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376  EDITORIAL. 
4.  Every  medical  college  should  embrace  iri  its  curriculum  at  least  thir- 
teen professorships,  to  be  taught  by  not  less  than  nine  professors.  These 
branches  are  to  be  divided  into  three  groups  or  series,  named  the  fresh- 
men, junior,  and  senior  series.  The  student  is  required  to  attend  these 
successively,  one  each  year ;  he  will  have  to  submit  to  an  examination  at 
the  end  of  each  term,  and  is  not  permitted  to  attend  the  next  series  until 
he  has  become  proficient  in  the  previous  ones. 
5.  At  the  close  of  each  session,  the  student  is  to  receive  a  certificate 
specifying  the  time  and  the  courses  of  instruction  actually  attended. 
6.  The  definite  action  of  the  medical  colleges  on  these  propositions  is 
solicited. 
The  action  of  this  Convention  was  emphatically  approved  by  the  Ameri- 
can Medical  Association. 
Restricting  the  professional  student  to  an  attendance  upon  certain 
branches,  and  progressing  with  the  same  in  accordance  with  the  knowledge 
actually  acquired,  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  and  one  which  deserves 
to  be  followed  by  every  professional  college.  M. 
Summer  Courses. — We  believe  that  it  is  only  at  St.  Louis  and  Philadel- 
phia where,  during  the  spring  and  summer,  lectures  are  now  delivered 
in  conformity  with  the  requirements  of  the  respective  Colleges  of  Phar- 
macy. In  both  cities  botany  is  taught  during  the  season  most  propitious 
for  a  practical  study  of  this  science.  Our  friend  Prof.  Mayer,  of  the  New 
York  College  of  Pharmacy,  gives  similar  instruction  there.  We  believe 
that  it  would  be  productive  of  good  if  that  College  would  likewise  recognize 
the  importance  of  the  same,  notwithstanding,  perhaps,  the  time  may  not 
have  arrived  yet  when  a  knowledge  of  botany  will  be  considered  as  im- 
peratively requisite  for  graduation. 
Since  the  beginning  of  April,  Prof.  Maisch  has  been  delivering  lectures 
on  General  and  Special  Morphology,  Organology,  and  Systematic  Botany, 
practically  illustrated  by  excursions  into  the  surrounding  country.  The 
average  attendance  is  about  eighteen,  but  very  few  of  the  graduates  of  the 
College  participating.  It  is  not  improbable  that  this  meagre  attendance, 
out  of  a  class  of  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  last  winter,  is  partly  caused 
by  the  impossibility  of  the  young  men  to  be  absent  from  the  business 
during  an  afternoon  ;  but  we  feel  convinced  that  a  spirit  of  greater  liberal- 
ity would  prevail  among  the  employers  if  they  fully  understood  the  import- 
ance of  botany  to  the  practical  pharmacist,  and  if  the  young  men  them- 
selves fully  realized  the  advantages  which  maybe  derived  from  a  familiar- 
ity with  this  discipline. 
It  behooves  us,  in  this  connection,  to  notice  the  endeavor  of  the  New 
York  College  to  have  the  lectures  during  the  coming  winter  delivered  in 
the  day-time.  The  advantages  gained  thereby  for  the  instructor  and  the 
instructed  are  obvious,  if  we  merely  take  into  consideration  the  importance 
of  recognizing  colors  in  preparations  and  experiments.    May  they  meet 
