Anbec0ri92iharm'}   Pharmacy  and  Pre-Medical  Schools.  835 
seldom  that  a  student  who  had  studied  genuine  science  in  his  courses 
in  physics,  chemistry  and  biology  will  be  misled  by  the  fallacious 
claims  advanced  by  unscientific  cults." 
On  each  of  these  arguments  I  should  like  to  say  a  few  words. 
First—  That  the  physics,  chemistry  and  biology  are  taught  with- 
out their  special  bearing  on  medicine. 
While  I  confess  I  cannot  see  great  weight  in  this  argument,  it 
would  be  true,  at  least  in  a  degree,  of  a  course  in  a  college  of 
pharmacy  and  science.  If  the  biology  in  such  an  institution  were 
taught  with  any  bias  at  all  it  would  be  as  introductory  to  botany,  a 
subject  which  is  not  recognized  in  our  modern  medical  curricula. 
Second. — That  the  quality  of  the  pre-medical  work  is  assured 
since  it  is  carried  in  the  courses  leading  to  the  Bachelor  of  Science  in 
reputable  colleges  of  arts  and  sciences. 
The  crux  of  this  argument,  of  course,  lies  in  the  B.  S.  degree. 
If  a  college  of  pharmacy  is  prepared  to  and  does  give  a  B.  S.  de- 
gree, after  a  standard  four  years'  course,  is  it  not  just  as  "reputable" 
as  an  academic  institution  that  does  the  same1?  Why  should  the  fact 
that  one  institution  teaches  philosophy  and  Greek,  and  the  other 
pharmacy  and  materia  medica,  beside  the  science  courses,  militate 
either  for  or  against  their  respectability? 
.  Third. — The  student  is  free  to  make  a  final  choice  of  his  life 
work  until  he  is  qualified  to  do  so. 
This  means  that  when  the  student  has  entered  the  science  course 
of  a  college  he  has  not  definitely  committed  himself  to  the  study 
of  medicine.  If,  however,  at  the  end  of  one  or  two  years  of  the 
college  course  which  he  has  arranged  as  preparatory  to  the  study  of 
medicine,  he  decides  he  will  become  an  engineer  or  an  architect,  he 
will  have  wasted  a  good  deal  of  his  time  in  studies  that  are  of  no 
direct  value  to  him.  But  the  chemistry  and  biology  that  he  would 
learn  in  a  college  of  pharmacy  are  just  as  useful  to  the  lawyer  as 
the  chemistry  and  biology  that  he  would  learn  in  a  college  of  art. 
Fourth. — "The  benefit  of  the  college  atmosphere,  the  contact  of 
students  in  other  departments,  the  social  life  and  the  athletics." 
I  confess  that  I  am  somewhat  peeved  whenever  I  come  across 
this  hoary  tradition  that  association  with  your  fellow  man  in  a  col- 
