Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
August,  1904.  j 
Entrance  Requirements. 
367 
But  suppose  that  only  a  limited  number  of  colleges,  now  members 
of  the  Conference  of  Pharmaceutical  Faculties,  should  be  willing  to 
adopt  this  plan,  what  would  be  the  result  ?  If  these  colleges  were 
among  the  smaller  and  less  known  institutions,  the  plan  would 
probably  be  a  failure,  though  that  is  by  no  means  certain.  Speaking 
for  one  of  these  smaller  colleges  in  a  remote  portion  of  the  country 
that  has  already  made  a  beginning  in  the  line  here  indicated,  I  would 
say  that  it  is  my  impression  that  up  to  the  present  time  our  college 
has  gained  rather  than  lost  by  our  advanced  entrance  requirements. 
We  lost  heavily  for  two  years,  but  since  that  we  have  regained  our 
attendance  in  the  face  of  a  competition  as  great  as  that  in  any  part 
of  the  United  States ;  for  we  have  five  college*  of  pharmacy  on  the 
Pacific  Coast,  with  an  aggregate  population,  between  British  Colum- 
bia and  Mexico,  of  only  two  millions  and  a  half,  and  the  others  all 
admit  on  lower  entrance  qualifications  than  ours. 
But  if  a  few  of  the  larger  colleges,  with  their  ample  resources, 
their  grand  history  and  magnificent  prestige,  their  eminent  faculty 
and  ample  equipment,  should  adopt,  at  a  very  early  date,  high  school 
entrance  requirements,  they  would  loom  up  head  and  shoulders 
above  those  who  threw  their  doors  open  to  practically  all  comers, 
and  it  would  not  be  many  years  before  the  more  lax  colleges  would 
find  it  to  their  interest  to  fall  into  line. 
I  almost  feel  like  apologizing  to  the  readers  of  the  American 
Journal  of  Pharmacy  and  the  pharmacists  of  America  for  what  has, 
thus  far,  been  written,  because  I  have  treated  the  whole  matter  as  if 
it  were  a  commercial  one.  I  have  sought  to  show  that  the  change 
indicated  can  be  made  without  financial  loss.  I  now  go  further  and 
say  that  it  ought  to  be  made,  even  if  it  does  involve  financial  loss. 
We  took  that  position  several  years  ago  in  our  own  school  and  bore 
our  loss  bravely,  not  knowing  whether  we  should  ever  recoup  our- 
selves. These  strong  financial  institutions  are  vastly  better  able  to 
make  this  experiment  than  we  were.  In  the  world's  history  few 
reforms  of  real  value  have  been  attained  without  sacrifice.  Let  the 
colleges  of  pharmacy  show  that  they  have  the  reformer's  spirit,  and 
are  willing  to  do  what  they  know  would  be  best,  even  if  it  should 
entail  upon  them  some  financial  loss.  Such  a  position  as  I  now 
advocate,  taken  by  four  or  five  of  the  largest  colleges,  would,  I  feel 
sure,  result  in  such  a  large  measure  of  success  that  they  would,  for- 
ever afterwards,  congratulate  themselves  on  the  position  they  had 
taken. 
