Vanillin has been in good demand, with sales within the quoted range of 32c to 40c as to quantity and seller.

Chemicals.

Amyl acetate has advanced in the interval in sympathy with conditions abroad affecting the crude material; quoted $1.50 to $1.60.

Arsenic, white, has developed increased strength since our last owing to scarcity. The spot supply is almost exhausted and dealers decline to shade 12c. A sale of a consignment afloat was made at this figure.

Blue vitriol offers in a limited way from second hands at 54c, but manufacturers' quotations remain at 5.90c.

Brimstone, crude seconds, is without special variation, the tone of the market being steady at the previous range of $22.121⁄2 to $22.622.

Bromine and bromide salts are irregular and unsettled. Potash is freely offered at 15c, and it is said that a firm offer of about 1c under that figure would be accepted, though we hear of no sale at less than 15c to 16c. Ammonium and sodium bromides are correspondingly lower, 23c being named for the former and 21c for the latter.

Carbolic acid is in less abundant supply and holders of the limited stock in drums have advanced quotations to 141⁄2c to 152c.

Chlorate potash is maintained firmly at the recently established range of 9c to 94c for crystal and 94c to 10c for powdered, in jobbing quantities.

Citric acid is maintained in firmer position and holders are not free sellers at the present range of 38c to 381⁄2c, the tendency of values being upward.

Copperas is in moderately active demand and we hear of sales at 572c to 622c for barrels and bags, respectively.

Cream tartar is inactive, but there appears no pressure to sell below 221⁄2c to 224c for crystals and 2234c to 23c for powdered.

Saltpetre is a shade easier and quotations have been marked down to 44c to 4%c for crude, as to quality.

Stearic acid is firmer and the revised quotations are 9c to 91⁄2 for single press, 10c to 101⁄2c for double and 112c to 12c for extra quality.

Zinc oxide has developed increased firmness, quotations for G. S. and R. S. having been advanced to 8c, 81⁄2c and 72c to 7%c, respectively; domestic is unchanged at 5c to 52c.

Zinc sulphate has advanced owing to scarcity, the revised quotation standing at 22c to 24c.

Essential Oils.

Anise is meeting with increased inquiry, but the prices show no change from the previous range of $1.35 to $1.372.

Bergamot and other Messina essences are maintained firmly, bergamot being quoted at $2.20 to $2.30, lemon at 60c to 75c and sweet orange at $2.00 to $2.25.

Cajuput has been moderately active since our last, though we hear of a sale at a concession on the quoted figures. The inside quotation is now 50c.

Cassia, in common with other Chinese oils, is held with increased firmness, though prices are nominally unchanged at 771⁄2c to 85c for 75-80 per cent.

Citronella has attracted unusual attention since our last, and values have jumped from 34c to 40c and 42c. Great difficulty in obtaining unadulterated oil is reported, and offers of shipments from Ceylon are said to be unobtainable, though rumors are also current of a combination of the principal shippers to maintain prices.

Pennyroyal is firmer, quotations for prime American having been advanced to $1.25 to $1.30.

Peppermint is developing increased strength, and holders show no disposition to shade $3.10 to $3.20 for HGH, while bulk oil is firmly maintained at $2.40 to $2.60.

cases.

camphor, which has marked another advance, bringing the current quotation to 94c to 94%c, the higher figure being named for Curacao aloes continues scarce and firm at 6c to 64c, and Barbadoes is steady at 14c to 15c. Arabic sorts are in moderate demand, with the sale at 6c to 11c. Gamboge is held and selling in a jobbing way at 85c to 90c. Asafoetida is dull and neglected, though quotations are nominally unchanged. Mastic is scarce and wanted, and quotations have been advanced to 48c to 50c. Myrrh is held more firmly at 25c.

Roots.

Little of new interest has developed in the market for roots, the demand seldom rising above jobbing proportions for any variety. Ipecac continues on the downward grade and recent sales were at $1.50 to $1.55, the two varieties commanding the same price. Russian musk is a shade lower, being offered at 13c to 14c, while pink is fractionally higher at 60c. Mexican sarsaparilla continues to reflect an easy undertone and quotations have been further reduced to 92c to 94c. Senega is generally quoted at 57c to 58c, but important demand is lacking. Golden Seal is not inquired for to any extent and spot quotations have been reduced to $1.35 to $1.30.

Seeds.

Anise, Italian, is jobbing in a moderately active way at 82c to 10c.

