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BULLETIN OF PHARMACY

THE TRUE MEASURE OF VALUE IN A PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL IS ITS EVERY-DAY USEFUL. NESS, ITS FUND OF PRACTICAL AND HELPFUL IDEAS, ITS WEALTH OF ARTICLES WHICH THE LIVE DRUGGIST CANNOT AFFORD TO LEAVE UNREAD.

VOL. XV.

DETROIT, MICH., JANUARY, 1901.

No. 1.

THE

instructors themselves were, of all men, the most eager

BULLETIN OF PHARMACY to raise the standard of preliminary education, to ex

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TERMS OF ADMISSION TO SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. Among the many letters evoked by our present discussion respecting the measure of education that should open to the young student the doors of a reputable college of pharmacy, we have now before us one which with a fierce and somewhat cynical indignation pays its compliments to certain cramming schools whose only thought is the passing of the board examination. The writer approves our recent editorial, "but," he inquires skeptically, "what good will it do? There are 'schools' that seek denunciation. It advertises them. It tells young men where the 'quick and easies' are to be found. They live by their shame, and the greater the shame the richer the living."

It tells

With such educational carrion we have nothing to do. The cramming schools which pretend to prepare the student for the Board examination in a few weeks are wholly beyond and beneath the range of the present discussion. We are dealing with possible reforms in reputable colleges manned by self-respecting teachers. In broaching the subject we were convinced that the

clude the ignorant and illiterate, to improve the quality of their instruction, to do their honest duty by the better half of their classes, to augment the value of their diplomas, to make their degrees a coveted distinction, to equip their pupils not for examination but for life! That we had not reckoned unwisely is shown plainly by the number of letters from college teachers now appearing in these pages. It is highly creditable to the teachers of pharmacy that the risk of a pecuniary sacrifice abates not a particle their assent to a sound principle nor their ardent desire for a wholesome reform. Their communications make encouraging reading. Naturally enough they lay at other doors a proper share in the accountability. It is, unhappily, only too true that the druggist is himself often to blame for the admission of the glaringly unfit. It lies with the druggist to elevate or debauch his calling by exhibiting a proper concern, or no concern at all, for the character of his apprentices. The druggist who admits into his pharmacy as apprentice an ignorant dunce who will "work cheap" has no right to quarrel with the rankest specimen of a cramming shop. Then, too, the Boards are far from blameless. The remedy for illiteracy and incompetency is largely in their hands. The fear is sometimes expressed that if they venture to use their power for good, an unsympathetic public sentiment will sweep them and their laws out of existence. We fail to perceive the danger or a single instance of its realization. We have yet to find a State in which the life of the Board has been actually imperilled by the demand that all applicants for a license to practice pharmacy must be able to figure accurately, to spell correctly, and to exhibit the general knowledge of an intelligent grammar - school graduate. We hardly fancy that public resentment is likely to be soon incurred by any Board in the United States-for the severity of its requirements!

By some of our correspondents it is justly contended that it would be a hardship to keep out of college cer

tain poor and earnest young men whose early advantages for education had been scanty, and who, though ill-prepared at the beginning, soon make good their deficiencies and are graduated among the leaders of the class. Students of this stamp sometimes make the brightest ornaments of college and calling. To bar their way would be educational snobbery. Very true, indeed. We see no sound objection to the making of judicious exceptions provided they are made not for revenue, and in good faith; provided the promising student who falls short of the entrance standard is rigidly "conditioned;" provided the conditions are faithfully worked off; provided both degree and diploma are withheld until all the requirements have been satisfied. Indulgence and consideration are pardonable in dealing with worthy beginners; at graduation, they are a discredit to the school.

A number of very interesting communications in this and in the next issue of the BULLETIN will close the discussion for the present. That we shall have occasion to return to the topic in the future is very probable. In the meantime we are not ill content with the immediate result of the argument, and we have too much faith in the future of pharmaceutical education to doubt that it will soon witness the moderate measure of reform which we earnestly advocate. No young man is fit to study pharmacy until he has mastered the rudiments of a sound English education. That is painfully little. To exact less is to render our technical education a farce beside which the "commercial education" of our business colleges may be regarded as a fountain of light and learning.

