838  Pharmacy  and  Pre-Medical  Schools.  \Amj)l0cnTi^2iarm' 
on  the  curriculum  of  college  No.  1  we  will  note  that  there  is  three 
times  the  requirements  of  the  Council  on  Education.  Moreover,  I 
am  persuaded  that  the  quality  of  the  teaching  is  superior  and  this  I 
say  without  derogation  to  the  academic  institutions.  It  is  only  rea- 
sonable to  expect  that  a  subject  which  occupies  nearly  one-third  of 
the  time  of  the  students,  and  is  taught  by  one-sixth  of  the  faculty,  of 
an  institution  should  be  more  highly  developed  than  at  an  institu- 
tion where  it  forms  a  mere  accidental  or  unimportant  part  of  a  great 
number  of  courses.  Go  out  among  the  druggests  and  the  doctors 
of  the  United  States  and  see  who  has  the  better  knowledge  of 
chemistry !  It  is  not  merely  because  the  druggist  uses  his  chemistry, 
for  I  doubt  if  the  pharmacist  has  much  more  need  for  chemistry  in 
his  daily  occupation  than  the  physician,  but  it  is  because  the  training 
in  chemistry  given  in  schools  of  pharmacy  is  more  than  equivalent  to 
the  entrance  requirements  for  the  medical  school  plus  the  chemistry 
taught  in  the  medical  school  itself. 
In  physics  and  in  biology  the  other  two  fundamental  subjects,  it 
is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  the  training  will  be  at  least  equal, 
if  not  superior,  in  the  school  of  pharmacy  to  that  in  the  academic 
institution  for  the  reason  that  both  of  these  subjects  are  more  or  less 
fundamenal  to  the  subsequent  course  in  pharmacy. 
We  see,  therefore,  that  the  college  of  pharmacy  is  superior  to 
the  college  of  arts  in  the  instruction  in  the  required  pre-medical  sub- 
jects and  I  wish  to  go  further  than  this  and  to  show  that  the  college 
of  pharmacy  offers  certain  advantages  even  in  the  elective  studies. 
It  is  notorious  that  the  weakest  part  of  the  medical  curriculum  is  in 
materia  medica.  Time  after  time  medical  writers  have  stated  that 
the  reason  that  the  manufacturers  of  proprietary  mixtures  nourish 
like  the  green  bay  tree  is  because  the  physicians  of  this  country 
realize  their  inability  to  write  a  prescription  properly.  There  is  no 
better  way  to  learn  how  to  mix  drugs,  and  how  not  to  mix  them, 
than  to  see  the  actual  results  of  various  combinations.  In  other 
words,  while  I  would  not  assert  that  a  practical  acquaintance  with 
pharmacy  is  necessary  for  the  writing  of  prescriptions,  I  do  believe 
it  is  of  valuable  assistance.  That  most  teachers  of  pharmacology 
agree  with  this  view  is  shown  by  the  number  of  medical  schools 
which  include  a  course  on  pharmaceutical  manipulations  as  part  of 
their  regular  studies.  But  the  time  given  to  this  course  in  the  medical 
curriculum  is  totally  inadequate  to  teach  anything  but  the  merest 
