424 
A  Prerequisite  Lazv. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I  September,  1904. 
country  has  developed,  and  it  has  been  fully  realized  that  education 
rules  the  Republic,  active  opposition  has  almost  entirely  ceased. 
Our  pharmacy  laws,  which  were  at  first  administered  with  the  great- 
est leniency,  have  grown  to  be  serviceable  as  a  protection  to  the 
public  against  incompetency,  through  the  examinations,  which  have 
grown  in  length  and  stringency,  until  now  it  is  an  exception  to  the 
rule  to  find  a  majority  ot  the  applicants  passing  the  examinations. 
With  experience  has  come  deeper  knowledge.  At  last,  but  few 
men  will  be  found  who  will  say  truthfully  that  they  believe  that  a 
college  education  is  of  no  value  to  a  drug  clerk.  The  colleges  of 
pharmacy  have  had  a  long  struggle,  but  have  persistently  held  to 
their  course,  and  the  tardy  recognition  which  now  seems  to  be  in 
sight  has  been  won  through  honest,  earnest  labor. 
The  pharmacist  must  be  a  professional  man  as  well  as  a  business 
man.  The  commercial  side  of  pharmacy  has  been  enormously  ad- 
vanced within  the  past  few  years  through  the  organized  effort  of 
able  leaders.  This  improvement  was  badly  needed.  The  retail 
druggist,  a  few  years  ago,  was  at  the  mercy  of  any  combination  ot 
men  vastly  his  inferiors  in  intellectual  attainments.  The  pharma- 
cists of  to-day  are  respected  because  they  have  shown  manliness, 
and  above  all,  a  power  of  cohesion  and  ability  to  stand  together 
which  has  surprised  the  business  world.  Ten  years  ago  pettiness, 
distrust,  jealousy  and  ignorance  of  business  principles  were  the 
rule.  Forced,  at  last,  almost  into  bankruptcy  by  organized  bodies 
who  reaped  advantage  from  the  lack  of  the  business  abilities  of  the 
retail  druggists,  the  latter,  roused  from  their  comatose  and  terror- 
stricken  condition,  at  once  buckled  on  their  armor,  and,  led  by  able 
commanders,  soon  demonstrated  that  they  were  men,  and  it  only  re- 
mains for  them  to  heed  wise  counsels  and  march  forward  to  continued 
victories. 
But  while  this  has  been  going  on,  the  professional  side  has  been 
neglected,  or  it  would  probably  be  best  to  say,  crowded  out  by  the 
immediate  necessities  of  the  commercial  renaissance,  and  the  author 
of  the  above  query  was  evidently  conscious  of  these  facts,  for  it 
begins,  "  Is  it  not  time  that  graduation  from  a  college,  etc."  It  is  a 
grievous  mistake  to  believe  that  the  professional  side  of  pharmacy 
is  antagonistic  to  the  commercial  side.  One  supplements  and  helps 
the  other.  A  professional  pharmacist  who  neglects  commercial 
training  runs  the  risk  of  having  no  opportunity  of  practicing  phar- 
