THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
FEBRUARY,  1885. 
THE  ADVANTAGE  OF  PRELIMINARY  EXAMINATION 
•  TO  PHARMACY,  AND  TO  THIS  COLLEGE. 
By  Wm.  B.  Thompson. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  January  20,  1885. 
If  it  should  be  thought  that  this  paper  is  not  entirely  appropriate 
to  the  object  of  this  meeting,  its  acceptance  is  asked  for  on  the  ground 
that  it  is  in  part  a  reply  to  a  paper  read  at  the  December  meeting, 
On  the  Recent  Advances  in  the  Methods  of  Instruction  in  the  Phil- 
adelphia College  of  Pharmacy,"  whicli  paper  and  some'  subsequent 
remarks  by  its  author  are  likely  to  lead  to  erroneous  impression  as  to 
exactly  what  is  meant,  and  what  is  contemplated  by  Preliminary 
Examination. 
The  present  system,  recently  adopted  by  the  College,  of  progressive 
or  trial  examinations  of  the  junior  students,  was  accepted  by  the 
Trustees  as  a  step  towards  an  ultimate  view,  upon  careful  considera- 
tion, and  in  deference  to  the  openly  expressed  sentiment  that  some 
better  means  of  discrimination  in  the  materiel  of  the  classes  should  be 
made.  This  tentative  plan  has  not  been  favored,  however,  by  those 
who  advocate  preliminary  examiuation  in  its  proper  sense  and  relation, 
because  it  in  no  wise  reaches  the  principle  involved — it  fails  to  afford 
the  result  desired,  or  to  radically  change  the  defect  of  method,  and  is^ 
moreover,  an  act  of  injustice  to  the  student. 
The  necessity  of  such  a  system  as  is  now  urged  upon  this  College  is 
based  upon  a  wise  precedent — upon  the  future  welfare  of  pharmacy, 
upon  the  future  status  of  the  graduate,  and  upon  the  mutual  relations 
of  this  institution  to  the  profession  at  large — and  further  by  reason  of 
the  fact  that,  so  far  as  we  are  made  aware,  there  is  no  inquiry  insti- 
tuted here  on  the  entrance  of  a  matriculant,  or  candidate,  to  determine 
his  fitness,  not  only  in  reference  to  his  rudimentary  knowledge  of 
pharmacy,  nor  as  to  his  as  much  needed  educational  requirements  in 
the  common  branches  of  learning.  To  read  intelligently,  to  write 
legibly,  to  be  creditably  proficient  in  simple  mathematics,  and  to 
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