538        Education  and  Legislation  in  Pharmacy.    { November, hmt' 
A  young  man  of  seventeen  with  one  year's  high-school  work  to 
his  credit  should  be  enabled  to  become  a  Registered  Pharmacist  in 
eight  years ;  one  with  two  years'  high-school  work  should  be 
allowed  to  qualify  in  seven  years ;  and  one  having  three  years'  high- 
school  work  to  his  credit  should  become  a  Registered  Pharmacist  in 
six  years. 
This  graded  system  would  encourage,  or  at  least  would  not  dis- 
courage, better  education.  It  would  give  us  more  intelligent  appren- 
tices and  clerks.  It  would  reduce  the  period  of  service  in  drug 
stores  by  one  year  for  every  additional  year  of  education  beyond  the 
irreducible  minimum  of  one  year's  high-school  work.  It  would 
require  the  clerks  to  serve  long  enough  to  become  sufficiently 
matured  before  they  can  become  principals  in  charge  of  stores.  It 
would  enable  apprentices  and  clerks  to  put  in  two  years  at  a  good 
pharmaceutical  school  without  being  punished  for  it  by  being  made 
to  wait  that  much  longer  for  their  license.  It  would  render  it  prac- 
ticable to  insist  that  no  one  should  be  licensed  as  a  Registered 
Pharmacist  until  after  he  shall  have  served  at  least  one  year  as  an 
assistant.  It  would  enable  us  to  require  that  no  person  should  be 
licensed  as  an  assistant  pharmacist  and  thereby  authorized  to  dis- 
pense prescriptions  and  do  all  kinds  of  pharmaceutical  work  unless 
that  person  has  reached  the  age  of  legal  responsibility.  It  would 
enable  owners  and  principals  of  drug  stores  to  leave  their  stores 
temporarily  in  the  hands  of  trusted  clerks  who  are  licensed  assistant 
pharmacists  without  violating  the  law.  It  would  enable  hard-worked 
druggists  (whose  business  does  not  permit  them  to  specially  employ 
a  Registered  Pharmacist  to  take  charge  during  their  temporary 
absence)  to  attend  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Pharma- 
ceutical Association  or  take  a  reasonable  vacation  each  year  instead 
of  making  slaves  of  themselves,  thereby  greatly  reducing  their 
capacity  for  efficient  service  to  the  public. 
Let  us  not  have  any  more  beginners  in  pharmacy  whom  we  would 
be  ashamed  to  own  as  our  worthy  successors.  Let  us  not  have  any 
more  drug  clerks  who  must  be  watched  by  their  employer  at  every 
turn,  or  do  their  work  by  stealth.  I  have  said  elsewhere,  let  us 
make  the  apprentices  self-respecting  and  more  contented  with  their 
lot  by  giving  them  to  understand  that  they  are  not  mere  bottle 
washers  though  they  must  wash  bottles.  Let  assistant  pharmacists 
know  that  they  are  not  non  entities  but  trained  practical  dispensers 
