THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



139 



In view of these facts, I am convinced employment in the drug store when he is 



that the best thing for the student, from not attending a pharmaceutical college ; 



both the educational and the economic and when he takes his college course in 



standpoint, is to do one thing at a time. pharmacy, it is best for him in every way 



Let him get his shop training in an ef- that he should withdraw from all other 



fective way by regular and continuous occupation until he has finished his task. 



THE DRUG STORE AND THE COLLEGE. 



By L. E. SAYRE. 



SOME years ago a physician made a 

 tempting offer to induce me to take a 

 young man (a student of medicine) into 

 my employ solely for the purpose of im- 

 parting to him a knowledge of the prin- 

 ciples of pharmacy, amounting to what 

 might be called a short practical course. 

 It was not the financial inducement so 

 much as a desire to accommodate a 

 friend that finally led me to assume the 

 charge. After a few weeks of such re- 

 sponsibility I became very tired of my 

 "bargain," and at the termination of 

 the contract I felt not a little relieved; it 

 was as a burden lifted. I believe I never 

 before nor since realized the gap which 

 exists between the drug store and the 

 college; between what is known as shop 

 training and college training. My time 

 was so constantly demanded by the store 

 and occupied with business cares that it 

 required an effort which I did not before 

 realize to make at times a sudden turn 

 and concentrate my mind upon the one 

 idea of teaching, and for the time being 

 convert my laboratory and store-room 

 into a class-room; and yet to perform my 

 duty conscientiously I felt this was 

 necessary to do at stated times almost 

 every day. 



I believe I am saying only what has 

 been said over and over again, and in 

 perhaps the same words: Practical shop 



* Read at the 426 Annual Meeting of the American 

 Pharmaceutical Association. 



experience can be acquired in no other 

 place than the drug store, and a college 

 education can be obtained in no other 

 place than inside the college walls. The 

 practical laboratorj^ work of the college 

 which devotes its time, as it should, to 

 the practical demonstration of the teach- 

 ing of the class-room, should not be in- 

 tended as a substitute for that peculiar 

 experience which is gained behind the 

 drug counter. I think it goes without 

 saying that to-day it requires both of 

 these to make a pharmacist in the sense 

 it is used by the druggist and the body 

 politic. It also goes without saying 

 that the college or school gives a train- 

 ing which cannot be accomplished by the 

 shop, and the shop gives a training which 

 cannot be accomplished by the college. 

 If I were to characterize in simple 

 terms the quality of the two kinds of 

 training, I should say that the one was 

 business-like and the other professional 

 or rather technical in character. Of 

 course, I do not mean by this that either 

 the college or the shop confines itself 

 within these boundaries. It would be a 

 poor college professor who did not oc- 

 casionally indulge in a lecture on the 

 business side of pharmacy, and it would 

 be a curious specimen of a pharmacist 

 who would not now and then indulge in 

 comments upon the scientific principles 

 which underlie the profession which his 



