434 
Teaching  of  Pharmacognosy. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(  September,  1911. 
stated,  that  an  examination  should  be  held  more  for  crystallizing 
out  the  thoughts  of  the  students  and  the  knowledge  gained  than  for 
any  other  purpose.  In  other  words,  an  examination  should  be  in 
the  nature  of  instruction  to  the  student  and  should  give  him  an 
opportunity  of  showing  to  what  extent  he  has  mastered  the  subject. 
Professor  Daniel  Base  has  written  in  a  spirit  with  which  I 
heartily  coincide,  and  I  quote  the  following  from  his  letter : 
"  I  think  State  Boards  would  do  well  to  confine  questions  in 
Materia  Medica  to  the  chief  inorganic,  vegetable  and  animal  drugs 
and  not  ask  questions  about  things  with  which  the  average  pharma- 
cist may  have  to  do  but  once  or  twice  in  a  year.  The  questions 
might  reasonably  involve  a  knowledge  of  botanical  source,  part 
official,  when  collected  and  why,  description  in  correct  terms,  of  the 
whole  drug,  drugs  that  resemble  each  other  outwardly  and  how  to 
distinguish  them,  the  principal  and  some  of  the  less  important  con- 
stituents, forms  in  which  the  drug  is  used,  usual  action  of  the  drug, 
antidotes  to  principal  poisonous  drugs  or  their  preparations,  doses. 
I  would  advocate  framing  questions  both  in  Board  examinations 
and  those  of  the  college  in  such  a  manner  as  to  test  the  candidate's 
thinking  ability  rather  than  his  cramming  powers.  Perhaps  this 
cannot  be  done  so  thoroughly  in  Materia  Medica  as  in  Chemistry 
or  Pharmacy,  because  of  the  nature  of  Materia  Medica,  which 
necessitates  memorizing  to  a  greater  extent  than  the  other  two 
subjects  do.  Examinations  in  Pharmacognosy,  in  addition  to  re- 
quiring the  recognition  of  drugs  from  outward  physical  characters, 
taste,  odor,  fracture,  chemical  tests,  etc.,  would  properly  require 
also  microscopic  knowledge,  but  I  fear  that  the  teaching  and  require- 
ments in  some  States  have  not  advanced  to  such  a  stage  as  that  the 
Boards  could  be  persuaded  that  the  examinations  should  include 
microscopic  work.  In  those  advanced  States  in  which  the  Boards 
would  not  hesitate  to  ask  questions  involving  microscopic  knowl- 
edge, I  think  the  questions  should  be  moderate  and  practical  and 
perhaps  along  such  lines  as  the  following : 
1.  Relation  between  magnification  and  focal  length. 
2.  Mounting  of  objects. 
3.  Familiarity  with  a  few  staining  reagents,  permanent  and 
temporary. 
4.  Process  of  making  a  permanent  mount  with  two  differential 
stains. 
