends to bea branch of technical science.

Mr. Scoville's address provoked some discussion, all of a favorable nature, and his recommendation was adopted. It was voted to establish a committee on research. For the present a temporary committee was selected with Mr. Scoville himself as chairman, and with the following associates: C. E. Vanderkleed, A. Viehoever, C. H. LaWall, and Wm. Mansfield.

Chairman Joseph W. England, of the Committee on Publication, recommended that a permanent N. F. chairman be secured, possibly under salary, but instead of this the convention decided to appoint in 1919 a revision committee to serve for the next ten years. This will be in lieu of the previous method of appointing a new committee, in whole or in part, every year. Whether or not the future committee will be salaried remains still to be determined. The present committee has absolutely refused honoraria, and has acted throughout in a most self-sacrificing and altruistic manner.

A DEBATE ON PRESCRIPTION PRICING.

Perhaps the most practical and useful discussion of the entire week centered around the subject of prescription pricing. The first gun was fired by the report of a special committee comprisnig Harry B. Mason, F. W. R. Perry, and George M. Schettler. This committee presented facts to show that prescription pricing throughout the United States was in a very bad way. Prices for a given prescription, for instance, would range anywhere from fifty cents to a dollar and a half. It was declared that most druggists really lost money in their prescription departments without realizing it. Often a druggist will follow the old custom of making a flat price for prescriptions-30 cents, say, for a two-ounce mixture, 40 cents for a three-ounce mixture, and 50 cents for a fourounce mixture. These prices would be made regardless of the cost of the ingredients, and despite the fact that frequently the druggist would lose instead of make money by the transaction.

After discussing the subject at considerable length, the committee recommended that druggists adopt what has become known as the Evans rule in the pricing of prescriptions. This rule is as follows: Get a profit approximating 100 per cent on the cost of the bare material and container, and then charge a dollar an hour for actual time consumed in compounding. If every druggist in the United States were at once to adopt this rule, were to apply it universally, and were to base it on proper knowledge of the actual cost of material and container, he would make a satisfactory profit on his prescription business. Exceptions to the rule might be made in the case of very inexpensive mixtures on the one hand, or very costly mixtures on the other, out of deference to the consumer's pocketbook and prejudices. but such exceptions would not often be necessary.

This report occasioned considerable discussion. Two or three other papers were presented, but in the absence of the authors were read by title only. The recommendations of the committee were entirely approved by the section, and a resolution was afterwards passed in favor of the Evans rule.

PROFESSOR LLOYD THE CENTRAL FIGURE.

In the Scientific Section a dramatic presentation of the subject of absorption was made

by Professor J. U. Lloyd, who began his studies on that subject 30 years and more ago, and who is a pioneer in the realm of colloidal chemistry. Professor Lloyd attracted a roomful, and a number of men even stood during the hour and a half in which he presented his subject and illustrated it with experiments showing how an excess of filter paper not only causes a loss in substances dissolved, but that substances differ in their absorbability.

He demonstrated that in a mixture of ipecac alkaloid with quinine, both being in solution, the ipecac alkaloid was entirely absorbed in the paper and removed from the solution while the quinine passed through. Similar results were shown with sanguinarine and quinine, the

Henry P. Hynson, who refused to run for the presidency.

sanguinarine being retained in the paper while most of the quinine passed through.

He also exhibited a bottle of phytotrine, a new amorphous alkaloid obtained from ipecac. This alkaloid is very dark in color and has resisted all efforts to crystallize it thus far. It also acts peculiarly with acids, and pure salts have thus far not been obtained. Not only were the experiments and illustrations of especial interest, but Professor Lloyd's talk held the close attention of his audience throughout.

At the close of his address the Committee on Ebert Prize, through its chairman, C. H. LaWall, reported that the prize for 1915 had been awarded to Professor J. U. Lloyd for his studies on the absorption properties of silicates. which drew forth further expressions from the recipient.

OTHER PAPERS.

Twenty-eight other papers were presented to the Scientific Section, and a number of them

were of unusual interest-some interesting particularly to chemists, some to pharmacologists, some to botanists, and some to dispensers.

President W. C. Alpers as he appeared at the Atlantic City meeting eleven years ago with his two daughters. One of the young ladies was present with him this time.

Three full sessions were held, comprising a little more than ten hours altogether.

This brief review of the meeting is bound to be very sketchy and incomplete. A large number of papers were read in the different sections, and it would be quite impossible to discuss them in detail. All we try to do here is to touch some of the high lights of convention week.

Cuba; Thomas F. Main, New York; and L. D. Havenhill, Kansas.

