Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
September,  1904.  j 
Correspondence. 
447 
the  next  meeting  of  the  Conference  of  Pharmaceutical  Faculties, 
at  Kansas  City,  in  September,  the  editor  of  this  Journal  invited 
the  attention  of  various  teachers  in  pharmaceutical  schools  and  col- 
leges to  a  paper  by  Prof.  W.  M.  Searby  in  the  August  issue  of  this 
Journal,  and  asked  them  to  discuss  the  subject.  The  time  seems 
ripe  for  the  discussion  of  this  fundamental  problem  in  pharmaceuti- 
cal education,  and  it  is  hoped  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when 
concerted  action  on  this  question  can  be  taken,  not  only  by  schools 
of  pharmacy  but  by  boards  of  pharmacy  as  well. 
The  following  are  the  replies  which  have  been  received  : 
August  5,  1904. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  : 
Referring  to  the  article  in  the  August  issue  of  your  Journal, 
written  by  Prof.  W.  M.  Searby,  concerning  entrance  requirements  in 
schools  of  Pharmacy,  I  wish  to  say  this : 
High-school  graduation  or  its  equivalent  cannot  be  made  an 
entrance  requirement  of  schools  of  pharmacy  without  the  aid  of  the 
boards  of  pharmacy.  A  great  majority  of  the  students  that  attend 
the  pharmaceutical  schools  come  from  the  drug  stores.  The  young 
men  that  enter  the  drug-stores  are  not  high-school  graduates,  and 
they  never  will  be  until  the  boards  of  pharmacy,  in  their  wisdom, 
insist  upon  it. 
I  believe  that  of  the  apprentices  in  the  drug- stores  only  a  small 
proportion  have  more  than  a  grammar-school  education.  Surely 
the  better  educated  among  those  boys  are  the  ones  who  go  to  the 
pharmaceutical  schools,  and  only  a  very  small  proportion  of  those 
who  go  to  the  pharmaceutical  schools  in  general  seem  to  attend 
those  schools  that  require  high-school  graduation  or  its  equivalent 
as  a  condition  of  entrance.  The  great  bulk  of  the  college  students 
of  pharmacy  evidently  attend  the  schools  that  have  not  yet  estab- 
lished any  higher  entrance  requirements  than  the  education  neces- 
sary for  admission  to  the  high  school. 
This  question  has  been  discussed  in  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association  and  the  pharmaceutical  journals  for  fifty  years,  and  a 
further  discussion  of  it  will  certainly  continue  to  be  fruitless  unless 
it  takes  a  new  direction.  I  am  decidedly  of  the  opinion  that  when- 
ever the  boards  of  pharmacy  conclude  that  high-school  graduation 
is  one  of  the  necessary  qualifications  of  pharmacists,  all  the  pharma- 
