190 
Correspondence. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharno. 
April,  1905. 
standards  of  the  times,  and  they  will  valiantly  defend  it  against 
usurpers  and  against  its  misapplication  by  the  more  careless  and 
less  intelligent  public. 
It  is  absolute  folly  to  contend  that  the  higher  degrees  from  different 
schools  have  been,  or  ever  will  be,  of  equal  value ;  in  some,  it  is 
dependent  upon  so  variable  a  measure  as  drug-store  experience — 
the  length  of  which  is  known  but  the  quality  uncertain ;  in  another, 
the  study  and  practice  of  advanced  botany,  volumetric  estimations 
and  assay;  in  still  another,  upon  preliminary  university  counts. 
And  thus  will  it  ever  be ;  always  will  be  asked,  "  Whose  superscrip- 
tion does  it  bear  ? "  It  is  the  lower  degree  that  will  become 
uniform.  It  will  be  standardized  by  the  requirements  of  safety, 
through  the  examining  boards,  which,  after  all,  offer  the  great 
stimulus  and,  as  time  goes  on  and  they  become  more  closely  asso- 
ciated, the  standards  of  both  entrance  and  exit  to  colleges  will  be 
raised  by  them,  while  enthusiastic  and  erratic  pioneers  will  continue 
to  suffer.  * 
If  the  ultra-scientific,  ambitious  scholar  desires  a  higher  degree, 
one  beyond  the  regular  requirements  of  his  vocation,  let  him  seek 
it  as  so  many  have  done,  with  great  credit  to  themselves,  in  the 
better  established  sciences  and  in  philosophy.  Let  him  secure 
something  really  distinctive,  something  that  is  standardized  else- 
where, but  let  Pharmacy's  degree  or  title  be  a  thing  to  itself,  mean- 
ing no  more  nor  less  than  it  should,  and  let  it  gradually  grow  in 
worthiness  as  the  science  of  pharmacy  has  gradually  grown,  higher 
and  higher,  in  spite  of  the  hindrance ;  yet  more  slowly  on  account 
of  it. 
Gentlemen  of  the  pharmaceutical  press,  lend  all  your  influence 
and  excite  the  influence  of  your  readers  that  the  noble  army  of 
coming  pharmacists  may  be  saved  the  embarrassment  their  elders 
have  always  suffered.  Being  properly  addressed  as  Doctofs,  they 
will  be  stimulated  to  worthily  wear  the  title  and  thereby  honor  the 
profession  to  which  they  belong. 
In  the  interest  of  pharmacy  and  pharmacists  of  the  future,  I  am, 
With  great  respect  for  all  concerned, 
Henry  P.  Hynson. 