IMPORTANT AND ESSENTIAL-PRACTICAL EXAMINATIONS BY BOARDS OF PHARMACY,

The new "All-State" Board of Pharmacy in New York which came into legal existence the first of the present month, succeeding the three sectional boards of Erie County (Buffalo), Greater New York, and the rest of the State, has decided to include practical dispensing operations in its examinations. The applicant will be surrounded with the tools of his art; work will be given him to perform; and then it will be seen how well he acquits himself in the things which the practicing pharmacist has daily to do. A few other State boards, prominent among which are those of Illinois and Connecticut, have included this practical work in their examinations for a number of years. In Massachusetts the idea has been discussed for a considerable time, and upon one occasion it was definitely announced that it would be adopted. Nothing has so far been done in that State, however, although it is now declared that the board has decided to carry the plan into effect at an early date. President Nixon several weeks ago attended an examination held by the Connecticut board in order to see how and with

what means the practical work in dispensing was carried on; and he is reported as having announced the decision of his board at that time.

This is all very gratifying indeed. For there is no doubt that manipulative work should be included in every State board examination. A surprising percentage of the applicants who appear before the boards are nothing but "crammers"-boys who have fiendishly rammed the contents of quiz compends down their throats; who have gotten board questions, either from a previous examination or from the journals, and then hunted the answers and packed these down on top of the quiz compend material; and who have simply filled themselves with a lot of undigestible, unrelated, useless word-formulas that are the very antipodes of real knowledge. And, unfortunately, valueless and unnourishing as this material is to the applicant, it very often enables him to pass successfully the gauntlet of the board and issue forth with his registration certificate under his arm. Too often the board examination does not discriminate between the man with real knowledge and him with the spurious; too often, indeed, the quizcompend fiend has the advantage, because questions are asked dealing with isolated facts, into which his memorized word-formulas exactly fit.

One way to avoid this unfortunate condition of things is to ask questions which test the genuineness of the student's knowledge; which call upon his capacity to reason with, and apply, his knowledge; which determine, in short, whether he is possessed of word-formulas that he can repeat parrot-like but does not understand, or whether he has real knowledge that he can use and direct to emergency. This, we say, is one way to discover and "pluck" the professional crammer. Another way is to subject him to an examination in practical dispensing. Give him an emulsion to make; have him dispense a prescription in which there is involved some difficulty that should be avoided; in short, make him do work which will (a) show his manipulative skill, and which will also (6) disclose his ability to avoid or discover incompatibilities, errors in dosage and in solubility, and other things of like nature. You can soon find out, in the first place, whether your applicant knows anything of the practical side of his art, and, in the second place, whether he is a mere quiz-compend crammer incapable of using and applying the knowledge which he seems to have so conveniently on the end of his tongue. The practical test is by no means conclusive; it cannot, in and of itself alone, determine the applicant's competency; and entire dependence should therefore not be placed upon it. But it is a most valuable part of the board examination and certainly should always be included in it, not only for the reasons which have been set forth in the foregoing, but for others which are almost equally cogent, and which space forbids our presenting at this time.

SPREADING OF THE COCAINE EVIL.

Within the past year we have from time to time told of the horrible extent to which the negroes and low whites of certain districts in the South have become addicted to the use of cocaine, and, to a lesser degree, of morphine also. Reports indicating the further spread of the evil, and the unrestricted sale of these narcotics to habitués, continue to make their appearance. A Chattanooga correspondent of the American Druggist tells a harrowing story of the conditions as they exist in that city. "In one section of Chattanooga, situated in the lower quarters," he says, "is a place known to the police as 'Cocaine Alley.' In this den of vice and filth, extending about four blocks, will be found at night anywhere from three to four hundred persons, mostly black, but with a fair sprinkling of whites, all 'snuffing' cocaine and lying around in every conceivable state of depravity. These habitués buy the drug throughout the night, in amounts ranging from five to fifty cents' worth. So general has the use of the drug become among this class that our local council has recently enacted an ordinance prohibiting its sale except on the prescription of a physician; but since there is no law to prevent the refilling of prescriptions, one prescription can be made to do service for the entire community." There is no doubt that the cocaine evil in the South,

