532         The  Need  of  Practical  Information,  etc.  {A^;£B' 
pharmacy  can  be  successfully  accomplished,  degenerates  into  careless 
manipulations  and  frequently  slovenly  habits. 
My  purpose,  however,  in  this  article  is  not  to  discuss  the  methods 
of  teaching  pharmacy  so  much  as  to  call  attention  to  the  tendency 
which  perhaps  will  in  no  small  degree  account  for  the  sparcity  of 
practical  information  given  in  our  publications. 
jif  If  we  peruse  a  journal  devoted  to  mechanics,  we  do  not  find  it  filled 
entirely  with  new  inventions  and  novel  appliances.  On  the  contrary, 
while  due  attention  is  paid  to  these  subjects,  the  greater  part  is  de- 
voted to  the  development  of  new  and  improved  processes,  by  which 
familiar  results  are  more  easily  arrived  at,  by  which  complex  combi- 
nations are  simplified,  and  the  results  of  personal  experiences  of 
modes  and  methods  for  economizing  time,  labor  and  material. 
Their  principal  value  and  advantage  to  the  mechanic  is  in  the  fact 
that  he  is  made  familiar  with  the  methods  adopted  by  others,  so  that 
he  is  enabled  to  add  to  his  stock  of  knowledge  the  information  de- 
rived from  their  experience,  and  is  by  this  means  stimulated  to  addi- 
tional exertion,  so  that  he  in  turn  adds  to  the  common  stock  rather 
than  follow  in  the  beaten  track,  which  he  would  otherwise  in  all  prob- 
ability regard  as  containing  the  sum  of  all  knowledge.  But  it  may 
be  said  that  pharmacy  differs  from  the  mechanic  arts  in  that  the  one 
is  eminently  practical  while  the  other  is  not ;  but  I  answer  that,  all 
other  things  being  equal,  he  is  the  best  mechanic  who  is  the  most 
familiar  with  the  scientific  principles  involved  in  his  branch,  and  he 
is  the  best  pharmacist,  all  other  things  being  equal,  who  is  the  most 
skilful  in  the  practical  operations  involved  in  his  profession.  A  chem- 
ist is  not  of  necessity  a  pharmacist  any  more  than  a  philosopher  is  a 
mechanic. 
But  does  pharmacy  differ  so  much  from  the  mechanic  arts  as  is 
generally  supposed  ?  I  think  a  careful  view  of  the  matter  will  clearly 
demonstrate  that  there  is  no  profession  or  vocation  wherein  mechan- 
ical manipulations  and  a  knowledge  of  the  principles  involved  are  so 
thoroughly  blended  or  so  inseparable  as  that  of  the  pharmacist.  Are 
not  the  divisions  into  pills  and  powders,  triturations,  percolations, 
contusions,  suspensions,  solutions,  &c,  all  merely  mechanical  opera- 
tions in  which  practical  experience  plays  the  principal  part  as  teacher? 
Can  any  amount  of  scientific  information  impart  a  knowledge  of  di- 
viding a  given  quantity  into  any  number  of  equal  parts,  or  deter- 
mine what  degree  of  fineness  of  a  certain  article  will  best  secure  its 
