and in which demonsiiations are given of how pills, tablets, supposi- 

 tories, tinctures, and other official preparations are prepared. 



In schools where the student is admitted with but a poor elementary 

 training much more than this may be necessary. But, even under the 

 most favorable conditions the limited course above outlined will 

 leave much to be desired, even then the physician is not ensured 

 against the commission of grave enors in prescribing. Without further 

 study he must often rely upon the friendly hand of the professional 

 pharmacist to correct his mistakes. 



Here, too, then, the question is one of selection, of just how much 

 will suffice in a field which is occupied by an allied profession. 



There are gieat differences of opinion in regard to instruction in 

 Therapeutics. In teaching pharmacology the therapeutic uses of drugs 

 must necessarily be considered in more or less detail and pharma- 

 cological discoveries harmonized Avhenever possible with clinical prac- 

 tice. It is, therefore, necessary that the teacher of pharmocology shall 

 be familiar with clinical work and with the actual effect of drugs and 

 poisons on human beings. It is not necessary, however, that he should 

 be an active practitioner, and it is only a man of unusual powers and 

 exceptional training in science who can successfully combine practice 

 with the demands made on the pharmacologist of the present day as 

 an investigator and a teacher. In all the leading universities of the 

 world it is becoming more and more the custom for teachers of physi- 

 ology, anatomy, pathology, physiological chemistry, and hygiene to 

 devote themselves wholly to the duties of their chairs, and this practice 

 will prevail more and more among pharmacologists as the wealth of 

 medical foundations increases. No one individual, even if he has the 

 widest clinical experience, can hope to teach the whole art of thera- 

 peutics. Is it necessary to attempt this? Is not the clinical teacher who 

 is well grounded in the fundamental sciences the only one who can 

 rightly train the medical student in the correct choice of drugs and 

 other agents whose employment falls within his province? 



Who, for example, can better teach the student how to treat the 

 various acute and chronic forms of skin disease than the dermatologist; 

 who better to treat the diseases of young children than the pediatrist; 

 who better the details of drug application in diseases of the eye, throat, 

 and nose than the specialist in these branches; who give wiser coun- 

 sel in the use of drugs, foods, and other agents in the wide field of the 

 internist than he who daily grapples with difficult problems in the 

 cure and alleviation of disease? A practical mastery of therapeutics 

 can only be obtained from contact with these men and their work. 



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