Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
If we consider the present awakening in pharmacy, it may seemto some that we are making very rapid strides, but as a matter offact the progress of pharmaceutical education in this countryhas been comparatively slow. The history of pharmacy in thiscountry may be divided into three periods: (1) The pioneer periodduring the sixteenth century, when there were no physicians, andthe general storekeeper who sold dry goods, groceries, books andpaints, also sold medicines and prescribed them; (2) the colonialperiod during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when educatedphysicians from abroad emigrated to the colonies and prescribedas well as dispensed medicines; (3) the college period, or the periodof organization and development, during the nineteenth century,when pharmacy became a distinct profession and business, and collegesof pharmacy were established, these numbering nearly 100 atthe present time. We are now entering, after nearly a century,upon the fourth period, namely, that of standards in education, andwe are endeavoring to fix the position of pharmacy among the otherprofessions.
The problem of pharmaceutical education involves two phases,namely (1) that of the natural ability and preliminary qualificationsof the applicants for entrance to the colleges and schools of pharmacy,and (2) that of the character and kind of instruction thatshall be given by a recognized teaching institution in pharmacy.102Not only are these two classes of standards being considered by theteaching bodies themselves, but also by the boards of pharmacy,and with the enactment of laws in various States it will now bepossible for more or less concerted action to be taken throughout theUnited States.
Our system of popular education is the boast of our country, andwell may it be, for it has been making steady advances during allthe years of our national existence. At the present time thefacilities for instruction and the opportunities for obtaining a goodgeneral education are so ample that it seems hardly credible thatany one who is desirous of obtaining an education should failin the attempt.
It follows logically that as the standard of general education isadvanced, the standards in colleges, technical schools and universitieswill also be advanced, and thus we find to-day that the majority ofthese institutions are not only constantly improving their curriculabut they are seeing to it that those who go to them for instruction arequalified to pursue the prescribed line of studies. The only wonderis that the entrance standards in some of the professional schoolshave not been advanced more rapidly than they have, for in noother way have they been more handicapped than in this.
It is true there may be some parts of our country where theopportunities for obtaining an education are more or less limited,but this is no argument why those in the vanguard should stop intheir course and wait for the center of pop