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THE NEW YORK JOURNAL OF PHARMACY 



lecture-notes and assemble the rough 

 material into readable form. Many 

 men have told me that it took them 

 two or three hours to rewrite their 

 rough notes. While I will not com- 

 mit myself by saying that the outline 

 plan is superior in all subjects of the 

 pharmacy curriculum, I do make the 

 assertion, founded on results, that this 

 plan is excellent in materia medica. 

 The only disadvantage being the omis- 

 sion of the explanatory material given 

 in the lecture. Coupling an outline 

 with brief notes on the explanatory 

 material is very near the ideal method. 

 Rules as to the taking of lecture-notes 

 and the exact details to note while the 

 lecture is in progress, cannot be given 

 for any subject or lecture. The stu- 

 dent must acquire the faculty of ob- 

 taining the essential facts and omitting 

 the words used to clothe these facts 

 and bind them into lecture form. Judg- 

 ment and intelligence can no more be 

 dispensed with in taking a lecture than 

 in any other work. A stenographer 

 may obtain the lecture word for word, 

 l)ut this method will be more of a hin- 

 drance than a help, for after transcrib- 

 mg the notes, although he will have an 

 exact record of the lecture, he must 

 now separate the facts from the words 

 used to connect them. Thus taking 

 lectures is not mere mechanical work. 

 Another point is not to allow lectures 

 to accumulate before you transcribe 

 them, do this work while the lecture is 

 fresh in mind and you will be saved 

 the trouble of wondering what some 

 of your rough notes mean. 



Considering the question of text- 

 books. Quiz-compends of the old type 

 consisting of questions and answers are 

 utterly worthless because the man who 



studies from them devotes his time to 

 learning the answer to a specific ques- 

 tion, rather than learning the subject 

 they are represented to cover. He 

 ilustrates perfectly the psychological 

 law of association. He associates a 

 certain combination of words as ques- 

 tion with another combination as an- 

 swer. Happily this form of compend 

 is losing favor with the publisher in 

 these times. The newer form of" com- 

 pend is intended as a brief outline, as 

 a condensation of the essentials and as 

 such has some value for the student. 

 The main difficulty in the use of all 

 forms of compends is that they pre- 

 suppose a knowledge of the subject 

 they are intended to cover. As under- 

 stood by the average student, the quiz- 

 compend is an easy and rapid way of 

 cramming facts to pass an examination 

 and in many cases is used as such 

 without the necessary preliminary 

 knowledge. The better plan is to con- 

 struct one's own compend. 



The larger text-books are replete 

 with facts but are intended for refer- 

 ence and cannot take the place of the 

 lecture. There is so great an amount 

 of material in these books that it is 

 difficult for the student to memorize 

 all the facts presented, more especially 

 as he has to separate those which are 

 necessary to him from those which he 

 does not need. Used as reference 

 books where one may look up facts 

 when in doubt they are, of course, in- 

 valuable. They must contain all facts 

 and details in order to be of value for 

 reference and for this very reason are, 

 to say the least, not satisfactory for 

 study unless supplemented by lecture 

 and recitation work. 



