230  Pharmacy  as  a  Profession.  {AmSyr;mlrm' 
I  am  not  saying  that,  if  he  devote  himself  somewhat  to  these 
things,  he  will  thereby  come  to  the  reputation  of  a  Liebig  in 
chemistry,  or  a  Procter  in  pharmacy,  or  a  Maisch  in  his  knowledge 
of  materia  medica.  But  he  will  raise  the  standard  of  his  profession 
and  will  be  honored  individually  in  having  contributed  to  this  result. 
Nor  will  the  result  be  empty  glory. 
If  the  pharmacist  is  known  to  his  neighbors  and  to  the  medical 
profession  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact,  as  a  good  chemical 
analyst,  a  thorough  botanist  and  pharmacognocist,  and,  above  all, 
a  skilled  compounder  of  all  classes  of  official  pharmaceutical  prepa- 
rations, he  can  rest  assured  that  he  will  succeed,  if  he  has,  in  addition, 
good  common  sense.  Of  course,  all  of  these  educational  qualifica- 
tions referred  to  may  be  thrown  away  on  a  visionary,  rash  and  unprac- 
tical person. 
I  think  we  are  ready  now  to  consider  some  of  the  means  by  which 
the  standard  of  the  profession  can  be  advanced  and  some  of  the 
drawbacks  referred  to  removed. 
In  the  first  place,  we  want  a  better  foundation  to  build  profes- 
sional study  upon.  With  the  development  and  strengthening  of 
our  common  school  system  throughout  the  country,  the  liberal  and 
scientific  professions  have  been  made  accessible  to  a  much  wider 
range  of  individuals  than  was  the  case  a  generation  ago.  The  son 
of  the  poor  man  is  now  able  to  start  in  life  more  nearly  on  terms 
of  equality  with  the  sons  of  the  rich  than  was  at  one  time  the  case. 
However,  a  common  school  education  should  be  carried  beyond  the 
secondary  school  stage  to  enable  a  young  man  to  appreciate  the 
work  put  before  him  in  coming  to  a  college  of  pharmacy.  Defi 
ciencies  in  this  preliminary  education  make  it  necessary -for  him  to 
lose  much  valuable  time  in  learning  how  to  study  and  in  developing 
his  powers  of  observation  and  reasoning  on  experimental  results. 
This  is  not  a  condition  of  things  without  precedent  in  other  pro- 
fessions. The  medical  profession  was,  and  is  to  some  extent  yet,  in 
a  far  worse  condition.  The  young  men  beginning  the  study  of 
medicine  in  many  cases  were  not  any  better  prepared  to  begin  a 
professional  study  in  a  proper  way,  and,  indeed,  had  less  qualifi- 
cations, as  the  year  or  two  of  shop  practice  which  our  students 
almost  invariably  have  before  coming  to  a  college  of  pharmacy  has 
been  an  introduction  to  the  manipulation  work  of  the  laboratories. 
How  did  the  better  class  of  medical  schools  meet  this  deficiency  ? 
