Yeh^Sb"^^'}        Advantage  of  Pi^eliminary  Examination.  67 
President  J.  Faris  Moore,  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Associ- 
ation, at  the  session  held  in  Cincinnati,  September,  1864,  in  his  annual 
address,  holds  the  following  language :  "  We  often  find  young  men, 
thoroughly  apt  in  their  manipulations,  and  possessing  more  than  ordi- 
nary talent  in  other  respects,  most  woefully  deficient  in  their  general 
education,  and  this  is,  in  many  cases,  a  drawback  of  no  small  impor- 
tance to  themselves,  the  profession,  and  the  community  at  large.  I 
should  think  means  could  be  easily  devised  by  which  the  standard  of 
necessary  education  might  be  raised  to  such  a  height  as  would  be  both 
beneficial  and  acceptable  to  all,  and  especially  contributory  to  the  dignity 
of  the  profession,  pharmacy  being,  in  the  highest  and  most  exalted 
acceptation  of  the  word,  ^  a  science.'  '' 
An  eminent  and  honored  pharmaceutical  teacher  of  this  College,  the 
late  Professor  Parrish,  a  man  of  extended  experience  and  observation, 
based  upon  unusual  opportunities  of  comparing  students  of  medicine, 
many  of  whom  had  the  advantage  of  academic  study,  with  students 
of  pharmacy  whose  preliminary  education  as  a  rule  had  been  cut 
short,  states  as  his  conviction  that  what  is  "  most  needed  in  phar- 
macy is  a  higher  grade  of  preliminary  education.''  Were  such  re- 
ferences necessary,  we  could  extract  voluminously  from  the  most 
authentic  sources  to  sustain  this  view.  "  The  needed  element  to  secure 
successful  attainment  in  any  effort  to  raise  the  influence  and  standing 
of  such  a  body  of  men  as  pharmacists,  in  their  relation  to  the  public 
and  to  medical  science,  is  to  be  found  in  education — scholastic,  techni- 
cal, or  scientific."  There  are  five  points  or  specifications  which  indi- 
cate clearly  the  purpose  of  preliminary  examination,  and  the  condi- 
tions which  make  such  a  method  a  necessity  of  the  present  time. 
They  are  as  follows  : 
First.  The  imperfect  mental  training  with  which  so  many  young 
men  commence  their  so-called  scientific  work. 
Second.  The  large  proportion  who  present  themselves  for  class 
teaching  without  any  genuine  intention  of  mastering  the  sciences 
taught. 
Third.  The  generally  prevailing  intention  to  make  as  little  knowl- 
edge as  possible  suffice  to  carry  candidates  through  the  examination, 
vention  of  1852,  when  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  was  organized,  a 
committee,  consisting  of  Wm.  Procter,  Jr.,  S.  M.  Colcord  and  G.  D,  Coggeshall,  reported 
as  follows  :  ''Proprietors  often  do  not  consider  the  fitness  of  applicants,  both  as  regards 
natural  endowments  and  preliminary  education,  with  that  care  and  attention  that  a 
due  regard  to  such  applicants  demands."— Editor  Xts..  Jour.  Phar. 
