850 
Professional  Training. 
)  Am.  Jour,  Pharm. 
5      Dec,  1921. 
common  sense.  But  pharmacy,  when  teaching  intending  practi- 
tioners how  their  materia  should  be  used,  incidentally  proved  to 
them  how  desirable  it  was  that  they  should  possess  some  acquain- 
tance with  chemical  principles  and  with  the  characters  and  qualities 
of  living  organisms.  When  the  institutes  of  medicine,  discarding 
clinical  authority,  initiated  the  methods  of  direct  observation  and 
controlled  experiment,  students  soon  discovered  for  themselves  that 
they  could  not  grasp  the  facts  underlying  those  subjective  concep- 
tions of  the  normal  and  the  irregular  they  were  expected  to  master, 
without  some  knowledge  of  physics  and  some  understanding  of  the 
structure  and  functions  of  vital  mechanisms. 
Early  journeymanship,  originally  spent  at  seats  of  learning 
discussing  debatable  questions  and  "wrangling"  for  degrees,  was 
replaced  by  a  system  of  "walking  the  hospitals."  This  developed 
into  "a  course  of  professional  studies"  which  expanded  at  the  ex- 
pense of  pupilage  until  the  latter  disappeared. 
Medicine  found  that  professional  training  gave  better  results 
than  the  practical  instruction  of  pupilage,  but  that  the  opportunities 
for  education,  as  contrasted  with  instruction,  which  pupilage  affords, 
cannot  be  provided  during  a  course  of  professional  study.  More 
was  needed  than  a  widening  of  the  scientific  foundation  on  which 
sound  professional  training  rests.  In  order  to  "kill  two  birds  with 
one  stone"  the  "training  in  pure  science"  which  future  practitioners 
ought  to  undergo,  was  made  a  discipline  distinct  from  the  profes- 
sional training  which  had  to  be  imparted.  The  purpose  was  as 
sound  as  the  theory  on  which  it  is  based.  But  the  extent  to  which 
it  may  be  attained  depends  on  the  nature  of  the  scientific  discipline 
provided. 
The  policy  interests  you.  Pharmacy  sometimes  pays  it  the 
compliment  of  advocating  its  adoption.  This  suggestion  emanates 
from  men  of  vision  who  forsee  a  time  when,  in  pharmacy  too,  pupil- 
age may  be  only  a  memory.  When  that  day  comes  the  need  to 
follow  medical  example  may  have  arisen.  But  while  practical  pu- 
pilage in  pharmacy  remains  possible  the  need  for  a  preliminary 
"course  in  pure  science"  is  not  clear,  and  the  policy  long  adopted  by 
the  Society  seems  preferable.  When  Pharmacy  has  to  devise  a. new 
policy,  she  may  do  well  to  study,  rather  than  copy  the  example  set 
by  medicine.  She  may  then,  perhaps,  avoid  some  far  from  trivial 
difficulties. 
