858 
Professional  Training. 
5  Am-  Jour,  Pharm. 
I      Dec,  1921. 
accidents  in  his  establishment.  He  had  seen  our  men  at  work  and 
thought  their  training  had  been  good.  "Since  I  employed  your 
gardeners,"  he  said,  "there  have  been  no  accidents.  They  may  know 
nothing  about  'circular  saws  and  steam-hammers,'  but  they  carry 
out  instructions  and  see  that  those  under  them  do  so." 
But  we  need  not  go  so  far  afield  for  evidence  that  pupilage 
alone  may  educate  as  well  as  instruct.  The  histories  of  pharmacy 
and  gardencraft  bear  eloquent  testimony  to  this.  In  both,  the  pro- 
vision of  a  training  in  pure  science,  as  apart  from  pupilage,  is  a 
thing  of  yesterday.  The  subject-matter  of  our  Pharmacopoeias  and 
the  contents  of  our  gardens  show  that  members  of  both  crafts  were 
addicted  to  observation  and  experiment,  and  were  scientific  work- 
ers without  knowing  it,  before  "natural  studies"  began. 
SCIENCE  BEFORE  PRACTICE. 
The  arrangement  under  which  a  training  in  pure  science  pre- 
cedes practical  instruction  is  of  interest  to  you,  owing  to  its  ad- 
vocacy for  pharmacy.  In  theory  such  an  arrangement  is  admir- 
able. The  principles  that  underlie  practice  being  already  appreci- 
ated, the  practice  involved  may  be  mastered  more  readily  and  with 
less  delay.  That  the  desired  result  is  attained  when  the  sciences 
have  been  fully  mastered,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt.  Even  in 
cases  where  only  the  principles  of  the  sciences  involved  have  been 
taught,  advances  in  knowledge  as  well  as  mastery  of  the  craft  have 
followed.  You  know  of  such  in  the  history  of  pharmacy ;  let  me 
cite  two  from  that  of  gardencraft.  Hales  as  an  undergraduate 
learned  the  principles  of  physics.  Applying  these  to  phenomena  in 
his  vicarage  garden  at  Twickenham,  he  founded  the  study  of  plant 
physiology.  Mendel,  in  the  same  way,  applied  the  results  of  an 
early  training  in  pure  science  when  he  founded  the  study  of  gene- 
tics in  the  monastic  garden  at  Brunn.  But  in  neither  case  were  the 
scientific  principles  which  led  to  such  notable  results  acquired  with 
the  object  of  enabling  these  clergymen  to  improve  natural  knowl- 
edge or  to  master  the  practice  of  the  craft  they  benefited.  When  a 
scientific  subject  is  deliberately  prescribed  for  the  latter  purpose, 
there  is  at  times  a  tendency  to  think  of  its  study  in  terms  of  some 
impending  test.  We  can  understand  the  relief  felt  when  such  an 
examination  is  over.  But  we  can  also  understand,  even  if  we  dis- 
approve, the  tendency  there  sometimes  is  to  forget  not  only  the 