Canary, Smyrna, is lower in sympathy with corresponding conditions at primary sources, and we hear of sales at 4c to 44c.

Caraway is maintained steadily at 664c.

Celery is held less firmly, owing to lack of demand, and holders offer more freely at 7c to 75%c.

Fennel, German, has weakened in the interval under the influence of slow demand and somewhat freer offering, and the revised quotations are 9c to 10c.

New Crop Digitalis.

Lehn & Fink, 120 William street, New York, have announced that they received the new crop digitalis direct from Stafford, Allen & Sons, Limited, of London, England. This concern have

large farms in Bedfordshire, near Ampthill, where they grow medicinal drugs under the very best conditions for a production of the highest quality drugs. In the production of their drugs full recognition is given to the fact that much of the activity of the drugs depends upon the care with which the leaves are handled. In the

case of digitalis the leaves are stripped from the plant immediately after collection, the sound leaves are sorted out, put on trays, carried to the drying room and ultimately packed in tins such as is illustrated herewith. Across the cover of the tin is placed the special label of the company.

In a drug like digitalis the utmost reliance has to be placed on the preparation of the dried herb, and really no druggist or pharmacist should employ digitalis leaves in the preparation of infusions or tinctures which he has not himself prepared, or which do not come from very reliable sources, as through want of an active preparation much harm may be done to a patient. It is, therefore, a druggist's absolute duty to insure that his foxglove leaves have been carefully dried and carefully stored. This should be done regardless of the price of the leaves, for careful cultivation and drying of the leaves, of course, entails much more labor and expense, but to know that digitalis comes from an absolutely reliable source is a better assurance of an active preparation than a doubtful physiological test, which the druggist cannot himself control.

PHILADELPHIA.

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CHICAGO

ously against any attempts to make it easy for incompetent persons to deal out habit-forming drugs or poisons. One of the amendments proposed in a bill fathered by Assemblyman Lupton seems to be in the interest of jobbing druggists, for it seeks to remove the restriction in section 199 of the State pharmacy law against the sale of medicines or poisons at wholesale to consumers. Other proposed amendments would make it possible for general dealers to set up at country crossroads stores for the retailing of drugs and medicines. While we naturally view with disfavor any outside interference with the pharmacy law our opposition to several measures now under discussion in the Legislature is not based on this, but arises from a proper interest for the public, who will in the end be sufferers by any weakening of the pharmacy law.

A MODEL PHARMACY LAW FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

No pun is intended in the statement that pharmacy in a measure has come into its own. The passage in the House of Representatives of the Babcock bill (H. R. 8,997) for the regulation of the practice of pharmacy and the sale of poisons in the District of Columbia is something on which the pharmacists of Washington, D. C., are to be distinctly congratulated, for the bill in question was framed by the pharmacists of the district and it includes a section prohibiting the sale of narcotic drugs which is in effect the antinarcotic law advocated by the American Pharmaceutical Association. While the law is intended primarily to regulate the sale of poisons and to control the sale of narcotics, its general features are very comprehensive, including as it does a general pharmacy law providing rules for the admission to and the regulation of the practice of pharmacy. A most important section of the new law, which met with considerable opposition, specifically provides that the superintendent of police and the corporation counsel of the District of Columbia are charged with its enforcement, and upon complaint by proceedings in court the commissioners of pharmacy have power to revoke licenses. A novelty in pharmacy laws provides that courts having jurisdiction are directed to "charge regularly their grand juries to investigate alleged violations." Senator Gallinger, of New Hampshire, has charge of the measure in the Senate and has already moved its advancement, so that its passage and final enactment seem assured.

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PHARMACIST.

Some of our French contemporaries have been re-enunciating a principle of law, as applied to the pharmacist, which has been long recognized in English law—that is, that the pharmacist owning the store is responsible for the acts of his assistants. One of the Paris courts, the 11th Chamber of the Seine Tribunal, has declared that the pharmacist is legally responsible for everything which takes place in his store. The case arose out of the preparation of a prescription for 20 pills, in which the dispenser made the mistake of reading it as a talis dosis prescription. The prescription was prepared by an apprentice, who failed to realize the large amount of arsenic and strychnine which it contained. The pharmacist himself was held culpable and sentenced to imprisonment for six days in addition to a fine of 100 francs. The physician was held equally guilty with the pharmacist, there being some ambiguity in the directions to the pharmacist, and he and the pharmacist were sentenced conjointly to pay a fine of 500 francs and costs. An appeal from this decision was not sustained.

