St Louis College of Pharmacy - Prescripto Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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1933 PRLSCRIPTO Francis Hemm Memorial Laboratory HE Francis Hemm Memorial Laboratory was made possible by the desire of the classes of 1927 and 1928 to establish a lasting and tangible tribute to Professor Hemm. The Laboratory is one of the finest equipped and well lighted laboratories in America. This Was' made possible by the generosity and untiring efforts of the classes of 1927 and 1928, who raised amongst them- selves the sum of 515,000 for its realization. Professor Hernm was actively associated with pharmacy for over fifty years. He was very well known in the. pharmaceutical world. He was an exponent of the standardization of the potent drugs by chemical methods. Professor Hemm possessed -many traits which made him dear to the heart of all students who came under his instruction or guidance. He not only advised the student of what was proper but lived an exemplary life himself. He well earned the title Daddy Hemm, bestowed upon him by the students. Professor Hemm passed away in September of the year which marked the opening of the present college building and was denied a glimpse of the Hemm Laboratory. The Alumni dedicated a bronze plaque in the main hall of the College to him, thereby wishing to show their sorrow caused by the loss of so ine a colleague. Page Eighty One

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1933 PIIESCIIIPTO Page Eighty Women Pharmacists HARMACY is the last profession to open its doors unreservedly to women, medicine, law, even theology, had received them long before. To be sure, we have some scant references to Apothekerinnen in certain German rec- ords extending as far back as the fifteenth centuryg but such cases are excep- tional, and it is probable that even when these ladies were licensed to practice, their presence in the ranks of the profession was regarded as something of an anomaly. Women pharmacists are rather a modern note in our scheme of things, even though it has always been, from the beginning of creation, a womanly instinct to care for the sick, to soothe and ease by gentle administration of the draughts compounded by others. Perhaps the association of the names of certain women with poisons and magic drugs, both in myth and fact, as Medea, Locusta, the Signora Tofana, the Marquise de Brinvilliers, and others, helped to nourish the suspicion that women were not to be trusted with such dangerous substances. However, the most potent reason, prevailing even in comparatively recent times, urged against the presence of women in pharmacy, was the extremely long hours spent in the apothecary shop. The druggist, up to some forty years ago, and even more so, the drug clerk, spent nearly all his life in his shop, having little time for recreation, either intellectual or social. To women, who have a better instinct for balancing their duties with their pleasures, such a condition was intolerable. But progress has created a better environment, add to this the opening of a career for women in the hospital dispensaries, and it is no longer a matter of surprise that young ladies are coming in increasing numbers to the colleges of pharmacy to prepare themselves for what they have chosen as their life work. In truth, the association of women with drugs is far more intimate than generally supposed. We need call attention only to the herb women, still plentiful in European countries, who knew the medicinal values of many plants, which they gathered and prepared. These women were looked on askance by the profession, but they have added several valuable medicaments to our materia medicag we may cite digitalis as an instance. In the Middle Ages, the lady of the castle was the apothecary of the domestic establishment, and even practiced distillation to obtain from drugs their valuable essences.', When Parkinson published his Herbal, he adopted simple language in his descriptions of plants, on the ground that the gentlewomen of his day were the persons most concerned in the cultivation, gathering, and preparation of medicinal plants. Even in so crowded a city as London, nearly every housewife had her little plot of ground which served as an herb garden. So that it is no exaggeration to say that women were even pioneers in the art of pharmacy. , Yes, the woman-pharmacist may now claim equal rank with the woman- physician and the woman-lawyer, and she has proved herself as capable as the men in her profession.

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1933 PIIESCRIPTO The Pharmacist-Yesterday and Today N the early days of pharmacy, and even as recent as the waning years of the last century, the pharmacist conducted his business in an entirely different manner than it is possible for him to do today. Rentals were comparatively low, as were all other items of overhead. Chain store competition was un- known, and while the cut-price practice did exist to a limited extent in some of the larger cities, it did not present the problem that it does today and did not exist for the druggist located in the small city or town. Pharmacy was prac- ticed in a leisurely fashion. There was time to chat with patrons when they came to the store, and with neighbors and friends when they just dropped in to visit. Window displays and counter displays were not considered so tre- mendously important in any line of retail business as they are today. The pharmacist was looked up to as a highly trined professional man and respected by all with whom he came in contact. As it was the ambition of most boys to work in a drug store, the druggist picked his apprentices with extreme care and took a keen interest in their proper training. Consequently, he secured valuable help at a small cost. Then came the great magician who changed the entire picture. Just who he was cannot be determined. As time is not measured today by centuries but by millions of years, he came with blinding speed and brought with him the new era of invention which has produced the automobile, radio, airplane, mov- ing pictures, televisioii, etc., he brought with him the Narcotic Act, the World War, Prohibition, the high cost of living, the Jazz Era, the post-bellum period of readjustment, the Income Tax, chain stores, cut-price wars, rackets and racketeers, gangsters and gunmen, crime waves and crime commissions, boot- leggers, high-jackers, speakeasies, night clubs, theme songs, station announce- ments, press agents, Rudy Vallee, consolidations and mergers, the stock in- vestment craze, the collapse of the market, Amos 'n Andy, the Peace Con- ference, and many other media, laws, instruments, monstrosities, and abomi- nations for good or evil which have produced sorrow and joy, headaches and hysteria, multi-millionaires and paupers. The druggist has survived the dazzling era of what next and what of it?,' This is his store today-the one with the modern front and the shining plate Page Eighty Two