392 
PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE 
The  picture  would  discourage  all  but  the  earnest  ones  who,  seeing  beyond  pre- 
sent inconveniences  and  annoyances,  aim  at  the  highest  qualification.  To  these 
the  apothecary's  store,  with  all  its  petty  details  and  trials,  its  busy  days  and 
tedious  evenings,  affords  a  field  rich  in  the  produce  it  yields  to  the  unremitting 
exertions  of  the  earnest  student ;  as  with  Scheele  and  Davy  so  with  many  an 
one  in  our  day.  World-renowned  celebrity  will  cling  to  names  unsuspected  of 
greatness,  the  early  efforts  of  whose  possessors  are  now  confined  to  the  narrow 
limits  of  the  shop. 
It  is  a  misfortune  to  many  that  an  idea  of  the  lucrativeness  of  the  apothecary 
business  has  long  since  obtained  popular  credence  ;  and  often  the  fond  parent, 
anxious  that  his  boy  should  be  started  on  the  road  to  fortune,  has  unwittingly 
doomed  him  to  an  unhappy  companionship  with  the  pestle  and  mortar,  when  in 
the  counting  room  of  the  merchant  or  the  workshop  of  the  machinist  he  might 
have  attained  to  their  desires. 
The  numerous  instances  of  individuals  in  other  callings  who  have  commenced 
as  apothecaries,  bear  ample  testimony  to  the  truth  of  this  statement,  and  are  a 
speaking  caution  to  all  concerned,  that  the  fitness  of  boys  for  pharmaceutical 
pursuits  should  be  ascertained  before  placing  them  with  apothecaries. 
The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  sustaining  schools  of  pharmacy  will  here,  as  in 
Europe,  confine  them  to  large  cities,  where  the  number  of  students  and  the  acces- 
sories to  study  are  numerous.  Slow  but  regular  currents  will  circulate  between 
these  and  distant  towns,  and  their  Graduates,  in  seeking  spheres  of  action,  will 
carry  back  with  them  the  principles  they  imbibe,  and  thus  act  as  examples  to 
their  less  favored  brethren,  altogether  advantageous  to  the  public  weal.  The 
vast  importance,  therefore,  of  good  schools  of  pharmacy,  where  the  sciences 
pertaining  to  our  art  are  regularly  taught,  is  so  evident,  that  this  Association 
freely  extends  its  countenance  and  encouragement  to  those  already  existing,  and 
to  all  new  efforts,  claiming  for  them  the  patronage  they  deserve. 
Such  are  some  of  the  more  prominent  points  at  issue  in  the  educational  reform 
so  greatly  needed  in  the  pharmaceutical  body  of  the  United  States.  If  the  incu- 
bus of  quackery  was  removed,  a  general  feeling  of  the  necessity  of  better  means 
of  pharmaceutical  education  excited,  and  a  strong  chain  of  associations,  linked 
together  by  fraternal  feeling,  established,  the  prospects  of  American  Pharmacy 
would  be  flattering  indeed.  The  most  sanguine  believers  in  progress  do  not  ex- 
pect a  sudden  reformation;  but  there  are  many  who  look  with  strong  faith  and 
much  interest  to  the  silent  influence  of  a  better  education  in  working  a  change 
among  the  individuals  of  the  profession,  and  it  is  the  earnest  hope  of  this  Asso- 
ciation that  the  bints  now  offered  in  this  address  will  not  be  lost,  but  that  many 
a  brother,  in  his  distant  unpretending  scene  of  action,  will  be  induced  to  raise  his 
standing  and  usefulness  by  personal  exertions,  and  become  a  light  to  his  brethren 
and  a  boon  to  his  neighborhood. 
The  fifth  document  accompanying  the  report,  relative  to  the 
expediency  of  seeking  Congressional  action  in  reference  to  the 
appointment  of  drug  examiners,  was  read  and  accepted.  The 
committee  observe  that  "  in  view  of  the  partizan  character  of 
political  appointments,  and  the  little  dependence  that  can  be 
placed  on  the  judgment  of  the  appointing  power  in  cases  like 
the  one  under  consideration,  it  will  be  inexpedient  to  make  any 
application  to  Congress  until  such  time  as  the  drug  law  itself 
may  require  a  general  change  or  reenactment,  when  a  clause 
might  be  inserted  making  it  obligatory  on  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  to  appoint  fully  qualified  pharmaceutists,"  in  lieu  of 
