24  Higher  Education  in  Pharmacy.     {Aljanuary  ^f™' 
factors  are  there  which  will  determine  the  ultimate  success  or  failure 
of  higher  education  in  pharmacy  ?  No  one  person  should  be  so  bold 
as  to  attempt  to  answer  this  question  outright.  Innumerable  fac- 
tors enter  into  the  solution  of  a  problem  of  this  sort,  and  in  any  one 
discussion  it  seems  best  to  center  all  of  one's  thought  and  energy 
on  a  single  phase,  seeking  to  make  this  clear.  I  shall,  then,  in  what 
follows  attempt  to  review  in  another  light  a  point  of  view  which  I 
have  expressed  several  times  before  and  which  seems  to  me  to  be 
fundamental  in  any  consideration  of  the  future  growth  and  success- 
ful development  of  pharmacy. 
The  point  to  which  I  desire  to  invite  your  attention  may  be 
briefly  put  in  this  way.  In  proportion  as  we  increase  our  educational 
requirements,  we  must  also  increase  the  unity  and  stability  of  our 
professional  life.  There  must  be,  in  other  words,  something  worth 
while  for  the  prospective  pharmacist  to  look  forward  to  when  he 
graduates.  The  business  prospects  in  pharmacy,  which  are,  to  be 
sure,  very  important,  we  may  leave  out  of  consideration  for  the  mo- 
ment, since  they  enter  only  indirectly  into  a  consideration  of  unity 
and  stability  in  the  sense  in  which  we  are  using  these  terms. 
We  may  admit  at  the  outset  that  we  do  have  a  kind  of  unity, 
this  largely,  however,  in  the  sense  that  most  of  us  work  in,  manage 
or  own  retail  drug  stores,  and  therefore  have  economic  interests  in 
common.  This  type,  however,  will  not  suffice  for  us.  Carpenters, 
plumbers  and  members  of  all  of  the  trades  have  more  of  it  than  we 
have.  It  aims  at  mutual  protection  almost  entirely,  and  nothing  but 
that.  We  need  economic  cooperation,  to  be  sure,  but  we  need  even 
more  a  unity  zvhich  makes  us  feel  and  act  as  if  we  zuere  members  of 
a  really  permanent  profession.  The  lack  of  this  continually  robs  us 
of  our  real  strength  and  makes  many  smile  at  the  mere  mention  of 
such  a  thing  as  a  professional  side  to  pharmacy.  We  must  build 
up  and  strengthen  the  professional  side  of  our  work  if  we  hope  to 
continue  to  enforce  rigid  requirements  for  admission  to  practice. 
What  else  can  there  be  for  the  young  man  who  is  about  to  enter  our 
ranks  ?  Certainly  not  financial  rewards,  surely  not  an  easy  life.  He 
must  receive  compensation  in  part,  at  least,  from  a  consciousness 
that  he  is  a  member  of  a  calling  which  enjoys  the  esteem  and  respect 
of  the  public  as  well  as  of  the  other  professions.  Only  on  such 
terms  will  he  be  willing  to  spend  the  time,  money  and  energy  which 
are  needed  in  order  to  fit  him  for  his  work. 
While  it  is  impossible  in  any  one  statement  to  speak  the  literal 
