C. U. C. p. ALUMNI JOURNAL 



75 



THE TEACHING OF COMMERCIAL PHARMACY 



By HENRY P. HYNSON. 



We believe thai Professor Hynson in his address at the annual meeting of the 



New York College of Pharmacy discussed the many sides of comfnercial 



pharmacy in rather an unusual manner and that a careful reading and 



analysis thereof will greatly benefit every retail pharmacist, be he employer 



or employee. 



Strongly obsessed with a sense of impor- 

 tance of this occasion and deeply impressed 

 by the far-reaching opportunities offered me, 

 I refrain from apologizing, explaining and, in- 

 deed, from reciting the usual openmg anecdote, 

 that might put me more fairly before you. 



If you question why I regard the occasion 

 of so great importance, I answer, without hesi- 

 tation, that pharmacy and pharmacists are now 

 suffering more from the lack of proper com- 

 mercial teaching than from any other cause 

 or, it may be, from all other deficiencies com- 

 bined, and what affects pharmacy- and pharma- 

 cists concerns all those with whom these have 

 to do, meaning the multitudes who are patrons 

 of pharmacists. And more, this is just the 

 time when commerce and commercial things 

 are claiming the attention of the world — next 

 to war — and it is now that the best of the 

 world's knowledge is being applied to com- 

 merce, and it is now that the difference be- 

 tween the commercialist and the professional- 

 ist, merely because of their vocations, has 

 faded entirely away or into the faintest shade. 



A word regarding our mutual responsibili- 

 ties. While uncomfortably sensible of my own 

 responsibility and fearing that I have presumed 

 to accept one so great, I am not afraid to warn 

 you that yours is even greater than mine. Not 

 only must you try to understand me and com- 

 prehend my meaning, but you must put my 

 offerings to the test and, if I am incorrect, 

 you are. in duty bound, to find the truth upon 

 this subject and not onlj- set it upright in 3'our 

 own minds, but you, in your responsible vari- 

 ous connections with this great institution and 

 its unusual influence, and you with your re- 

 sponsible connections with the drug trade and 

 the pharmaceutical press of this great metro- 

 polis, considering the limitless influence of the 



latter must make the truth, as you find it, felt 

 all over this land of ours. I have no desire to 

 flatter you and your city, but New York is 

 now, or soon will be, ''The World" and as 

 goes New York, so goes the world. I should 

 feel that I had filled my greatest possible mis- 

 sion, could I make you really appreciate how 

 much you could do for pharmac}' and then 

 induce you to do it. 



One may reach an age when he feels that 

 he must not always make favorable criticism 

 and when he must, for the good he may do, 

 run counter to the views of others. I trust, 

 therefore, that I may be pardoned for stating 

 that I believe all the addresses which have 

 heretofore been delivered before yoti upon 

 different phases of commercial pharmacy have 

 failed to impress you with the importance of 

 making commercial training a prominent part 

 of the curriculum of a school of pharmacy, 

 because all of them, in mj^ opinion, were dis- 

 tinctly post-graduate in character and did not 

 set forth plans for the more elementary teach- 

 ing of the commercial science, as it may be 

 applied to pharmaceutical practice, nor did they 

 show how practical a commercial course may 

 be made. 



I feel that I must protect myself behind an 

 actual "wall of necessity" for this training, 

 otherwise I will be pounded with the old well- 

 worn protest that: "All this knowledge should 

 have been acquired before the student enters 

 a school of pharmacy," and I very confidently 

 believe that those who would so argue know 

 very little about the condition and character 

 of mind that is required to take up this study. 

 It is not the proper kind of study for a child 

 — for an undeveloped mind. Educators dis- 

 credit themselves when they include specific 

 commercial training in a high school course. 



