SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No. 537 



speak so slightingly of the value of a photograph of the bank 

 showing it as it actually was soon after the discovery, when 

 he has himself given two fancy sketches, representing an 

 impossible condition of things, to inform us how he thinks 

 it might have been. The photograph of the bank taken by Mr. 

 Mills, within six months of the time of his discovery, ex- 

 hibits its face intact, and is a part of the evidence presented 

 as to what was the actual condition of the gravel when the 

 discovery was made. The haste with which Mr. Holmes has 

 plunged into this discTjssion is shown by his statement on a pre- 

 vious page that Sir. Mills had "published nothing save through 

 Professor Wright." The report of the Western Reserve Historical 

 Society referred to by Mr. Holmes is entitled a report "by Mr. 

 Mills and Professor Wright," and the specific account of the dis- 

 covery is given in Mr. Mills's own words, in which he says that 

 when a space of about six feet in length by two in height fell 

 down, it exposed the specimen to view. It is true that that state- 

 ment is not so explicit as it should have been, and I have given, 

 in the Popular Science Monthly, the fuller details as given to us 

 upon the spot, and as repeated two or three times to me in cori-es- 

 pondence, namely, that the implement was seen by him pro- 

 jecting from the face of the gravel bank after the fall of gravel 

 before referred to, and when the edges of the strata of gravel were 

 all visible and undisturbed, and that he took it out with his own 

 hands; or, if you want to avoid all error, that he worked it loose 

 with his walking-cane until it fell out at his feet, when he took 

 it up, made his notes upon it, and put it in his collection. Mr. 

 Mills is as capable of drawing a section of the bank as Mr. Holmes 

 is, and that he has done, but rhost readers will prefer to see a 

 photograph, in which there is no danger of the incorporation of 

 fanciful elements. 



In view of all that Mr. Holmes has said of the importance of 

 expert testimony, it is difficult to see, also, why he should say 

 that observations upon Mr. Mills's moral character, education, and 

 business reputation may not diminish the danger of error in such 

 a case; for how else can you determine the value of an expert's 

 testimony ? If there is doubt about his moral character, that of 

 course vitiates the evidence in a high degree. So, also, if there 

 is doubt about his ability to discern the difference between dis- 

 turbed and undisturbed gravel in such a situation, that would 

 largely vitiate the observations. But Mr. Mills's education and 

 habits of observation are such that his evidence in so clear a case 

 as this is, is as good as that of any expert could be. What does 

 Mr. Holmes suppose led Judge Baldwin and the other members of 

 the Western Reserve Historical Society to incur the trouble and 

 expense of going down to Newcomerstown, except it was to in- 

 form themselves of the capacity of Mr. Mills to bear testimony to 

 the very points at issue? Of course, we cannot force conviction 

 upon the minds of the public, but we can get the facts of the 

 situation and the conditions under which the evidence was given 

 with all possible clearness before them. If any portion of the 

 reading public chances to be in the attitude of mind in which Mr. 

 Holmes asserts he is in when he says he does not care for a pho- 

 tograph of the bank, and does not care to know anything about 

 the moral character and education of the witness, and that he is 

 sure that Professor Wright cannot possibly secure a proper 

 authentication of the facts, it will be a difficult matter to over- 

 come the prejudice with which the subject is ai^proached. But 

 the number who are biassed to such an extent and are the sub- 

 jects of such " invincible ignorance " is, I presume, not numerous. 



Of course, I do'not deny that there are things so improbable 

 that they could not be established by any amount of human testi- 

 mony. It is more likely that the senses should be deceived in 

 some cases than that the things which seem to happen should 

 really occur. But this is not a case of that sort. The existence 

 of glacial man is not a highly improbable thing, and this evidence 

 of Mr. Mills is in analogy with a vast amount of other evidence 

 leading to a similar conclusion. There is nothing in the character 

 of the implement, in the conditions under which it is reported to 

 have been found, or in the testimony i^resented, to raise any 

 serious suspicion of error. The fact that Mi. Mills was not 

 specially impressed by the importance of the discovery at the 

 time is not at all surprising, since his thought had been little di- 



rected to the phase of the subject involved in his discovery. He 

 had in his collection thousands of other implements found upon 

 the surface, and, after making note of the circumstances con- 

 nected with the finding of this, it was laid with them. 



