362  Commercial  Training  in  Pharmacy.  {AmAugu8t,Fmrm' 
could  give  him  ;  arid  even  to  this  day  men  can  be  found  who  use 
the  same  talk.  Many  a  poor  student  in  the  past  has  been  com- 
pelled to  earn  every  penny  for  his  college  education,  and  has  suc- 
ceeded, in  spite  of  enormous  drawbacks  and  hindrances ;  but  the 
colleges  steadily  continued  their  work,  becoming  stronger  every 
year  and  succeeded  in  spite  of  the  most  dire  prophecies  of  disaster 
and  failure. 
Nearly  every  advance  was  met  with  determined  opposition,  and 
how  sad  is  it  to  hear  the  wail  of  some  old  rule-of-the-thumb  drug- 
gist, who  has  discovered,  late  in  life,  that  all  along  he  had  been  on 
the  wrong  side,  and  many  an  honest  opponent  has  confessed  to  the 
writer  in  language  something  like  this  : 
"  If,  when  I  was  a  young  man,  I  could  have  foreseen  the  value 
of  an  education,  and  could  have  begged  or  borrowed  the  money  to 
go  to  college,  I  would  have  done  so  and  have  been  saved  years  and 
years  of  toil,  and  what  has  taken  me  a  long  time  to  learn  through 
the  happenings  of  experience  I  could  have  acquired  in  two  years 
of  training.  Naturally,  I  do  not  want  to  admit  that  I  do  not  know 
my  business.  I  can't  acknowledge  that  these  young  fellows  just 
out  of  college  know  as  much  as  I  do.  I  cannot  afford  to  do  it,  and 
in  some  things  they  do  not  know  as  much  as  I  do ;  but  I  have  seen 
to  it  that  my  son  has  not  been  deprived  of  the  advantages  which 
I  threw  away,  and  I  sent  him  to  the  best  college  that  I  could  find. 
But  then,  the  colleges  in  my  day  were  small  affairs,  and  the  systems 
of  instruction  imperfect ;  but  I  must  say  there  are  some  things 
taught  in  the  colleges  which  I  have  no  use  for.  The  point  that  I 
see  clearly  is  that  those  early  years  of  one's  life,  when  the  mind  is 
receptive,  and  accustomed  to  study  (having  just  come  from  school), 
are  the  least  valuable  years  in  a  man's  business  life,  and  then  is  the 
time  when  the  foundation  can  be  laid  strong,  sure  and  deep." 
The  writer  has  no  desire  to  dwell  upon  this  aspect,  for  it  has  its 
pathetic  side,  and  happily,  education  is  rapidly  working  a  cure. 
Now,  if  this  presents  a  true  picture  of  the  past,  is  it  not  true  that 
the  same  reasoning  is  equally  applicable  to  branches  of  pharmaceu- 
tical instruction  other  than  those  recognized  as  theoretical,  or 
knowledge  obtained  through  the  study  of  books  ?  The  answer  to 
this  is  found  in  the  magnificent  equipment  of  our  laboratories  in  the 
colleges,  and  the  great  strides  made  in  practical  teaching  in  our 
universities  and  technical  schools. 