Faults of Our Educational System.

We present in this issue the last installment of a paper by Prof. Oscar Oldberg, of Chicago, in which he has undertaken to set forth concisely the evils besetting the professional side of pharmacy and to formulate plans for the elimination of the evils indicated.

While we are unable to agree with much that Professor Oldberg has to say regarding the degradation of pharmacy, there is enough ground for criticism in existing conditions to warrant a careful study of those conditions, with a view to their amelioration. The spread of education has established higher standards in all lines of endeavor, and pharmacy is no exception. We require much more of pharmacists now than ever before, and if the particular standards are open to crit icism, this is an error of judgment of the individuals charged with their formulation.

There is so much of new knowledge to be acquired by the children of to-day that pedagogues are prone to err in the direction of giving to their pupils a smattering of all knowledge, rather than to endeavor to make them masters of a few basic studies upon which the later and fuller education of the pupil can be grounded.

The complaint is made by board of pharmacy examiners that our high school graduates are unable to solve the ordinary problems in simple arithmetic which are daily presented at the prescription counter, and unfortunately the records of our examining bodies, whether of schools or of State boards, tend to bear out this charge.

The explanation is simple and the remedy may be easily pointed out, though it will probably never be applied. When the pupil graduates from the grammar school he generally has a fair grounding in the basic principles of arithmetic. Upon entering the high school he is immediately confronted with higher mathematical problems, by which we mean the study of algebra and geometry. After absorbing a smattering of these he gets no more mathematics, devoting the time which should be spent in a thorough drilling in arithmetic to obtaining a smattering of languages-French, German and Latinstudying at the same time zoology, botany, drawing, ancient and modern history, physics, chemistry, international law, psychology and English literature, not to mention a half dozen other special studies which may at the moment be the fashion among pedagogues.

The observer is tempted to believe that the teacher is more interested in being able to present a high sounding curriculum for the admiration and envy of his colleagues than in turning out pupils who have learned that most important thing of all-namely, how to study.

It is manifestly impossible within the compass of the few years which can be allotted to grammar school and to high school for the pupil to cover the whole field of knowledge. The one important thing which can be taught is how to study. If the pupil is made to learn a few things and learn each one of them thoroughly he is prepared to go on after leaving school and apply to any special studies which he may wish to take up the same methods which have made him a master of the few primary studies, a thorough mastery of which is essential as a basis for all education.

Where a pupil has given two hours a week for ten months to German and during the next ten months is required to give that time to French, it is not to be expected that the average boy of 16 or 17 will learn enough of the language to be of any

use to him. He acquires merely a smattering, which is practically useless and gained at a serious sacrifice of his ideals as to methods of study.

The young men who graduate from our colleges or so-called universities are inclined to sneer at the comparatively elementary curriculum of the schools at Annapolis and West Point, but the difference between the graduates of these institutions and those of our colleges is that the West Pointer and the Annapolis man know what they know thoroughly, and have had it so drilled into them that they cannot forget it. They may be lacking in some of the educational frills, but in the basic studies they are so thoroughly grounded that in later life their knowledge is always available.

What we need in our educational institutions everywhere is just such thoroughness in a few elementary studies, leaving to postgraduate work that specialization which is necessary in most cases, and abandoning the futile effort which is now made to crowd into four years of high school a complete compendium of all the knowledge that the world is heir to.

It is in our public common school system that the reforms must begin.

The Stevens Bill Should Be Amended.

The

The bill introduced in the Senate of the State of New York by Mr. Stevens, and intended to regulate the manufacture, sale and labeling of drugs and proprietary medicines, should receive the closest scrutiny of the legislative committees of the various local associations as well as of the committee of the State association. The bill was, it is generally understood, prepared by the New York Health Department with the advice and assistance of a self-constituted committee of physicians and chemists, and we have yet to hear that a single pharmacist was consulted in regard to the measure until it had been presented for passage in the Legislature and had reached the committee stage. The Kings County Pharmaceutical Society, ever alert to detect and head off movements in pharmacy not initiated by pharmacists, and which appear but calculated to add to the burdens under which pharmacists now conduct business in this State, made prompt objection to the measure. The objection of the druggists of Brooklyn was based chiefly on that provision of the bill which takes from the Board of Pharmacy and places with the Health Department certain supervisory powers. As pharmacists our Brooklyn brethren are quite justified in the stand which they have taken. legislative committee of the Manhattan Pharmaceutical Association appear to be indifferent to the maintenance of the integrity of the Board of Pharmacy, for when the question of opposing the Stevens bill on this and other grounds was discussed at this month's meeting it found only a few supporters. The Manhattan druggists have, however, asked for a change in the bill on a different account. Objection was made and sustained to the enumeration in the bill of certain medical terms referring to symptoms which presupposed on the part of the pharmacist a knowledge both of pharmacodynamics and therapeutics, which is not possessed by physicians themselves. Not a day passes but what some new remedy is launched on the market of which pharmacists know little beyond what the manufacturers are pleased to tell in their advertising circulars, and of which physicians are even less well informed. The bill should certainly be amended in this particular and undoubtedly will be when the weakness of the paragraph containing the descriptions of drug action which are intended to place certain drugs in the list of poisons are better understood by those responsible for it.

