532  Druggists,  Pharmacists,  etc.  {^'Diri.mr" 
ON  THE  RELATIONS  OF  THE  SEVERAL  CLASSES  OF  DRUG- 
GISTS  AND  PHARMACISTS  TO  THE  COLLEGES  OF  PHAR- 
MACY. 
By  Prof.  E.  Parrish. 
(Continued  from  page  485.) 
A  comparison  of  the  facilities  for  realizing  the  advantages  of  our 
course  of  instruction,  as  furnished  by  the  average  wholesale  and  the 
average  retail  store,  will  show  that  in  some  respects  the  former  have 
the  advantage.  It  is  notorious  that  the  variety  of  crude  drugs  kept 
by  the  retailer  is  rapidly  diminishing,  and  in  the  examinations  by  spe- 
cimens candidates  of  this  class  are  at  a  disadvantage.  Few  of  them 
have  seen  characteristic  specimens  of  such  important  drugs  as  jalap, 
sarsaparilla,  cinchona,  pareira,  cantharis,  or  even  gentian  and  Colombo, 
until  they  have  been  shown  to  them  in  connection  with  a  scientific 
course  on  Materia  ^ledica.  Requiring  them  only  for  the  limited  de- 
mands of  a  dispensing  trade,  the  pharmacist  buys  most  articles  of  this 
description  in  powder,  of  one  or  more  grades  of  fineness,  according  as 
they  are  needed  for  percolation,  or  are  sometimes  prescribed  in  fine 
powder.  All  the  chemicals  and  most  of  the  extracts  and  fluid  extracts 
are  bought  equally  by  the  wholesale  and  retail  dealer,  and,  strange  to 
say,  even  pills  are  now  so  extensively  produced  by  those  who  make 
this  branch  of  pharmacy  a  specialty,  that  in  the  dispensing  stores  the 
art  of  pill-making  is  being  cut  down  almost  entirely  to  the  prepara- 
tion of  extemporaneous  prescriptions. 
The  leading  objection  to  giving  apprentices  in  wholesale  stores  the 
opportunity  to  compete  for  the  diploma,  is  founded  on  the  assumption 
that  it  implies  in  its  possessor  a  qualification  to  compound  prescrip- 
tions ;  and,  as  this  art  can  only  be  acquired  by  long  experience,  it  is 
alleged  that  no  one  should  be  eligible  to  graduate  until  he  has  served 
an  ample  term  in  its  actual  practice. 
It  may  be  said  in  reply  to  this  that  the  diploma  does  not  really  gua- 
rantee the  fitness  of  its  possessor  for  this  duty.  Many  who  graduate 
from  retail  stores  have  had  but  limited  practice  in  compounding  pre- 
scriptions. In  some  stores  this  duty  is  rarely  entrusted  to  any  but 
graduates ;  in  others,  the  number  and  variety  of  prescriptions  is  too 
small  to  furnish  a  fit  preparation  for  the  prescription  business  as  con- 
ducted in  city  dispensing  stores,  where  extemporaneous  pharmacy  is 
a  most  difficult  and  complicated  pursuit. 