and to a lesser extent in certain other sections of the country, is spreading rapidly, and that vigorous efforts should at once be made to check it so far as possible by surrounding the sale of the substance with effective restrictions. The need of bringing these restrictions about has been more or less vaguely discussed in some States for two or three years, but so far nothing of moment has been done, except that in several of the southern cities ordinances have been passed permitting druggists to sell cocaine and morphine only upon presentation of a physician's prescription. It would seem from what the Chattanooga correspondent says, however, that these ordinances may perhaps not have proved effective, and that all such laws should be reenfored with a provision which would make it illegal for a cocaine prescription to be refilled except upon the written request of the physician himself. We should like to see the various State pharmaceutical associations, through their legislative committees, take this matter up during the coming legislative year, and try to secure the passage of suitable and sufficiently drastic laws. Measures have already been introduced in the legislatures of Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, and we trust they will be followed by many others in additional States. Legislation will not entirely correct the cocaine evil, but, if properly constructed and vigorously enforced, it will accomplish much toward that end.

Meanwhile, pharmacists should, as we believe they do in general, realize the moral obligation resting upon

them to prevent, so far as they may, the furtherance of this awful curse. In one report it was stated that certain druggists, situated in the "low" quarters of one of the Southern cities, "not only openly cater to the unfortunate wretches who have already become victims, but lend their aid in leading the uninitiated and uninformed into the path that kills." We are convinced that this could be true of no reputable pharmacist; no pharmacist worthy of his responsible position in society would be guilty of such a heinous moral crime.

A SUGGESTION.

Dr. George M. Gould, the eminent editor of the Philadelphia Medical Journal, recently reported in the editorial columns of his paper the following experience: "Some time ago we had occasion to call at a 'spice factory,' and were struck by the fact that hundreds of tons of marble chippings were being pulverized and used in the manufacture of all sorts of 'Ground Spices.' We also learned that the floor sweepings of such factories were regular articles of commerce, and listed at graded prices -we suppose according to the varying quantities of disease germs, dirt, and marble dust in them." Spices are notoriously adulterated as found in the market, but that the sophistication extends to this degree will be a matter of surprise, we fancy, to even those who are fairly well informed of the circumstances. In this connection we would repeat again our belief that there is an excellent opportunity presented pharmacists to make capital out of this state of affairs. Keep pure spices; convince the public that they are vastly better than those sold generally by grocers and others; make it a professional issue, and we warrant that you will build up a nice trade in this direction.

A WAY TO GET RID OF OPIUM DENS. It will be remembered that some months ago an Illinois court decided that the underground representatives of the Celestial kingdom who kept opium dens in Chicago were violating the pharmacy law, which restricted the sale of such substances to registered pharmacists, and that the Board of Pharmacy, with the assistance of the police, began hunting the pigtails out and bringing them to justice. More recently a Boston Chinaman has been arrested two or three times for the repeated sale of opium. Good! Let the beneficent work go on! There is no doubt that in dispensing pipe dreams, quite as much as in handing opium over the counter in a definite sale, the pharmacy laws are violated, and that this view would be held in any State in the Union. Here, then, is presented an opportunity in our great cities to eradicate, in part at least, the vicious opium dens that ruin so many lives and blast so many bright futures.

THE MONTH.

THE NEW YORK "ALL-STATE" LAW IN

OPERATION.

