102         Standards  in  Pharmaceutical  Education.    { AlVa?ch,i907.!m' 
Not  only  are  these  two  classes  of  standards  being  considered  by  the 
teaching  bodies  themselves,  but  also  by  the  boards  of  pharmacy, 
and  with  the  enactment  of  laws  in  various  States  it  will  now  be 
possible  for  more  or  less  concerted  action  to  be  taken  throughout  the 
United  States. 
PRELIMINARY  REQUIREMENTS. 
Our  system  of  popular  education  is  the  boast  of  our  country,  and 
well  may  it  be,  for  it  has  been  making  steady  advances  during  all 
the  years  of  our  national  existence.  At  the  present  time  the 
facilities  for  instruction  and  the  opportunities  for  obtaining  a  good 
general  education  are  so  ample  that  it  seems  hardly  credible  that 
any  one  who  is  desirous  of  obtaining  an  education  should  fail 
in  the  attempt. 
It  follows  logically  that  as  the  standard  of  general  education  is 
advanced,  the  standards  in  colleges,  technical  schools  and  universities 
will  also  be  advanced,  and  thus  we  find  to-day  that  the  majority  of 
these  institutions  are  not  only  constantly  improving  their  curricula 
but  they  are  seeing  to  it  that  those  who  go  to  them  for  instruction  are 
qualified  to  pursue  the  prescribed  line  of  studies.  The  only  wonder 
is  that  the  entrance  standards  in  some  of  the  professional  schools 
have  not  been  advanced  more  rapidly  than  they  have,  for  in  no 
other  way  have  they  been  more  handicapped  than  in  this. 
It  is  true  there  may  be  some  parts  of  our  country  where  the 
opportunities  for  obtaining  an  education  are  more  or  less  limited, 
but  this  is  no  argument  why  those  in  the  vanguard  should  stop  in 
their  course  and  wait  for  the  center  of  population  to  shift  a  few 
hundred  miles.  We  know  that  in  Alaska  and  the  Philippines  the 
means  for  education  are  not  so  ample  as  they  are  with  us,  but  we 
are  not  thinking  of  stopping  to  wait  for  those  countries.  On  the 
contrary  they  desire  us  to  go  ahead  and  they  will  follow  as  rapidly 
as  possible.  And  so  if  the  youths  of  the  country  districts  of  Iowa, 
or  Kansas,  or  Missouri  have  not,  as  is  claimed  by  some,  the  oppor- 
tunity for  obtaining  a  high-school  education,  is  that  any  reason  why 
those  in  Ohio,  or  Michigan,  or  Pennsylvania  should  be  excused  for 
neglecting  theirs?    No,  this  is  not  the  way  of  progress. 
If  there  are  any  two  professions  or  callings  where  the  unfit  should 
be  culled  out  more  than  in  others,  it  is  in  those  of  medicine  and 
pharmacy.   These  are  the  professions  calling  for  the  highest  type  of 
