Why pharmacy?
Media
Part of The Carolinian
- Title
- Why pharmacy?
- Creator
- Del Anserio, Pedro
- Language
- English
- Year
- 1952
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- S WE are celebrating "Phar macy Week," our minds spontaneously think of Drugstores and the people in the Drugstores, the Pharmacists. We may even wonder whether their profession is a worthwhile one, and whether they fill the place in society which they are expected to fill. We may even ask what this place ought to be. We take it for granted — and suppose, everybody does — that man on earth is always in search for happiness. We know by ex perience and observation that sick ness is one of the greatest obstacles to happiness — as health is one of its most important prerequisites. Medicine, therefore, or concretely speaking, the Doctor is one of the greatest friends and benefactors of man. Pharmacy and Medicine ori ginally were one profession. But when in the course of time Medicine developed intensively and exten sively, Pharmacy, in due time, branched off and became a pro fession by itself. Still, the two are very closely related. This appears clearly in Pharmacy's most char acteristic subject: Pharmacognosy. While Pharmacology, still a medi cal subject, inquires into the pos sibility of using the natural agen cies hidden in both the inorganic and organic world around us. Pharmacognosy studies how these same agencies actually can be freed from their natural ligations and made subservient to the com plex organism of man. It is clear that Pharmacy is only a handmaid of Medicine, but it is also clear that it shares the distinction and priv ilege of being a friend and ben efactor of mankind. Being hand maids, they must serve. But to serve is an honor, and this honor is theirs. This we put before our minds, and we inculcate it into our stu dents: they must serve, they must be exact, meticulous, conscientious, responsible! Pharmacy is, ideologically speak ing, based on a sound philosophy, on the knowledge and acknowledginent that man combines in himself the rest of the world: the minerals, the plants, the animal. Man is not a mineral, neither a plant, nor an animal, but the component factors • In stimulating, directing, and redirecting the mysterious forces of nature in man, the Pharmacist handles a delicate, a sacred task. He actually cooperates with the Creator Himself. of all these are basically found in him, not however any longer as such, but transformed, raised up to a higher level of being, permeated by the substantial "force" which we call soul. The body of man and the soul of man are not two distinct elements; they are mutu ally com-penetrating each other to such a perfection that they are but one being. This explains the intrin sic dependency of the soul on the body, and this reveals the deepest The College of Pharmacy gets a big boost from the conscientious, studious and * pretty people it enrolls. reason why, after all, health is so all-important for the general well being of man, his soul included. This also shows how mysteriously interwoven are the forces of nature in man and how delicate, even sa cred, a task it is to stimulate, to help, to direct or re-direct these forces in the attempts to cure or to pre vent diseases! This is, indeed, ac tual cooperation with the Creator Himself. From this follows the ob ligation to act and work accord ing to His will: a pharma cist must always help, never counter-act never abuse nature. This is why poisons, narcotics, and other potentially harmful drugs (e.g. anti-conceptives) must be handled always with the greatest possible care and always in con formity with the law. Frivolity and carelessness are alien to her pro fession. These thoughts show how great a pharmacist's professions is; they also show why a College of Phar macy belongs in a Catholic Univer sity, such as the University of San Carlos. March, 1952 Page 11