610     High-Lights  in  History  of  Phila.  C.  of  Phar.     { Amsep0tur*i92iarm' 
with  a  person  or  persons  engaged  in  and  qualified  to  conduct  the  drug 
business."  Thus  vocational  training  was  first  established  in  phar- 
macy as  a  prerequisite  for  graduation. 
About  the  time  of  the  Civil  War,  a  radical  change  took  place 
in  the  retail  drug  business.  The  manufacturing  of  drugs  and  chemi- 
cals was  taken  over  by  manufacturing  houses,  more  and  more,  the 
old  apprenticeship  custom  of  legally  indenturing  youths  to  learn 
"the  drug  and  apothecary  business"  rapidly  fell  into  disuse  and  the 
character  of  practical  experience  in  the  retail  drug  store  changed,  be- 
coming less  and  less  adequate,  so  far  as  manufacturing  was  con- 
cerned; although  the  underlying  principle  of  drug  store  experience, 
with  its  familiarity  with  work^a-day  technique,  continued  funda- 
mentally sound.  Hence,  it  became  evident,  that  the  College  should 
give  laboratory  instruction ;  but  the  means  of  the  College  were 
limited,  and  it  could  not  see  its  way  clear,  at  this  time,  to  give  such 
instruction,  especially  as  it  was  contemplating  the  erection  of  new 
buildings  in  the  near  future. 
Next  to  its  teachers,  the  biggest  asset  of  a  College  is  its 
alumni,  directly  and  indirectly — directly  in  exemplifying  its  teach- 
ing and  indirectly  by  its  work  for  the  Alma  Mater;  and  no  college 
in  any  land  has  more  earnest,  loyal  and  enthusiastic  alumni 
than  has  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  including  those  of 
the  Medico  Chirurgical  College  merged  with  our  College  in  191 6, 
and  who,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  are  voicing  their  praises  of  its 
work  and  worth ;  and  that  their  words  are  not  idle  words,  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  probably  85  per  cent,  of  the  matriculants  of  the  Col- 
lege come  through  the  influence  of  its  alumni. 
As  Richard  M.  Shoemaker,  fifty-nine  years  a  graduate  of  this 
College  and  the  first  treasurer  of  the  Alumni  Association  (1864), 
and  beloved  by  all,  writes  me :  "The  Alumni  Association  of  the  Col- 
lege always  has  been  and  is  the  backbone  of  all  the  energies  for  the 
advancement  of  the  institution." 
And  we  cannot  mention  the  Alumni  Association  without  men- 
tioning Edward  C.  Jones,  '64,  who  with  his  classmate,  Albert  E. 
Ebert,  '64,  founded  the  Alumni  Association,  and  worked  indefa- 
tigably  for  the  College  and  its  students.  The  vessel  of  clay  that  held 
his  soul  may  have  failed  perhaps,  to  reflect  its  beauty,  but  his  per- 
sonality had  a  charm  that  endeared  him  to  all ;  and  the  good  he  did 
lives  after  him. 
