Amsept.?i89iarm"}  German  Pharmacists  and  Pharmacies.  443 
that  we  should  model  our  drug  stores  after  those  of  the  country  from 
which  they  come,  and  that  our  pharmacies  are  cigar  stores  and 
saloons  while  our  pharmaceutical  colleges  are  druggist  mills.  What 
value  is  to  be  placed  on  their  statements  let  each  man  decide  for 
himself.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  pessimistic  philosophy  has  never  yet 
done  the  world  much  positive  good  or  advanced  it,  while  it  has  in 
many  instances  harmed  it  considerably. 
While  in  Germany,  the  writer  made .  many  observations  on  the 
mode  of  teaching  and  practising  pharmacy,  especially  during  the 
last  year  when  during  the  course  of  one  semester  he  had  occasion  to 
work  in  the  same  laboratory  with  the  candidates  of  pharmacy, 
question  them  as  to  their  information  and  attend  their  examina- 
tions. 
The  general  standing  of  the  students  of  pharmacy  is  certainly  no 
better,  in  fact  rather  below  that  of  the  disciples  of  ^sculapius  in 
our  country.  The  men  spring  from  the  lower  middle  and  lower 
classes  as  a  rule  and  stand  lowest  as  a  class  in  popular  estimation 
among  the  university  students.  They  should  not  properly  be  placed 
in  this  latter  category  for  they  are  not  compelled  to  pass  the  same 
examinations  as  the  other  university  students  do,  their  so-called 
"  Einjahriges  Examen  "*  enabling  them  to  pursue  their  studies  at 
the  university  in  pharmacy.  They  must  spend  at  least  three  semes- 
ters (one  and  a  half  years)  at  the  university  and  do  spend  them? 
usually  as  follows :  First  semester,  lectures  on  inorganic  chemistry 
and  botany,  with  laboratory  work  in  qualitative  analysis ;  second 
semester,  lectures  on  pharmaceutical  chemistry,  organic  chemistry 
and  materia  medica,  with  laboratory  work  in  quantitative  analysis ; 
and  third  semester,  lectures  on  pharmacognosy  and  physics,  with 
laboratory  work  in  pharmaceutical  chemistry.  A  course  in  the 
physical  and  botanical  laboratories  is  open  to  them,  but  few  of  them 
take  advantage  of  it.  The  final  examinations  are  oral,  the  candidate 
putting  in  an  appearance  in  a  black  suit  with  white  necktie  and 
white  gloves  and  looking  about  twice  as  miserable  as  candidates  for 
examination  usually  do.  Before  a  man  can  come  up  for  his  exam- 
ination he  must  have  served  an  apprenticeship  extending  over  a 
period  of  six  years.  The  facilities  offered  the  student,  both  in  the 
way  of  lectures  and  laboratory  work,  are  perhaps  better  than  those 
*  An  examination  which  enables  them  to  serve  one  year  in  the  army  instead 
of  three  as  the  law  requires. 
