Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1895. 
Educational  Development. 
i85 
advocate  of  the  highest  culture  ;  but  even  if  the  ambitious  aspirant 
has  succeeded  in  reaching  such  a  dizzy  height,  the  question  may 
well  be  asked :  "  Will  the  possessor  of  such  rare  accomplishments 
ever  condescend  to  accept  service  in  a  pharmacy  ?"  In  the  present 
condition  of  the  drug  business,  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  are 
many  other  fields  of  activity  which  will  promise  a  far  better  pecuni- 
ary return  for  such  a  gifted  individual,  but  it  must  be  acknowledged 
that  too  little  education  is  far  worse  than  too  much.  The  "  rule-of- 
thumb  "  druggist  who  sneers  at  the  college-bred  man,  and  says  he 
can  "learn"  his  boys  more  in  a  month  than  the  college  can  in  a 
year,  has  his  own  standard,  and  it  must  be  a  cause  of  rejoicing  for 
all  well-wishers  of  pharmacy  that  this  man's  power  for  evil  is  dying 
just  in  proportion  as  the  cut-rate  evil  is  progressing.  His  standard 
is  the  mercantile  one,  and  what  is  he  in  the  drug  business  for,  if  it  is 
not  solely  to  sell  drugs  ?  . 
But,  leaving  this  unpleasant  individual,  let  us  turn  to  the  means 
of  training  outside  of  the  colleges — the  education  of  the  shop.  There 
are  yet  thousands  of  conscientious  preceptors  who  do  not  consider 
the  assistants  in  their  employ  as  mere  money-getting  machines  for 
them,  but  view  them  as  fellow-creatures,  who  will  soon  be  called 
upon  to  assume  the  same  responsibilities  that  they  themselves  are 
grappling  with,  who  realize  that  the  profession,  of  which  they  them- 
selves are  honored  members,  must  advance,  and  that  the  assistant 
of  to-day  must  perforce  start,  theoretically,  at  least,  where  the  pre- 
ceptor left  off ;  and  that,  while  in  his  time,  three  hours  a  week  at 
college,  with  such  stolen  opportunities  from  daily  routine  of  shop 
duties  as  could  be  snatched,  saw  him  through  college,  that  "tcmpora 
mutantztr,  etnos  mutamur  in  illis  ;"  and  it  must  be  remembered  that 
all  of  our  colleges  of  pharmacy  owe  to  these  men  a  debt  which  can 
never  be  adequately  discharged. 
It  is  unfortunate  that,  at  the  present  time,  an  effort  is  being  made 
by  some  pharmaceutical  writers  to  ignore  the  value  of  shop  exper- 
ience, and  to  insist  that  the  college  degree  should  be  conferred 
before  any  such  experience  is  acquired.  The  principal  reason  upon 
which  this  action  is  based  is  that  the  college  has  no  adequate  means 
of  judging  of  the  value  of  this  shop  experience,  and  that  many  stu- 
dents present  certificates,  which  attest  to  the  requisite  number  of 
years  in  the  drug  business,  but  which  cannot  afford  any  criterion  of 
the  preceptor's  fitness  to  give  valuable  instruction  in  pharmacy. 
