444  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  {AmAjgustFiSm' 
member  of  the  committee.  A  report  was  presented  by  the  committee  on  the 
chairman's  address,  and  some  rules  were  adopted  regulating  the  order  of  busi- 
ness.  The  Section  then  adjourned. 
Section  on  Pharmaceutical  Education. — The  chairman,  Prof.  Bedford,  presided, 
and  Prof.  A.  B.  Stevens  was  appointed  secretary.  In  the  chairman's  address 
the  necessity  of  pharmaceutical  education  was  dwelled  upon,  and  that  this  is 
recognized  was  shown  by  the  number  of  educational  institutions,  there  being 
20  colleges  and  12  schools  of  pharmacy  located  in  17  states,  the  District  of  Col- 
umbia and  Canada  ;  also  by  the  legislation  regulating  the  practice  of  pharmacy, 
33  of  the  states  and  the  District  of  Columbia  having  pharmacy  laws,  while  one 
(Maryland)  had  a  local  law,  and  the  remaining  14  states  and  territories  were 
still  without  legal  enactments  on  the  practice  of  pharmacy.  The  number  of 
graduates  in  pharmacy  actually  engaged  in  the  business  was  estimated  at 
4000 ;  about  2000  are  supposed  to  have  attended  instruction  without  graduating, 
while  the  total  number  of  stores  where  medicines  are  sold  or  dispensed,  was 
estimated  to  be  38,000,  with  fully  75,000  persons  engaged  in  them.  The  total 
attendance  at  the  pharmaceutical  institutions  during  the  past  year  was  about 
2700  only.  Beading  alone,  it  was  stated,  would  never  give  the  kind  of  infor- 
mation usually  retained  ;  the  lectures,  instructions,  laboratories  and  museums 
of  the  colleges  bring  together  that  which  the  student  cannot  otherwise  procure, 
and  for  which  the  expense  to  him  is  but  trifling  compared  to  the  benefit  he 
may  derive  if  he  will.  Among  the  subjects  for  consideration  the  chairman  sug- 
gested are  the  following  :  1.  What  is  the  duty  of  the  fraternity  towards  our  ed- 
ucational institutions  ?  2.  What  suggestions  can  be  advanced  to  better  the 
methods  of  teaching  at  present  employed?  3.  What  can  be  done  to  secure 
more  interest  in,  and  larger  classes  for  educational  advantages  ? 
The  Committee  on  preliminary  examinations  presented  a  report  which  was 
well  received.  The  report  argued  that  the  colleges  were  designed  to  do  the 
greatest  good  to  the  largest  number  ;  that  in  the  admission  of  students  a  mid- 
dle course  must  be  pursued  ;  that  many  youths  enter  the  drug  business  from 
sheer  listlessness  or  without  proper  conception  of  the  intellectual  capacity  and 
mental  training  necessary  ;  that  the  proprietors  of  stores  are  largely  responsi- 
ble for  taking  learners  without  sufficient  inquiry  into  their  scholarship  ;  that 
the  educational  qualifications  exacted  of  apprentices  are  closely  allied  to  those 
exacted  for  admission  to  the  colleges,  and  that  it  is  much  easier  to  exact  con- 
ditions before  a  youth  enters  upon  his  apprenticeship,  than  several  years  after- 
wards.  The  recommendations  of  the  report  were  : 
1.  That  this  association  recommend  its  members  and  all  others  in  the  retail 
drug  business  to  refuse  to  take  into  their  employ  as  apprentices  or  learners  any 
boys  or  young  men  who  have  not  been  graduated  from  a  grammar  school  of 
their  respective  states,  or  who  do  not  present  evidence  of  having  received  an 
education  equal  to  that  required  for  such  graduation. 
2.  That  colleges  of  pharmacy  demand  as  a  condition  to  entrance  upon  their 
courses  of  instruction  a  certificate  of  graduation  from  a  State  grammar  school, 
or  from  an  institution  whose  course  of  instruction  is  known  to  them  to  equal 
that  of  the  State  grammar  schools,  and  whose  requirements  for  graduation  are 
not  less  stringent. 
3.  That  irrespective  of  the  possession  of  a  diploma  from  a  grammar  school, 
all  applicants  be  examined  in  the  following  branches:  English  composition, 
percentage,  proportion  and  rudimentary  Latin.  (This  recommendation  is  made 
because  of  the  differences  in  the  courses  of  instruction  in  the  public  schools  in 