J. O. Burge of Nashville was made honorary president. Prof. H. V. Arny was made Reporter of the Progress of Pharmacy, and the permanent officers of the organization were reëlected--H. M. Whelpley, Treasurer; W. B. Day, Secretary; and E. G. Eberle, Editor. L. C. Hopp was made chairman of the council and Jos. W. England, secretary.

AS TO COMMERCIAL TRAINING.

A little debate developed one afternoon on the question of commercial training in colleges of pharmacy. What started it was a very interesting talk by Homer S. Pace, an experienced accountant from New York, who described his course of instruction in the New York College of Pharmacy. Harry B. Mason, called on by the chair to speak, approved heartily of the position taken by Professor Pace and uttered the conviction that schools and colleges of pharmacy in the future would have to do much more than they have in the past in the way of commercial training. He declared that a school of pharmacy, if it prepared students for the conduct of a drug store

NEW OFFICERS.

The nominating committee this year had some difficulty. It originally chose three men as candidates for the presidency-Messrs. H. P. Hynson, C. A. Bigelow, and Charles Holzhauer. Mr. Bigelow promptly refused to be considered a candidate, whereupon W. L. Cliffe was selected by the committee in his place, and then, when the committee reported at the last general session, Mr. Hynson refused likewise to run. H. C. Christensen was substituted for him. The three candidates, to be voted on subsequently by mail, are, therefore, Messrs. Holzhauer, Cliffe, and Christensen. There was a long list of nominees for the three vice-presidencies, and the following members were nominated for the council: F. J. Wulling, Minneapolis: C. B. Jordan, Indianapolis; M. I. Wilbert, Washington, D. C.; O. F. Clause, St. Louis; G. M. Beringer, Camden; A. B. Bolenbaugh, West Virginia; Joseph P. Alacan,

The Boardwalk is always a source of joy-with the shops on one side and the ocean on the other.

instead of merely preparing them to pass a technical examination by the State Board, would have to devote at least 40 per cent of its time to instruction in salesmanship, accounting, advertising, and business subjects generally.

This immediately brought Prof. C. H. LaWall to his feet with a declaration that such a proposition was absurd. There wasn't time.

in a pharmacy course for any such amount of commercial instruction, and it wasn't necessary anyway. Afterwards Otto Raubenheimer insisted that the place for a young man to get a business training was in the drug store. He himself got it there, and his argument seemed to be that it took him a long time to get it, and he didn't consider that young men should be started out with something which others had had to work hard to get for themselves. Charles W. Holzhauer asserted vigorously that the average preceptor was not qualified to give a young man modern training in business methods, and if students didn't get it in college they wouldn't get it at all. And so the debate ran back and forth, and did little more than enliven the members by the process of entertaining them.

There was a good deal of interesting work done in the various sections, but there is scarcely space in such a review as this to touch upon it all. Henry P. Hynson held an interesting "prescription clinic" one afternoon, in which he showed that some of the drug journals had given inaccurate information in discussing prescription incompatibilities. In the course of his remarks, however, he made a couple of errors himself. And then Professor

Not everybody in this picture was a member of the A. Ph. A., but at least several people were.

LaWall, in supposedly correcting F. T. Gordon, did so with a misstatement!

M. I. Wilbert got an elaborate scheme out of his system one day for solving the liquor problem. With the aid of the W. C. T. U., he wants to have liquor handled by a Federal act like the Harrison Law. Very high professional requirements could then be insisted upon by a government bureau, before a druggist

Here we have a closer view of the shops on the Boardwalk.

meetings over in Philadelphia before the week of the A. Ph. A. Convention. R. D. Lyman was elected President of the Conference of Faculties, and L. C. Lewis President of the National Association of Boards.

The Conference of Faculties had previously established a requirement that, beginning with this fall, schools belonging to the organization would have to establish an entrance requirement comprising two years of high-school work. It was voted at Philadelphia, however, as a result of an appeal made by the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, that this requirement should be made recommendatory instead of mandatory for the present year only.

The Association of Boards did a good deal of valuable work and incidentally placed itself in sympathy with the movement for higher entrance requirements. If we mistake not, a full high-school course is to be required somewhere about 1920 or 1921. In the meantime the association increased its membership dues from $15 to $35 annually and its interstate reciprocity fees from $5 to $15. This is to provide more funds in order that Secretary Christensen may conduct his office more efficiently and may be able to visit the different Boards. throughout the country for the purpose of improving their methods and for bringing nearer the day when interstate reciprocity may be universally achieved.