^oVJe°il!befhi906?*}    Education  dnd  Legislation  in  Pharmacy.  535 
he  did,  and  how  much  time  was  taken  to  do  it,  and  how  well  it  was 
done. 
The  time  of  college  attendance  is  in  twenty-one  States  deducted 
from  the  drug-store  experience  required  for  license.  In  many  of 
these  States  the  actual  number  of  weeks  spent  at  a  college  of  phar 
macy  are  counted,  whether  two,  or  twenty,  or  thirty-six,  without 
reference  to  whether  the  student  loafed  or  studied,  succeeded  or 
failed,  finished  the  work  he  had  undertaken  or  left  it  unfinished. 
Students  who  fail  utterly  at  college  apparently  get  as  much  credit 
as  those  who  stand  high.  Clearly  no  credit  whatever  should  be 
given  for  killing  time,  or  for  unfinished  or  unsuccessful  school  work. 
The  Board  Examinations,  judging  from  the  questions  used,  are 
in  some  States-very  good  ;  in  other  States  very  bad.  Some  examiners 
seem  to  think  that  they  must  test  the  qualifications  of  the  candidates 
as  useful  commercial  salesmen  and  general  clerks  instead  of  testing 
their  efficiency  in  legitimate  pharmaceutical  professional  work,  which 
is  all  that  the  law  requires  or  permits. 
The  methods  and  scope  of  the  Board  examinations  in  different 
States  and  the  kind  of  questions  asked  in  them,  vary  extremely. 
They  often  seem  to  be  devoid  of  any  plan.  One  examination  some- 
times differs  from  another  in  the  same  State  in  a  most  remarkable 
manner. 
No  information  seems  to  be  accessible  concerning  the  nature  and 
scope  of  these  examinations.  The  candidates  cannot  know  how  to 
prepare  themselves.  This  is  unfortunate.  Every  citizen  is  entitled 
to  know  upon  what  terms  he  can  secure  the  right  to  engage  in  any 
lawful  occupation. 
The  disorderly  fashion  in  which  candidates  for  license  in  pharmacy 
are  struggling  to  get  past  the  Board  might  be  made  orderly. 
There  can  be  no  sufficient  excuse  for  the  enormous  proportion  of 
failures  in  the  Board  examinations.  If  the  examinations  are  right 
then  the  laws  and  rules  which  admit  so  many  unfit  candidates  to 
take  those  examinations  must  be  wrong.  In  one  examination  there 
were  sixty  candidates  and  every  one  failed  ;  in  another  one  hundred 
and  eleven  candidates,  of  whom  ninety-eight  failed.  Such  results 
conclusively  prove  that  we  have  no  sane  system.  These  failures 
occurred  in  States  where  the  Board  examinations  are  among  the 
best. 
The  candidates  who  failed  must  all  have  had  several  years  drug- 
