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and a committee was appointed to make a test case of one of the convictions and strive to secure a reversal of verdict in a higher court. From the reports of this meeting we should judge that it was not largely attended, and that it did not represent the pharmacists of the city. The Philadelphia Association of Retail Druggists, which, in acting for those in its membership who had been proceeded against by the board, succeeded in securing the wholesale dismissal of cases referred to in the first portion of this paragraph, seems apparently satisfied with the manner in which the board has acted. The board, at a special held last month, decided to continue the prosecutions throughout the State. Nearly 400 cases have either been settled out of court or have been brought before a magistrate in Philadelphia; and a large number of cases have been brought in other parts of the State-in Titusville, Blairsville, Canonsburg, Pittsburg, etc. A good many druggists plead guilty and pay the penalties without appearing in court; others, however, fight their cases, and not a few express determination to appeal if convicted and attack the constitutionality of the law. The board meanwhile comes in for a good deal of censure. Failure to display the renewal certificates is the charge made by the board in most of the cases, though in a few of them the sale of adulterated drugs and the compounding of prescriptions by unregistered clerks are charged.

SOCIAL FEATURES OF DRUG CLERKS' ASSOCIA-
TIONS.

others, has been in existence a number of years, has a ball annually, this year's event having taken place recently. A ball was also to have been given by the Illinois association early in January.

STATUS OF THE WAR REVENUE REDUCTION BILL.

This measure-which provides, among other things, for the repeal of the tax on proprietary medicines, etc., in Schedule B-was passed by the House the fifteenth of last month and sent promptly to the Senate. Here it was referred to the Finance Committee shortly before Congress adjourned for the holidays. It will doubtless remain in committee some time before it reaches the floor of the Senate, inasmuch as there is considerable objection to certain features of the bill, and more or less changing will doubtless be indulged in. The recommendation of Secretary Gage that the cut be restricted to thirty million dollars is finding many supporters in the Senate; and there has been a great deal of protest in Democratic quarters against the disproportionate extent to which the tax on beer is reduced, about one-quarter of the entire reduction of forty millions being in favor of the beer interests, while the tax on tea, for instance, remains in its entirety. The entire removal of the tax on proprietary medicines under Schedule B has met with no protest, so far as we know, and it seems reasonably sure that the drug trade will be provided with the relief for which it has prayed so long and so continuously. Apparently the only danger which this portion of the bill is under lies in the possibility of a general lessening by the Senate of the extent of the reduction. If the reduction is cut down to thirty millions it may be that some of the taxes in Schedule B will be restored. This, however, is not regarded as likely.

THE PHILADELPHIA DAMAGE SUIT. The N. A. R. D. plan is evidently "working" in Philadelphia. C. G. A. Loder, the one cutter who has refused to cooperate with the Philadelphia Association of Retail Druggists, and who has been accordingly declared an "aggressive cutter," has brought three suits for damages

Nearly all of the associations of drug clerks formed throughout the country during the last seven or eight months have inaugurated social features, which have done much to increase their popularity and to render them more enjoyable. The association in Springfield, Mass., concerning which much has appeared in recent issues of the BULLETIN, held a banquet early last month. Music and speech-making added to the interest of the affair; and the event was on every hand declared so pleasant and successful that it has been decided to have similar ones follow it from time to time. The Michigan association, with headquarters here in Detroit, has an informal social gathering at each alternate meeting--the first against members of the P. A. R. D., the secthat is, once a month; besides this, occasional "smokers" are had, once or twice a year a ball is given, and in the summer a "moonlight" or two is indulged in on the Detroit river. The result is that the association is made a kind of club, and vital interest is felt in it by every member. Besides making the association a pleasuregiving body, this all serves to keep it together, so that a strong organization is constantly ready for action whenever it becomes necessary for the clerks to protect or advance their united interests in any way. The St. Louis association, which, unlike the majority of the

ond against the resident members of the N. A. R. D., and the third against the resident members of the N. W. D. A. Mr. Loder alleges that he was repeatedly refused goods for cash by jobbers. He says he has been so boycotted that he has been compelled to buy at retail and sell at cut prices, thus entailing a great loss. The Philadelphia retailers and jobbers do not seem to be at all frightened. The jobbers believe they have a perfect right, as agents of the proprietors, to refuse goods to whomsoever the proprietors order them not to sell, and that this right was upheld in the decision

handed down by Judge Russel in the famous Parke case last March. Judge Russel's decision, however, applying to the rebate plan, did not have specific application to the N. A. R. D. plan; and for this reason we trust that the Philadelphia suits will be brought fully to trial and a decision reached which will serve as a precedent. * Concerning the two similar suits brought some time ago in Wheeling, W. Va., and Los Angeles, Cal., and mentioned in the October BULLETIN, there is nothing new to report.

THE PHENYO-CAFFEINE PLAN.

Dr. Garst, the proprietor of Phenyo - Caffeine, whose contract plan to prevent cutting was discussed at some

last meeting declared for the removal of the sale of liquors from druggists or the repeal of the prohibition law, the pharmacists being wearied of the odium cast upon the whole profession by the practice of a few "drug stores."

ANN ARBOR'S CASE.