THE ÆSTHETICS OF PHARMACEUTICAL DISPENSING.'

BY HY. P. HYNSON, PH.G., Baltimore, Md.

Before we begin to discuss the actual compounding of prescriptions I should like to make a few remarks regarding a phase of dispensing which, in my opinion, has not received quite the attention it deserves, especially from a commercial point of view. I refer to that which, I think, may be properly styled the æsthetics of dispensing, and to make this reference more distinctive and more certain in its application I will venture to draw an easily visible line between the appearance of things that are dependent upon strictly pharmaceutical manipulations and the appearance that is dependent upon general æsthetic laws, which are not necessarily attached to pharmaceutical study..

It is the habit of some enthusiastically impractical persons to regard only that which is impracticable and ultra useful as scientific, and to such individuals it does not appear creditable that good results can be obtained either through the application of common sense principles or from the acceptance of laws established by repeated experiences. Yet, with this school of philosophers well in mind, I am firm in the belief, as heretofore expressed, that our pharmacists are generally well enough trained in that which is usually understood as the science of pharmacy and also in the art of pharmacy, excepting in the particular field to which I seek to draw your attention. I refer to containers, style of labels, the writing of labels, the copying of prescriptions and the corking, capping and wrapping of prescriptions.

The mere mentioning of these subjects may, I fear, put me in an unenviable light before you and bring to your minds only the commonplace the seemingly unimportant. I assure you I am by no means unmindful of your regard and respect, yet as sensitive as I confess myself to be I am perfectly willing to hazard any reputation I may have if I may but seriously interest you in what careful observation leads me to believe, is one of the greatest deficiencies in pharmaceutical practice today.

I am quite confident that no little of the success attained and much of the reputation enjoyed by our more prominent pharmacists has been won by unusual attention to details in the finishing of prescriptions that are regarded by many as nonessential, and think over it as much as I may, view it from as many points as I possibly can, it still remains a positive conviction that much of the study of our students goes for naught because they have not been impressed by the commercial value of a more æsthetical practice. The canvas is strong and strongly framed; carefully selected colors are on it in abundance, but truth and taste and touch are missing.

Is it not true in other phases of living that all values above those based upon the demands of actual necessity are rated by the standards established by our more æsthetic senses? Is it not true that the relative beauty of an object makes it more or less precious than another, and that the particular things which appeal to our more æsthetic tastes are the ones that win our greatest tribute? If all this is true regarding other lines of commerce, why should it not apply quite as pertinently to prescription pharmacy?

This commercial value is made strikingly apparent when contemplating two apartment houses now in course of construction in new Baltimore. Equally well located, of equal size and offering apparently equal accommodations and conveniences, the suites in one will rent for $450 to $900, while in the other they are eagerly sought for at rentals running from $2,000 to $3,500. The difference is due simply to the fact that the builder of one refuses to lay sufficient sacrifice upon beauty's altar and must needs violate all of beauty's laws, while tthe other, paying ample tribute, is able to meet the requirements of good taste and refinement. Many of us pay this tribute, sometimes lavishly, on account of our stores, in their fixtures and furnishings. No doubt these expenditures in time and thought and money are wisely made, but are we quite consistent? Do all use

1 Read at the February meeting of the Manhattan Pharmaceutical Association.

time and thought and money to produce the same effects upon our products, especially prescriptions? Does it occur to many of us that a large percentage of our patrons, possibly the majority, never enter our stores? Certainly many do not, while they are taking our medicines. Comparatively few of the physicians whose prescriptions we fill have ever seen the costly fixtures and elaborate decorations of our establishments. Nurses, who have no little influence with their patients, seldom, if ever, visit the store to which they send much trade. Patients, physicians and nurses alike have much more to do with our containers, their labels and wrappings, have them in sight so much that it would seem wise for us to try by every means in our power to favorably impress them through the appearance of our packages and labels.

