Am.  Jour.  IMiaiui. 
Jan.,  1885. 
Advances  in  Instruction. 
9 
words  of  the  text-book  were  used  verbatim  et  literatim.  Questions  are 
framed  which  compel  the  student  to  use  his  own  words  and  do  his  own 
thinking,  and  he  is  thus  trained  for  subsequent  examinations  to  expect 
such  questions,  and  this  is  a  direct  incentive  to  original  thought.  At 
every  step  in  a  process  he  is  trained  to  ask  himself  the  question  :  why 
is  this?  This  method  of  instruction  led  to  the  establishment  of  a  plan 
for  auxiliary  instruction,  which  has  been  one  of  the  most  valuable 
advances  that  this  College  ever  instituted ;  i.  e.,  the  appointment  of 
competent  assistants  to  the  professors  to  act  as  quiz  masters ;  these 
gentlemen  meet  the  classes  immediately  after  the  lectures  and  system- 
atically ask  the  members  of  the  class,  questions  upon  the  subjects  of  the 
lectures  delivered  by  the  professors,  and  the  great  value  of  hearing 
the  facts  of  a  subject  repeated  in  a  different  way,  from  different  lips  a 
week  after  the  lecture  was  delivered,  and  following  the  necessary  indi- 
vidual study  of  the  subject,  fixes  the  facts  upon  the  mind  of  the  student 
ambitious  to  obtain  knowledge,  in  a  Avay  which  will  be  of  lasting  value 
to  him  in  after  life. 
Every  effort  is  made  to  break  up  the  pernicious  system  of  cram- 
ming for  examination"  and  it  is  impossible  for  a  student  to  obtain  a 
good  record,  who  is  a  mere  memorizing  machine;  the  subjects  must  be 
comprehended  in  order  to  win  the  coveted  prizes.  As  it  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  the  student,  and  to  the  best  interests  of  the  Col- 
lege for  the  applicant  to  know  just  exactly  what  is  expected  of  him  in 
the  outset  of  his  collegiate  course,  it  was  deemed  far  better  to  take  a 
longer  time  than  is  usually  given  to  preliminaiy  examinations,  Jlnd  in 
order  to  thoroughly  and  properly  test  the  student's  fitness  to  become  a 
pharmacist,  he  is  first  given  the  opportunity  of  listening  to  two  months 
lectures;  during  this  time  he  becomes  acquainted  with  the  distinctive 
method  of  instruction  adopted  by  the  Faculty,  and  is  then  subjected  to 
an  examination.  This  ^^preliminary  junior  examination^^  is  so  con- 
ducted that  the  scholarship  of  the  student  is  ascertained  at  the  same 
time  that  his  ability  to  master  the  subjects  that  he  is  expected  to  grasp 
is.  His  arithmetic,  orthography,  grammar,  powers  of  composition  and 
expression,  penmanship,  etc.,  exhibited  in  the  answers  to  his  questions 
and  grouped  under  the  heading  "  scholarship,"  determines  the  candi- 
date's fitness  to  pursue  his  studies,  if  he  has  shown  a  deficiency  in  schol- 
arship he  is  not  permitted  to  take  the  next  examination,  but  must  make 
up  his  deficiencies  and  be  re-examined  at  some  future  time,  at  least  a 
year  afterwards. 
