NEW YORK COLLEGE OF PHARMACY. 
245 
must energetically maintain for himself. Unfortunately, 
too, the schools of Pharmacy in our country, are feeble in 
resources, unaided by government, and as yet, except in a 
limited degree, by public opinion. They were originated, 
and have been sustained, thus far, by the resolute and un- 
selfish labors of men engaged in business, who had least to 
gain by their successful prosecution, aided in progress of 
time by their own graduates, who, from industrious stu- 
dents, have come to rank among their most esteemed and 
efficient co-laborers. 
Institutions devoted exclusively to the advancement of 
our art, have long flourished in Europe, deriving patronage 
and power from their governments, possessed of most ex- 
tensive libraries, cabinets and variety of apparatus for 
chemical and philosophical demonstrations. In these 
schools the teaching of Pharmacy and its collateral branches 
of science, extending beyond our courses to Botany, 
Mineralogy, Geology, Natural Philosophy, Physiology, 
Toxicology, and Medical Jurisprudence, has attained a de- 
gree of excellence which we can scarcely hope to reach 
until the general sentiment shall demand it. There, too? 
learners of our business are required to possess previous 
qualifications, are subjected to a length of laborious servi- 
tude, followed by searching, minute and extended examina- 
tion ; and those who practice it, though protected in their 
rights and privileges, are held to a rigorous accountability, 
which in the individual latitude enjoyed — or rather suffered 
— under our laws, could hardly be realized, and if they ex- 
isted, would deter many from encountering their difficul- 
ties. 
Yet if we have approached so distantly the standard of 
schools in older nations, we may congratulate ourselves on 
having done much according to our ability, The improve- 
ment in the appearance of our stores, in the degree of clean- 
liness, and method of their manipulations, in the number and 
accuracy of their preparations, and more than these, in the 
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