The details to which I would call your special attention are a part of a pharmacist's technics and bear much the same relationship to his knowledge of chemistry, physics and materia medica as the technics of the modern surgeon bear to the latter's knowledge of anatomy, physiology and pathology. The one is as important and as necessary, relatively, as the other. The standing and success of the pharmacist are as dependent upon his technics as are those of the surgeon.

The importance of this subject impels me to strive to present it carefully, and, as far as I am able, fundamentally and systematically, for in no other way do I believe it will be helpfully understood. It is knowledge based on sound principles, elastic enough to meet the varying tests to which it may be put. To some of you I fear I must say you are inclined always to underestimate that with which you have most to do. "Familiarity breeds contempt" is one of the very truest of true proverbs. It was by dint of much effort that we slowly, very slowly, acquired the power of speech and became possessed of a limited vocabulary, and because we can make ourselves understood, or think we are understood, we rate talking as quite simple. It is only when we have compared our abilities in this direction with those of one whom we know to be cultured that we begin to understand how much there is yet to win and how little we really know about such a commonplace thing as fair speech, and then, when we begin to study and continue to study how to talk, we realize with singular surprise how intricate and how very interesting this every day matter has become. The proposition that it is only through and by the eager contemplation of a subject or object that we discover whatever is hidden within it of worth, of comfort and of beauty is indeed trite, but needs to be stated to make positive the necessity for study along the lines indicated.

It must be granted, however, that the possession of sufficient knowledge in detail to meet any exigency is as utterly impossible in this phase of dispensing as in any other; fundamental knowledge is what we must have. It is what some call talent or knack-that which by fortunate circumstances or accident some learned and learned to value very early, even before they knew what it was. It is with laws and principles that we must become familiar. Fortunate, indeed, then are those of you who, without thought or application, are possessed of a knowledge of the essential principles of beauty, who without penalty of mortifying experience recognize true order and who, missing the shame of many mistakes, know what is pleasingly appropriate.

Our efforts, if this be true and we would produce the really beautiful (that which pleases and continues to please the senses), must be directed toward the production of the useful, the true, the well ordered and the appropriate; these are the essentials and they must be characteristic of our offerings. There may be doubt as to their application, and you must bear with me a few minutes more while I try to make this clear.

One prescription is for 1 ounce of potassium bromide, which is directed to be dissolved at once in a pint of water. Another is for an equal amount of the same substance, a half teaspoonful of which, you see, is to be taken in a wineglass full of water. The last mentioned should undoubtedly be dispensed in a well stoppered, wide mouthed bottle, while the former as certainly should not, because the bottle would be useless, extravagant and in appropriate. A neat package, using first parchment or

waxed paper and then white paper or an envelope, would be more appropriate for the first. I cannot persuade myself that a glass stoppered bottle is either useful or appropriate for chalk or bismuth mixtures, while I would be equally as much offended to see even diluted acids dispensed in corked bottles. Ordinarily, rubber stoppers are hideously ugly to me, but they look particularly attractive in bottles containing fluid extract of cascara or compound tincture of benzoin, because they are the only stoppers that can be invariably removed from the containers of such substances; in such instances they are useful and appropriate.

It is difficult to believe that either the physician who writes a prescription or the party who pays for its compounding contemplated that its container should be made the carrier of a direct advertisement. That is not for what it was properly intended, and the larger the space taken for advertising purposes on either label or bottle the greater the violation of the true purposes of both. It is quite right that our names and addresses should appear sufficiently large to be easily read-this might be useful for obvious reasons-but why we should be so particular about calling attention to the fact that we are pharmaceutical chemists and not shoemakers, reliable druggists and not indifferent grocers, does not appear. When descriptive reference is useful or necessary then it should by all means be used, as on envelopes in which prescriptions are delivered and on address tags. Nor do I believe we should make our labels the carriers of questionable art productions. Whether they represent bridal bouquets, funeral wreaths, the head of Minerva or a Japanese fishing scene I cannot see the use of these or why they are appropriate. Yet any of them, no matter how objectionable in the abstract, may become acceptable if consistently adopted as personal insignia or as trademarks; they then become useful, appropriate, true.

