Am.  Joub.  Pharm.  ) 
Nov.  1, 1871.  j 
Editorial. 
523 
question  at  issue  is  completely  dodged  therein.  The  question  was  not  whether 
a  good  scientific  education,  acquired  previous  to  entering  a  pharmacy  as  appren- 
tice, was  desirable  or  not ;  but  the  question  was  whether,  without  shop  train, 
ing,  any  institution  of  learning  is  warranted  to  confer  upon  a  young  man  a 
pharmaceutical  degree  ;  and  it  is  such  unwarrantable  procedure  that  the  Asso- 
ciation entered  its  protest  against,  by  refusing  representation  from  the  Michi- 
gan University  School  of  Pharmacy. 
Professor  Prescott  must  know  this,  for  he  was  present  during  the  delibera- 
tions of  the  Committee  to  whom  his  case  was  referred  ;  and  he  was  present 
when,  after  the  reading  of  his  (Prof.  P.'s)  paper,  Professor  Maisch  made  sub- 
stantially the  same  statement.  The  latter  did  not  say  that  several  Colleges  of 
Pharmacy  were  endeavoring  to  furnish  some  laboratory  facilities,  but  that  sev- 
eral (we  know  of  three)  actually  have  done  so. 
According  to  the  advertisement,  the  course  in  practical  pharmacy  at  the 
institution  in  question  comprises  pharmaceutical  operations  (four  hours  daily) 
for  four  or  five  months,  including  work  in  specific  gravity,  distillation,  volume- 
tric tests  of  drugs  and  chemicals,  and  the  preparation  of  sixty  to  seventy  phar- 
macopoeial  samples.  (Italics  our  own.)  Now,  we  contend  that  all  this  is  not 
equivalent  to  four  years'  practice  behind  the  counter.  While  we  acknowledge 
that  the  subjects  of  instruction  of  the  Michigan  School  are  very  desirable  sub- 
jects of  the  preliminary  education  of  young  men  preparing  themselves  for  the 
responsible  duties  of  the  pharmacist,  we  cannot  withhold  our  conviction  that 
all  the  facilities  ofi'ered  by  the  Michigan  School,  including  the  "working  with 
willing  classes  at  the  blackboard  during  the  mornings,  from  October  to  July," 
will  be  and  are  insufficient  to  make  their  graduates  pharmacists,  unless  they 
have  had  the  requisite  practical  training  previous  to  entering  upon  their  colle- 
giate course  there,  or  else  seek  the  same  after  its  completion.  In  the  former 
case,  they  may  well  deserve  the  title  "  Pharmaceutical  Chemist"  conferred 
upon  them  ;  in  the  latter  case,  they  will  doubtless  soon  become  convinced  that 
though  *'  Chemists,"  there  was  but  a  smattering  of  the  '*  Pharmaceutical"  con- 
nected with  the  real  value  of  the  title,  at  the  time  of  receiving  the  same.  No- 
body can  become  proficient  in  any  trade  or  science  without  practically  working 
therein. 
The  deficiencies  in  the  scientific  education  of  our  young  pharmacists  are  well 
known  to  the  Colleges  of  Pharmacy,  and  they  are  earnestly  endeavoring  to 
unite  their  efforts  in  the  task  to  remedy  them.  In  this  movement  we  think  that 
college  will  continue  to  participate,  whose  delegates.  Professor  Prescott  says, 
"were  first*  and  most  persistent  against  us,"  and  who  "represent  a  school 
(Chicago)  which  has  given  but  one  course  of  lectures;"  also  the  other  college 
which  '*was  most  loudly  toasted  in  the  meeting  and  its  banquets,"  and  which 
"  has  suspended  all  instruction  for  the  last  two  years,  and  is  uncertain  when  it 
may  resume  lectures." 
In  view  of"  all  this,  we  hope  it  may  be  a  long  while  before  "  a  change  of  this 
clause  of  the  Constitution  will  be  demanded"  and  carried,  so  as  to  recognize 
delegates  from  any  institution  of  learning  professing  to  create  pharmaceutical 
*  Professor  Maisch,  of  Philadelphia,  raised  the  first  objection  against  his  admission  as  a  dele 
gate. 
