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

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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

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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 PRESCRIPPO glass windows-the finest store in the block. See how well the windows are lighted. Look at the beautiful window displays. Let's go inside. Isn't it a handsome store? Modern fixtures, excellent merchandise, and attractive coun- ter displays predominate. The store is splendidly lighted and immaculate and well arranged. This is certainly different from the store of 1900. The pharmacist of today is as thoroughly trained commercially and cul- turally as he is professionally. He has developed into an expert buyer of a multitudinous variety of merchandise. He is a past master in the art of sales- manship. He is a credit man, an accomplished writer of advertising copy, a student of psychology, a philosopher, a staunch friend and a good citizen. He is an alert business and professional man, active in civic affairs, the neighbor- hood friend and counsellor. He deserves the public trust and gets it. The introduction of such things as soda water, candies, restaurant service, books, cutlery, photographic supplies, tobacco, stationery, and things similarly far removed from medicine, is not alone the result of economic pressure. True it is that pharmacies would rapidly disappear if dependent upon prescription income alone and that many such important service at a loss, but it is also true that the institutional developments are the product of demands by the Ameri- can people. When a drug store does something that the public does not like, it will hear from it quickly enough. That is because every one tells his troubles to a druggist, who knows and keeps enough secrets to Wreck a community's peace. The truly ethical pharmacy of today, of which there are many, is equipped to carry on clinical and analytical work. It is equipped with urinalysis appa- ratus, equipped to take blood counts, make Wassermann tests, and with var- ious other apparatus and materials with which to aid materially the work of the physician and surgeon. Their contributions to the medical profession in terms of professional service rendered are too numerous to be recounted here. The pharmacy graduate of today is better prepared than at any time in the history of pharmacy to carry on successfully the Work of the profession and set higher standards in pharmacy than had ever before been contem- plated. And with the four-year course, offering the degree of Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, we shall have the most thoroughly trained pharmacists. profesionally, commercially, and culturally, that have ever stepped forth into the profession. Page Ezghty Three