78  Centenary  of  Pharmaceutical  Education.  {^^Zyfim^' 
largely  rural  and  scattered  over  a  wide  area  in  this  sparsely  settled 
country  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  The  prevailing  good  health 
of  the  early  settlers,  and  the  custom  of  each  family  to  have  its 
collection  of  medicinal  herbs  and  household  remedies,  which  were 
employed  in  the  home  treatment  of  the  simpler  ailments,  made  the 
services  of  the  physician  needed  only  in  extreme  illness,  epidemic 
or  accident.  The  physicians  in  this  period  were  a  rather  hetero- 
geneous lot,  some  practicing  medicine  only  as  a  portion  of  their 
life  vocation.  Most  of  these  had  only  served  an  apprenticeship 
with  some  older  physician,  and  by  preparing  the  medicines  he 
dispensed,  observing  his  methods  and  studying  under  his  guidance 
had  completed  the  time  of  their  indenture,  and  his  certificate  of 
proficiency  was  the  only  license  to  practice  required.  Some  few, 
with  higher  aspirations,  pursued  their  medical  studies  further  in 
the  European  schools  of  medicine  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
a  diploma.  The  number  of  these  better  qualified  physicians  were 
augmented  from  time  to  time  by  a  few  educated  medical  men  who 
immigrated  from  abroad.  A  writer  states :  "In  those  days  any 
one  who  knew  jalap  from  ipecac  or  Calomel  from  Tartar  Emetic, 
and  had  the  assurance  to  use  them  at  his  option,  to  make  and 
apply  ointments  and  plasters,  to  dress  wounds,  to  splint  a  broken 
limb,  was  a  welcome  settler  and  received  without  asking  the  title 
of  doctor. 
In  this  primitive  condition  of  the  medical  practice,  the  art  of 
the  apothecary  was  not  recognized,  and  the  dispensing  of  medicine 
was  vested  in  the  physicians.  With  the  development  of  the  Colonies 
and  the  growth  of  their  commerce,  the  establishment  of  chemist 
stores  and  apothecary  shops  became  more  general.  Many  of  the 
apothecaries  were  recruited  from  those  who  had  served  as  appren- 
tices to  the  physicians.  The  industrial  and  educational  progress 
that  had  been  made  by  the  first  quarter  of  the  Nineteenth  Century 
resulted  in  a  stricter  specialization  in  the  arts,  trades  and  profes- 
sions, and  this  was  reflected  to  some  extent  in  the  practice  of  the 
drug  trade.  The  time  had  fully  arrived  for  divorcing  the  art  and 
practice  of  pharmacy  as  a  distinct  branch  of  medicine.  The  evolu- 
tion of  medicine  had  progressed  to  the  state  where  a  sufficient 
number  of  physicians  realized  the  necessity  and  advocated  dis- 
sociation as  the  proper  line  of  progress. 
Every  event  is  the  direct  outcome  of  some  pre-conceived  teach- 
