364  Commercial  Training  in  Pharmacy.  {Al^.ujust,imrm* 
of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  it  was  made  possible  to 
establish  an  optional  course  on  commercial  training.  This  course 
has  been  successfully  inaugurated  by  Prof.  F.  G.  Ryan,  and  so  far 
as  it  has  gone,  has  thoroughly  demonstrated  its  practicability. 
The  object  of  the  course  is  to  teach  students  in  pharmacy  simple 
methods  of  bookkeeping,  which  will  enable  the  pharmacist  to  know 
at  any  time  and  at  short  notice  whether  he  is  making  money  or 
losing  it,  proper  methods  of  drawing  checks,  drafts,  promissory 
notes  and  even  how  to  write  orders  on  wholesale  druggists  ;  in 
fact,  to  so  train  him  in  correct  and  accurate  methods,  that  when 
he  takes  a  position  or  opens  a  store  he  will  not  be  absolutely  at 
sea  in  these  most  important  particulars.  How  few  retail  druggists 
throughout  the  country  have  ever  been  systematically  instructed  in 
these  vital  details  ! 
Every  wholesale  druggist  who  has  been  made  acquainted  with 
the  plan  of  the  new  course  speaks  of  it  in  most  encouraging; 
terms.  Those  who  oppose  every  innovation  simply  because  it 
never  has  been  done  before  will,  of  course,  be  in  evidence.  One 
can  almost  anticipate  the  objections  of  the  chronic  objectors. 
"  Why  don't  the  employer  teach  assistants  bookkeeping?"  The 
answer  to  this  is,  what  percentage  of  employers  are  using  to-day 
simple,  proper  methods  of  keeping  their  books?  How  many  drug- 
gists know  at  the  end  of  the  year  how  much  money  they  have 
lost  or  made  ?  What  percentage  of  losses  are  made  in  a  year, 
through  carelessness  and  improper  methods  of  keeping  books? 
How  many  clerks  are  imbued  with  a  proper  sense  of  the  respon- 
sibility and  duty  to  their  employers,  to  accurately  record  sales  ? 
Unfortunately,  the  scientific  and  professional  pharmacist  too  often 
inherits  a  contempt  for  such  routine  work  as  bookkeeping,  and  if 
fortune  smiles  upon  such  an  one  and  business  pours  in  upon  him,  in 
spite  of  his  limitations,  does  he  not  frequently  have  to  employ  some 
bookkeeper  who  knows  nothing  of  pharmacy  and  is  good  for 
nothing  else  in  the  store  ?  And  if  the  employer  knows  nothing  of 
bookkeeping,  has  he  not  literally  turned  over  the  keys  of  his  busi- 
ness life  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy  ? 
It  is  probably,  too  much  to  expect  at  once  complete  approvaL 
of  the  ideas  which  are  advanced  in  this  paper  5  but  the  writer  sin- 
cerely trusts  that  in  the  near  future  no  college  graduate  shall  be 
permitted  to  receive  his  diploma  until  he  has  passed  a  satisfactory 
