Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Dec.,  1886. 
Editorial  Department. 
619 
inasmuch  as  the  passing  of  a  single  examination  before  a  Board  will 
enable  a  person,  having  the  requisite  store  experience,  to  be  regarded  as  a 
legally  qualified  pharmacist. 
In  educational  as  well  as  in  other  matters  the  various  nations  rarely 
utilize  the  experiences  gained  by  other  nations  in  the  same  channel ;  and 
for  the  present  at  least  it  is  left  in  Great  Britain  as  well  as  in  the  United 
States,  to  the  individual  pharmacist  to  supply,  of  his  own  accord,  the  defi- 
ciencies of  legal  requirements  concerning  educational  attainments.  That 
this  is  really  done  to  a  considerable  degree  is  shown  by  the  number  of  well- 
educated  pharmacists  in  both  countries;  and  while  it  must  be  acknow- 
ledged, that  this  number  of  well  informed  pharmacists  should  be  greater 
than  it  really  is,  it  must  also  be  acknowledged,  that  this  is  the  fault  of  the 
laws  and  of  the  methods  inaugurated  by  such  laws  which  sanction  a  mere 
examination  to  take  the  place  of  a  thorough  education.  We  do  not  under- 
value the  difficulties  that  are  in  the  way  of  ultimately  securing  a  change  in 
the  direction  indicated ;  on  the  contrary  we  believe  that  these  difficulties 
will  become  greater  in  proportion  as  the  value  of  pharmaceutical  educa- 
tion, aside  from  the  practical  training,  is  disregarded  and  supplanted  by 
examinations. 
We  have  been  prompted  to  these  remarks  at  the  present  time  on  reading  a 
letter  from  Professor  Attfield,  written  in  relation  to  the  Intercolonial  Phar- 
maceutical Conference,  which  was  called  to  meet  in  Melbourne  on  the  27th 
of  October,  one  of  the  objects  being  "to  bring  about  uniformity  in  the  educa- 
tional qualifications  required  of  pharmaceutical  chemists  in  the  Australa- 
sian colonies."  Prof.  Attfield's  letter  is  published  in  the  Australasian  Jour- 
nal of  Pharmacy  for  September,  and  as  far  as  it  relates  to  the  above  ques- 
tion, is  as  follows  : 
I  do  trust,  for  the  welfare  of  Australasian  pharmacy  and  pharmacists, 
that  due  prominence  will  be  given  at  the  Conference  to  the  relation  which 
the  course  of  study  and  the  examinations  should  bear  to  each  other.  If 
examination  alone  be  depended  on  as  a  test  of  the  knowledge  possessed  by 
a  candidate,  that  knowledge  will — according  to  the  irresistible  operation  of 
the  law  of  demand  and  supply — become  (after  the  first  year  or  so  of  the 
examinations)  superficial  and  ephemeral  knowledge.  Mere  examination 
cannot  distinguish  between  this  temporary  stuff  and  that  real  lasting  know- 
ledge which  is  serviceable  alike  to  the  candidate  himself,  his  calling  and 
the  community.  Every  good  examiner  knows  this  to  be  true,  and  every 
authority  on  education  has  long  known  it  to  be  true.  In  Great  Britain  we 
have  only  found  all  this  out  by  bitter  experience,  and  though  we  are  all 
agreed  as  to  the  remedy,  the  difficulty  of  counteracting  the  evil  now  is 
enormous.  The  remedy  is  to  require  every  candidate,  before  he  enters  the 
examination-room,  to  show  by  a  proper  schedule  that  he  has  regularly  ami 
profitably  attended  a  publicly-conducted,  properly  supervised,  sound  course 
of  study.  The  examiners,  knowing  that  the  course  of  study  is  trustworthy^ 
that  the  teachers  are  trustworthy,  and  that  the  candidate  has  only  got  his 
schedule  signed  after  showing  at  weekly  tutorial  classes  that  he  has  really 
learned  what  he  was  set  to  learn,  will  have  the  comparatively  easy  task  of 
ascertaining  by  a  few  questions  that  teacher  and  candidate  have  done  their 
duties.  I  do  implore  the  Conference  to  begin  by  demanding  this  relation- 
ship between  education  and  examination  ;  the  evils  and  difficulties  we  now 
find  so  stupenduous  will  thus,  in  the  colonies,  never  arise. 