The "all-State" pharmacy law of New York went into effect with the beginning of the year. The three boards and three laws formerly existent were replaced by one board and one law having entire jurisdiction over the State. This is an accomplishment long looked forward to by those interested in the welfare of pharmacy in New York; for it has been realized that the interests neither of the pharmacists nor of the public were properly guarded by three standards within the State, and by the confusion and lack of definiteness which naturally resulted. The new law, while open to criticism in some particulars, is on the whole generally regarded as being a good one. Its most important provision is that in which it requires the annual registration, under rather severe conditions, not of pharmacists themselves, but of every pharmacy, store, dispensary, or place where medicines are sold. Before a pharmacist will be given this annual registration of his store he must satisfy the board that the store is conducted in full compliance with the law. Each proprietor must give the name of every "pharmacist," "druggist," and "apprentice" employed in the store, and when and how each was registered. If this information is satisfactory the store will then be registered upon payment of a fee of $2. By these means the board prevents, or hopes to prevent, fraudulent reregistrations; moreover, it provides itself with a complete record of the number of "pharmacists," "druggists," and "apprentices" in the State, of where each is employed, and of how many registered employees there are in every store in the State. This record will be of invaluable assistance in looking up complaints of violations of the law, and in other exigencies. Provision is made in the law for a class of "apprentices;" and these must also be registered. The board is given authority by the law to establish proper requirements for apprentices; and if the reports be true it has decided on making a 15-year age minimum, and requiring evidence of the completion of a grammar-school course or its equivalent. If the board firmly enforces this educational requirement, great praise will be due it. The most effective way to correct the low preliminary requirements which have done and are doing so much to cripple pharmacy and to hold her back from receiving her own, is to apply the remedy at the root of the evil. Begin with the apprentice who is to become the future pharmacist; and do not let him enter the calling at all until he has that degree of education which will fit him to study the facts of pharmacy with comprehension, and which will prepare him to safeguard the interests of the public. A grammar-school standard is admittedly not a high one, but it is at least a good beginning and as

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much as could well be attempted at the outset. The "assistant" pharmacists who were provided for under one or more of the preceding laws in New York are succeeded in the new law by "druggists;" the different classes of persons now recognized being "pharmacists," "druggists," and "apprentices." "Druggists" are entitled to practice and have full charge of stores in towns of five hundred or less anywhere in the State; but in towns of greater population they must serve under licensed "pharmacists," and can only have temporary charge during the absence of the latter. Nor can druggists serve at all in New York City. All pharmacists licensed before the operation of the new law will of course be allowed to continue in practice; though, unless they hold their license by virtue of having passed an examination, they will not be permitted to practice outside that section of the State to which their license applied, except, of course, they now pass the examination. This simply preserves to those who were originally licensed by virtue of being in business at the time the various laws were passed the rights then given them, without enlarging those rights through the abolition of the three pharmaceutical sections of the State and the establishment of uniform conditions. * The

new board of pharmacy has, it is reported, decided to include practical dispensing operations in its examinations; this commendable decision we have discussed editorially in another column.

THE N. A. R. D.: GREATER NEW YORK AND VICINITY. The N. A. R. D. situation in Greater New York is apparently developing successfully. A second meeting of the Joint Conference Committee was held the middle of last month. Contrary to expectations, the German Apothecaries' Society was not represented; by a vote of 29 to 21 it had decided that it could not consistently join in the movement after having withdrawn from the N. A. R. D. It is understood, however, that the society, collectively and individually, is in favor of the movement to prevent cutting, and that, when the plan is finally in operation, it will support it. Representatives of the other four pharmaceutical associations of the greater city were present at the conference, and all agreed upon organizing the city and putting the N. A. R. D. plan into operation as soon as possible. A minimum price-list schedule was finally adopted, which will be put into effect as soon as the blockade is established. This list provides that all 5-, 10-, and 15-cent articles shall be sold at full prices; all 25-cent articles at not less than 20 cents; all 35-cent articles at not less than 25 cents; all 50-cent articles at not less than 45 cents; all 60-cent articles at not less than 55 cents; all 75-cent articles at not less than 65 cents; all $1 articles at not less than 85 cents; all $1.25 articles at not less than

$1.10; all $1.50 articles at not less than $1.25; and all $2.00 articles at not less than $1.75. It was voted to make this schedule cover everything save infant foods and beef extracts, which were not thought to be really proprietary articles. An executive committee, composed of one representative from each association, was appointed; and two or three days later this committee met and made arrangements to begin a thorough and systematic canvass of the city at once. As soon as the canvass is completed, if 75 per cent of the druggists have been secured, the price schedule will be put into effect.

