^""Ver'^isS*™' }        Advantage  of  Preliminary  Examination.  77 
does  secure,  for  the  profession,  its  highest  possible  attainment,  dignity 
and  usefulness. 
The  question  of  pharmaceutical  education  assumed  great  promi- 
nence at  the  meeting  of  the  International  Pharmaceutical  Congress, 
held  in  London,  August,  1881.  The  various  representatives  of 
pharmacy,  in  reply  to  interrogatories,  gave  statements  of  the  legal 
and  professional  status  of  pharmacy  in  France,  Italy,  Sweden,  Den- 
mark, Belgium,  Holland,  Austria  and  Hungary.  In  all  of  these 
countries  the  Government  controls  pharmacy.  The  standard  of  edu- 
cation is  prescribed  and  rigidly  determined,  and  there  are  special  laws 
bearing  upon  the  relation  of  pharmacy  to  the  State  and  to  the  public. 
Such  restriction  would  be  obnoxious,  and  difficult  of  imposition  in  a 
country  like  this,  but  the  main  point  which  is  essential  to  our  purpose 
here  is  to  show  the  universally  admitted  importance  of  the  first  pro- 
gressive step,  preparatory  education.^ 
The  code  of  ethics  of  this  College — the  moral  law,  upon  which  all 
provisional  should  be  based,  in  paragraph  9,  on  the  subject  of  appren- 
tices in  their  relation  te  this  Institution,  reads  thus  :  "  It  is  recomended 
that  those  applicants  who  have  had  the  advantage  of  a  good  prelimi- 
nary education,  including  the  Latin  language,  should  be  preferred 
in  the  selection.^  A  law  of  essential  importance,  yet  heretofore  openly 
disregarded  by  non-compliance,  ever  since  the  time,  perhaps,  when 
oral  examinations  were  discontinued,  a  method  immensely  superior  to 
that  now  adopted,  for  through  it  examiner  and  examinee  were  brought 
into  close  personal  relation,  and  the  former  had  many  opportunities  of 
ascertaining  the  proficiency  of  his  pupil  in  general  culture  by  conver- 
sational tests,  opportunities  which  are  now  wholly  shut  out.  A  student 
in  the  processes  of  examination,  as  subsequently  conducted,  may  be 
profoundly  ignorant  of  all  else ;  his  chirography  may  be  bad,  his  ety- 
mology even  worse,  yet  an  acute  mental  retention,  in  a  certain  line  of 
instruction,  may  save  him  from  failure. 
It  has  been  stated  that  this  College  would  have  no  legal  right  to  bar 
out  candidates.    The  preamble  to  the  charter  refutes  such  idea,  in  the 
1  This  preparatory  education  is  required  in  tlie  countries  named,  as  it  is  in  England, 
before  the  young  man  can  become  an  apprentice  in  pliarmacy.— Editor  Am.  Jour. 
Thar. 
2 The  quotation  refers  to  the  selection  of  apprentices  by  employers  and  members  of 
the  College  ;  the  subject  of  preliminary  examination  before  entering  the  College  is  not 
alluded  to,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  code  of  ethics,  charter,  constitution  or  by-laws. 
-Editor  Am.  Jour.  Phar. 