We shall have but little difficulty in pointing out the appliIcation of the rule of order. It is in order and quite necessary that the figures, called letters, we use in writing should be distinctly made, so they may be easily distinguished from each other; it is also in order that the letters of the different classes should be uniform in size and that those which extend below the line should be of the same length below as a similar letter would be above. If we will clearly follow these very simple rules of order our writing will undoubtedly be easily read, useful and attractive. Great variation brings great disorder.

I believe if by some transformation you and I should become laymen and have a child ill we would not be pleased, if, when we were about to administer the little one's medicine, we had to look through an inch or more of some pharmacist's card and then meet a lot of numbers, followed by a more mysterious arrangement of these-if not 4-11-44, perhaps 4-11-05— after which the directions, more or less crowded, might be discovered. This surely is not orderly. It may be that appropriateness should sacrifice something to proportion or balance and a label might possibly be more attractive with the name at top and address below, but there can be no good excuse offered for giving both the greater prominence. The rule of order is important. First should come the name of the patient, followed by directions for use; the doctor's name upon whose authority the directions are given; the date-using name of month, not numerals-then your number list, next to or with your card.

Trusting I have shown how the fundamental laws of beauty, more or less intense, may be applied to all these things, I seek now to prove by the specimens I offer that these laws are not followed, that the better principles of ornamentation are generally violated and that more attention to these details would enhance the commercial value of our various attainments, both scientific and technical.

These specimens are not selected; they are all I have been able to collect since I decided to discuss this subject about a month ago. Neither do they, as you will see, exempt any lolocality; they are from North and South, East and West, and the Central districts included. They represent no particular school nor class; neither must they be considered to represent the

parties whose names appear upon the labels. They represent individual dispensers whose identity I do not know, else I would not show them. And, lastly, they do not represent the collections of a fault finder, who is trying to destroy, but they are the efforts of a devoted friend, trying to make our faults plain that we may by united effort correct them and thereby, if we may, raise pharmacy to a higher plane of usefulness and honor.

[Professor Hynson then exhibited on the blackboard various prescriptions which illustrated the several points brought out in his paper. These prescriptions will be presented in a later issue. Our report of the meeting is printed elsewhere.]

(Written for the American Druggist.) THE SYSTEMATIC AMENDMENT OF AMERICAN PHARMACY.

BY OSCAR OLDBERG.
Northwestern University.
(Concluded from page 64.)
III.

EXAMINATION HAS BECOME A FETISH.

One of the strangest and most mischievous peculiarities of our pharmacy laws and the manner of their execution has 66 examinabeen the exaggerated importance attached to the tion." Examinations have their uses. They are something more than a necessary evil. But when they are exalted to the degree of all-sufficiency it is, indeed, time to call a halt.

Actual training and study constitute the real preparation for pharmacy as well as for all other technical and professional work. This preparation is the substance; the examination is but one of the means by which the sufficiency of that preparation may be tested if the examination is conducted in a masterly way.

We may to a certain extent recognize the substance from its shadow; but in the absence of any evidence that the substance ever had any existence it would seem to be vain to attempt to photograph it. It is much easier to find out whether or not the candidate has actually made any serious effort to master his task than it is to determine how well he succeeded.

If the girl has no hands it is not necessary to place her at a piano to find out that she cannot play.

In two of our States the laws do not prescribe any kind of training either in the shop or in the school; any candidate who may pass the examination held by the Board of Pharmacy must be licensed. It would be very much better to require definite courses of study and training to be proved by certificates satisfactory to the board and to drop the examination.

Common sense would seem to dictate that the candidate should be required to first comply with reasonable regulations fixing in definite terms the training which he must have, and when he has shown that these prescribed terms have been met he should then, and not until then, be permitted to take the examination.

More than three-fourths of the candidates examined by the boards of pharmacy are men who never attended any pharmaceutical school, men whose shop training is mostly commercial and who have given little or no attempt to study of any kind, except cramming.

One of the most difficult problems a conscientious teacher in any school has to solve is how to conduct examinations so that they will fairly show the student's real condition and progress. A teacher who comes in personal contact with the student almost daily and observes his habits and work can form a far more accurate estimate of his ability and worth from that personal contact with him than from any final examination. A teacher of experience knows very well that even the most carefully conducted examination is frequently disappointing in that its results do not reflect the truth. The best men, of course, always pass and the worst fail, but in all those cases the examination is to the teacher superfluous. Good students may make a very poor showing, and very poor students sometimes make a good showing in examinations.

When the candidates are utter strangers to the examiners