THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



131 



pensing pharmacy, general chemistry, 

 analytical chemistry and microscopy, 

 that a few years since would have been 

 deemed impossibilities. 



In this brief time the facilities for 

 pharmaceutical instruction must have 

 appreciated from a few hundreds of thou- 

 sands to two millions or more in value. 



When we consider that the last four- 

 teen years have witnessed the establish- 

 ment of twenty - three pharmaceutical 

 journals, the enactment of thirty-seven 

 of our forty-six pharmacy laws and the 

 inauguration of instruction in pharmacy 

 in more than twenty-five of our universi- 

 ties and independent schools of pharmacy 

 we should be unwise to expect the solid- 

 ity and adjustment of an old and con- 

 servative community, although we be- 

 lieve a little more accurate knowledge 

 would have convinced our friendly critic 

 that we have more than one refreshing 

 oasis in our sea of " educational chaos." 



But no man, no community, no nation 

 can live long on past achievements or 

 develop by idle dreaming. The cost of 

 having done well is a necessity for doing 

 much better. 



And as the mightiest construction is 

 only as strong as its weakest points 

 these must be sought for and assiduously 

 built against before enlarging the area or 

 embellishing the superstructure. 



Advance on all lines of education has 

 been extensive. Medical colleges have 

 adopted graded courses, extended the 

 term from two to three or more years, 

 broadened and deepened the lines of in- 

 struction and hedged about admission 

 with entrance examinations that would 

 exclude fifty per cent, of the students of 

 twenty years ago. 



Compare some of our medical schools 

 with forty to fifty professors and in- 

 structors and a four years' graded course 

 of seven months each, with those of forJ;y 

 or fifty years ago when seven professors 



gave the same instructions each succes- 

 sive term of twenty weeks' only, and at- 

 tendance upon two such courses was all 

 that was required. 



Yet no one assumes that the medical 

 training is ideally perfect and incapable 

 of extensive improvement. 



Judging from our foreign exchanges 

 there are plague spots to be cut from the 

 pharmaceutical body abroad, but that 

 does not concern us. Our attention 

 should be given to search for the philo- 

 sopher's stone, to turn our dross and base 

 metal to gold. • 



That there is much needing tran.s- 

 mutation is apparent to the most careless 

 reader of the medical and pharmaceutical 

 journals. 



Medical men are found declaiming 

 against prescribing pharmacists and mere 

 sellers ol nostrums, and are advocating in 

 public the desirability of dispensing their 

 own remedies on the ground of self- 

 defense against the popularity of homeo- 

 pathy that saves the patient a medicine 

 bill, against the unwarranted repetition 

 of the prescription or the transfer to an- 

 other, and again.st the scrutiny of their 

 treatment b)^ the examination of their 

 prescription, or, that they may retain the 

 profit which they now divide with the 

 pharmacist. 



Conjointly with this you may observe 

 other earnest progressive physicians who 

 have no time to devote to the considera- 

 tion of .such selfish trifles, but are wholly 

 occupied with the important duties of 

 their noble profession and considering 

 the broad questions of national super- 

 vision of the public health, the improve- 

 ment of the sanitary conditions of our 

 cities and towns, and the establishment 

 of such regulations for isolation and in- 

 spection as shall prevent all epidemics 

 and largely do away with the need of 

 medication. 



In our own ranks, hours of talk and 