In conclusion, I would simply add that in procuring, as I have 

 done during the past season, some sections of the gravel in undis- 

 turbed condition for the exhibit at Chicago, I have had ample 

 opportunity to study its behavior, both when it is in place and 

 when it is in a recently formed talus, and, in reply to Mr. Holmes's 

 assertion that it is impossible to tell whether Mr. Mills found this 

 in the undisturbed strata or in the talus, I would say that the ob- 

 server who could not tell the difference would be one whose testi- 

 mony was utterly unworthy of consideration. While I am about 

 it, also, I might as well refer to the fact that there is a slight dis- 

 crepancy, which may attract the attention of some, both in my 

 own and in Mr. Mills's statements about the depth at which the im- 

 plement was found. In "Man and the Glacial Period" I say, that 

 it was siajieen feet. In my original report upon it, J saj fifteen 

 feet. In the more specific details given in the Popular Science 

 Monthly I say fourteen and three-fourths feet, and Mr. Mills has 

 sometimes spoken of it as fifteen feet and sometimes as fourteen 

 and three-fourths feet. It is easy enough to see why both of us 

 should say fifteen feet, for that is a round number, but not so 

 easy to see why in one place I should have said sixteen feet. But 

 the discrepancy is not one that materially affects the evidence. 

 I presume, therefore, that my error arose from the principle of 

 assimilation with which we are so familiar in the textual criticism 

 of the New Testament. In the appendix to the third edition of 

 my " Ice Age in North America," I give it as fifteen feet. But in 

 writing the paragraphs in the later book, I had just had occasion 

 to speak of one of Dr. Abbott's discoveries which was sixiteen feet 

 below the surface, and the close association of the two in my 

 mind doubtless led to the substitution, and, since there was 

 nothing specially dependent upon it, the discrepancy being so 

 slight, my attention was not aroused through all the subsequent 

 proof-readings. 



PHARMACEUTICAL EDUCATION. 



BY HENRY KRAEMER, COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OP THE CITY OF NEW 

 YORK. 



DtTRiNG the past year a number of papers have appeared in 

 Sciewce demonstrating the "onward march" of institutions of 

 the highest learning, as well as that of professional and technical 

 schools in America. The one cry to be heard all along the line 

 is to raise the standard. The requirements for a preliminary 

 education have been markedly increased and the courses of 

 studies materially lengthened both as to the number of hours re- 

 quired per week and the years of study. In our colleges of phar- 

 macy there have been a similar awakening and a desire to extend 

 the course from two to three years. It may be well, however, 

 at this point to state for the benefit of those who are unfamiliar 

 with the requirements of our best colleges of pharmacy, that be- 

 fore a diploma is granted the student must have been engaged in 

 the drug business for a period not less than three and one-half 

 or four years. This means practically an apprenticeship of six 

 years, although a great many students find it necessary to work 

 in drugstores while attending colleges. 



The teachers of pharmacy have for a number of years been dis- 

 cussing ways by which students will be compelled to devote all 

 of their time to college work dui-ing the sessions of study. Yet 

 while they claim that students should not be employed as clerks 

 in the stores and at the same time attend college, the employers 

 are opposed to the students devoting so much of their time to 

 college work during the winter session. There has been more or 

 less of a compromise, but nevertheless colleges of pharmacy are 

 raising their standard as are the other schools of learning, and it is 

 very probable that, in a few years, three solid sessions of undi- 

 vided work as well as fours years' apprenticeship will be required 

 before a candidate shall receive his or her degree. 



The position of the pharmacist is a peculiar one. He, in the 

 majority of cases, does not make his living by means of his actual 

 business in medicines and prescriptions. He finds it necessary to 