* Meanwhile, the New York jobbers are apparently giving loyal support to the retailers, and firmly adhering to the resolutions which they themselves passed at their notable meeting held in November. It was reported last month that a number of druggists who had always been in the habit of buying their proprietaries direct from the manufacturers tried to do so then, with the result that their orders were returned; and that the jobbers of the city, too, refused to fill orders which violated in any way the tripartite agreement.

The activity of the associations across the river in New Jersey, and in other places around New York, which was considered at some length in the last Bulletin, continues; in two or three cases, as with the associations of Essex county and of Jersey City, a price schedule has been put into successful operation. The other associations have adopted schedules and will put them into effect as soon as the work of organization has been completed. These schedules, as far as we can discover, are in nearly or exact agreement with the Greater New York schedule given above. * * * Largely through the efforts of Mr. J. C. Gallagher, one of the prominent workers for the N. A. R. D. in New Jersey, an energetic association has been formed in Paterson, which has had the reputation, we believe, of being an incorrigible cutrate center. Paterson contains thirty drug stores; and one of the reports of the second meeting of the association contained the statement that every retailer in the city was present either in person or through a representative.

THE N. A. R. D.: AFFAIRS IN VARIOUS CITIES. The Philadelphia price schedule has not yet been put into effect; it will be brought forward at this month's meeting of the body for final revision and formal adoption. Meanwhile, the N. A. R. D. plan seems to be "working" in Philadelphia. At any rate, the one cutter in the city who has refused to cooperate with the association in any way has evidently found it difficult to get goods, for he has sued the association for conspiracy. We speak of this in another paragraph. The Philadelphia association is doing excellent work in assisting in the formation of county associations about Philadelphia; four of these have now been formed, the last one being

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at Norristown for Montgomery county. "Hamilton County" association in Ohio has widened its scope to include the entire Ohio valley, comprising the southern portion of Ohio and Indiana, and the northern portion of West Virginia and Kentucky. The name of the body has been changed to the "Ohio Valley Druggists' Association." The methods of the Northern Ohio association have been adopted, an organizer employed, and an office opened in Cincinnati. The successes of the Northern Ohio association will doubtless be repeated. * Another attempt to accomplish something has been made in Baltimore. At the semiannual meeting of the State Pharmaceutical Association, held last month, a committee was appointed to arrange a price schedule and to employ a canvasser to submit it to the druggists of the city. We learn from a report in a Columbus (Ohio) paper, the authenticity of which we cannot vouch for, that "several of the members" of the Columbus association have been found violating the local agreement, and that they will consequently be expelled from membership in accordance with the laws of the association. * Concerning the situation in Indianapolis, Detroit, and Minneapolis, where price schedules have now been successfully adhered to for some time, there is nothing new to report; things are apparently proceeding harmoniously in all three places. The Minneapolis association is at this writing arranging for a banquet to be given some time during the present month. Associations have recently been formed with successful results in Bay City and Battle Creek, towns in this State. Full prices have been restored in both places; the only qualification to this statement being that in Bay City full prices on a few staples handled by the department stores have not been secured. It is hoped that these stores will soon be brought into line, however.

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THE PENNSYLVANIA PROSECUTIONS. The prosecution of druggists in Pennsylvania for failure to keep their renewal certificates displayed in their stores, and for other alleged violations of the pharmacy law, inaugurated by the State Board of Pharmacy, continues, after two or three months of excitement, to be a matter of general concern and interest. The action of the board in dismissing the cases of a large number of Philadelphia druggists who declared that they were ignorant of having violated the law, apparently alleviated most of the hostility which was expressed against the board in some quarters in Philadelphia. Inasmuch, however, as a number of other cases were afterward carried through to conviction and the imposition of a penalty, the board still came in for a share of rather severe comment. A "mass" meeting was held by a number of druggists who felt hostile to the board, and at this resolutions condemning the board were passed,

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