54 THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 



experience I may say that their difficulty is in proportion to the amount 

 of prejudice the student entertains. 



Taking the students' argument that they are useless in the retail 

 business, we might apply the same to many other studies of the phar- 

 macy curriculum and if we confine such a course to the subjects 

 which the student thinks he applies in every day business, we might 

 better call the pharmacy school a mere trade school and be done 

 with it. Then considering the comparative values of trade schools 

 and the old apprentice system in any trade, the latter being undoubt- 

 edly the better, might say that the old apprentice system would be 

 best in the drug business and so bring conditions to what they were 

 ten years ago. Under the old system a few good pharmacists were 

 made, depending upon the ability of their preceptors as teachers, for 

 a man may be excellent in his trade or profession and still lack the 

 ability to impart his knowledge to others. The old system would 

 be good but for the above reason and the fact that the preceptor 

 cannot take time to explain and teach the apprentice as in the old 

 days. 



Pharmacy is not a separate science, but is founded upon several 

 sciences and we must understand enough of these foundation sciences 

 in order to understand pharmacy in its accepted definition. None ob- 

 ject to the teaching of dead languages and higher mathematics to 

 students in academic schools, both of these subjects being of less 

 material benefit in after life than botany and pharmacognosy are to 

 our graduates. Dead languages and mathematics are termed cul- 

 tural studies and so we might term the two under consideration if 

 they were not of use. 



Look at the question from a material standpoint. Does the stu- 

 dent realize that the more difficult it is to obtain a license to practice 

 pharmacy, the better are the conditions for the successful men ? It 

 is a survival of the fittest and a weeding out of incompetents be- 

 fore they reach the state board. Ask any of the older pharmacists 

 about hours and salaries paid before the board required graduation 

 from a college. Compare their answers with conditions to-day, which 

 many of our men think are bad. Various pharmaceutical associations 

 are working for the betterment of pharmacists, but the most potent 

 influence for the better lies in the increase of requirements as de- 

 manded by the board and colleges. Pharmacy is a combination of a 

 trade and a profession. The trade part can best be taught by store ex- 

 perience. The professional part by college education. The colleges 



