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ON  iESTHETICAL  PHARMACY. 
ON  AESTHETIC AL  PHARMACY. 
By  Frederick  Stearns. 
The  graduate,  while  versed  in  theoretical  and  practical  phar- 
macy, as  taught  in  the  schools,  is  left  to  chance  circumstances  in 
acquiring  that  knowledge  and  those  habits  which  a  proper  pre- 
liminary understanding  of  the  commercial,  ethical  and  sesthetical 
elements  of  education  would  endow  him,  and  upon  which  his  pro- 
fessional position  in  the  community,  and  his  pecuniary  success, 
in  no  small  degree  depend. 
Commercial  education,  as  applied  to  the  tyro  in  our  trade,  is  a 
subject  fit  to  enlarge  upon  by  itself.  Ethical  education  Mr.  Par- 
rish  gave  some  valuable  hints  upon,  in  a  paper  some  years  ago 
presented  to  the  Association. 
JEsthetical  education,  a  department  worthy  of  considerable 
elaboration,  is  one  upon  which  I  propose  to  offer  the  following. 
When  we  reflect  how  naturally  the  uninformed  public  judges 
men — business  men — by  external  appearances,  it  is  obvious  that 
the  cultivation  of  good  taste,  and  an  appreciative  sense  of  the 
beautiful,  should  be  no  unimportant  element  in  pharmaceutical 
education,  and  upon  the  proper  exercise  of  which,  pecuniary  suc- 
cess, and  good  social  position  are  to  a  certain  extent  the  direct 
results. 
From  ignorance  of  aesthetics,  as  relating  to  our  art,  many 
never  reach  that  position  in  the  public  eye  which  their  real  tal- 
ents should  command,  and  of  which,  perhaps,  others  really  less 
worthy  in  every  other  sense  may  rob  them. 
I  hold  that,  as  a  business  man,  the  pharmaceutist  is  entitled  to 
the  benefits  of  all  legitimate  methods  of  enriching  himself ;  that 
he  is  not  altogether  to  be  considered  the  self-sacrificing  conserva- 
tor of  public  health,  a  pattern  of  meek  benevolence,  or  bound  to 
hold  his  light  continually  under  a  bushel  for  fear  of  violating 
professional  modesty  ;  and  because  the  quack  pharmaceutist  may, 
without  much  real  merit  or  character,  by  shrewd  business  tact, 
and  the  careful  consideration  of  the  aesthetical  in  winning  public 
favor,  gain  success,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  really  scientifically 
educated  pharmaceutist  may  not  cultivate  those  same  habits  of 
good  taste,  as  an  addition  to  his  more  solid  acquirements. 
