2i 8  Pharmaceutical  Degrees  in  America.  {AmM2"iSj*rm 
to-day,  more  than  eighty  years  after  the  address  was  delivered, 
are  only  now  beginning  to  appreciate  the  necessity  of  some  such 
evidence  of  systematic  instruction  in  the  sciences  relating  to 
pharmacy  before  an  applicant  be  admitted  to  the  practice  of  our 
profession. 
It  was  on  August  23,  1826,  that  the  then  president,  Mr.  Daniel 
B.  Smith,  conferred  the  degree  of  Graduate  in  Pharmacy,  or  ''Grad- 
uate in  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,"  on  the  first  success- 
ful candidates,  comprised  of  a  class  of  three  young  men. 
On  this  occasion  the  president  delivered  an  interesting,  and  now 
extremely  valuable  address,  dealing  largely  with  the  conditions  as 
they  then  existed,  and  outlining  to  some  extent  the  objects  of  the 
College  and  its  ambitions  for  future  improvements.  As  much  of 
the  material  contained  in  this  address  has  a  direct  bearing  on  the 
subject  under  discussion,  it  may  be  well  to  quote  from  it  quite  exten- 
sively. In  speaking  of  the  objects  of  the  College  Mr.  Smith  said : 
"  The  mark  at  which  we  are  aiming  is,  however,  much  above  the 
standard  of  any  present  attainments.  Before  we  can  assume  to 
compete  with  the  kindred  institutions  of  the  Old  World  our  system 
of  scientific  instruction  must  be  extended  to  other  branches  of  natu- 
ral history  and  rendered  more  thorough  and  minute  in  those  which 
are  already  taught." 
"  Our  diploma  is,  of  course,  but  an  honorary  distinction,  that  con- 
fers no  privileges  or  advantages  beyond  those  which  public  opinion 
accords  to  the  well  instructed  and  intelligent.  It  bestows  no  title, 
for  it  was  the  design  of  the  college  to  avoid  any  name  which  may 
hereafter  acquire  a  peculiar  meaning,  and  become  the  designation 
of  a  new  class  analogous  to  the  English  apothecary.  In  attempting 
to  avoid  this  danger,  it  has  committed  what  may  perhaps  be 
esteemed  a  blunder  by  establishing  a  distinction  without  giving  to 
it  a  specific  name,  and  simply  declaring  that  the  successful  candi- 
date is  a  graduate  in  the  college." 
The  example  set  by  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy  was 
closely  followed  by  the  other  schools  as  founded,  and  it  was  not  until 
about  1873  that  any  concerted  attempt  was  made  to  confer  what 
might  be  termed  a  collegiate  degree  for  a  course  in  pharmacy. 
In  the  early  seventies  no  less  than  three,  then  newly  founded, 
schools  of  pharmacy  began  to  confer  the  title  Phar.  D.  on  their 
graduates.    As  was  to  be  expected,  this  rather  startling  innovation 