Ann Arbor suffered a severe outbreak of cutting early last month. One druggist-Saulisbury by name-began the thing, and the others got together and decided to adopt the smoking-out method. In the window of every drug store in town a placard was put announcing "Onethird off on drugs." Ann Arbor's fall from grace is a very deplorable thing. For years she has been an exam

length in the last BULLETIN, has now sued another drug-ple of full price piety and harmonious cooperation-at

gist for cutting the price on his product. Having secured a precedent in the decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, Dr. Garst now doubtless intends to enforce his plan and proceed against every retailer who cuts prices in violation of the contract under which he is enabled to buy the goods. Since Dr. Garst's court victory his plan has been discussed widely and almost always with favor. Its simplicity and effectiveness commend it to general attention. The Boston Druggists' Association, after discussing the plan at length at its December meeting, passed the following resolution:

Resolved, That this association indorses the plan for the prevention of price-cutting proposed by Julius Garst, M.D., of Worcester. Believing that if adopted and enforced by a goodly number of the manufacturers of proprietary preparations, it will abolish gross injustice to retail druggists and facilitate the sale of the price-protected goods, we earnestly urge the members of the Proprietary Association of America to accord to this plan due consideration, and request the members of the National Wholesale Druggists' Association and the members of the National Association of Retail Druggists to consider the possible practicability and advantage to be derived from the use of invoice blanks with restrictive notices thereon and a list of the goods to be protected on the backs thereof.

Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing resolution be sent to the Secretaries of each of the aforesaid associations.

LIQUOR TROUBLE IN NORTH DAKOTA.

The Northwestern Druggist reports that some of the North Dakota druggists are giving up their liquor permits rather than submit to the continued espionage of the detectives of an "enforcement league." The league has made much trouble for druggists in Walsh, Pembina, and Cavalier counties, and a recent decision of the Supreme Court holds that a drug store may be closed as a nuisance. This carries with it the other penalties following conviction, namely, the destruction of the furniture and belongings used in the dispensation of liquor. The State Pharmaceutical Association at its

once the object of envy and admiration. But, alas! when her fall did come it was sudden and great. A pardon is always waiting for penitent backsliders, though, and we hope to see Ann Arbor soon restored to grace.

THE ILLINOIS DECISION.

The Supreme Court of Illinois has denied a rehearing of the case in which, as was reported in the last BULLETIN, that section of the pharmacy law was declared unconstitutional which restricted the sale of proprietary medicines to registered pharmacists. There is consequently nothing to do now but repeal this section and leave the law without a flaw in the shape of an unconstitutional provision. Such action has already been decided upon. With the faulty section repealed, the law will be entirely constitutional.

THE ST. LOUIS MEETING.

The A. Ph. A. will meet at St. Louis September 16 to 21. At Richmond last May the association selected the place, and the Council has just fixed the date for the forty-ninth annual meeting. The A. Ph. A. has not convened in St. Louis since 1871. An unusually large attendance and an exceptionally interesting and instructive meeting is anticipated. The local secretary is Dr. H. M. Whelpley, 2342 Albion Place, St. Louis.

DRUG CLERKS REFUSE THE BOND SCHEME.

The question of bonding drug clerks, which has been discussed in Minneapolis for some months, has been decided in the negative. The drug clerks protested against the idea, of course, and it was finally given up. It seems that the proposition was advanced and fostered by an insurance or bond company which hoped to furnish the clerks with bonds in case the scheme succeeded.

ADMISSION OF THE UNFIT.

Views of Representative Pharmacists and Teachers on the Vital Subject Treated in the November
Bulletin - What the Colleges Should Demand of Every Beginner-Whom They Should

Exclude- The Right Measure of General and Preparatory Education-The
Grave Evils which Spring from Low Entrance Requirements.

(Continued from page 498 of the December BULLETIN.)

LUCIUS E. SAYRE, Ph.G., B.Sc.Ph.,

Dean of the School of Pharmacy of the University of Kansas.

I want to say that while the BULLETIN editorial on the subject of preliminary education is a careful, thoughtful, and fair statement, and one that will be calculated to do much good, still there are some things to be said which may modify the coloring of the picture you have portrayed.

AN OPPOSITE VIEW.

Doubtless the time will come, in fact may not be far off, when the man without a common-school education will be an exception; then we may demand and may easily obtain such a preparation as you suggest for entrance to any course of study, professional or otherwise. In the meantime it does not seem entirely wise to forbid the entrance of every one lacking such qualifications. There are men who, lacking early advantages but having a chance later in life, desire to enter a professional course of study. The average man of this kind will make a good student. He will not waste time. He is old enough to see the advantages. He is thoughtful and he is earnest, with the earnestness which only years can bring. For such a man the test should lie at the end, not at the beginning, of his course of study; for he will in the meantime, by his own perseverance and the aid of instructors who are always glad to help such a student, work himself up in those things which he lacks, and at the end of his course will be fully competent to go out and practice his profession. Give him an examination at this time, and, if he be successful, give him his diploma. He deserves it.

Of course, too great care cannot be exercised in regard to this class of students. They should not be entered in our schools as "regulars," but as special students who are not candidates for degrees, but who can be made candidates for degrees when their preliminary deficiencies have been made up. There should be an age qualification for entrance, and the management should have the right at any time to "turn down" any one who has manifestly mistaken his calling or who is not making the most of his opportunities. I do not believe there will be many such in the above class.

THE AMERICAN CONFERENCE OF PHARMACEUTICAL

FACULTIES.

I am glad that you have taken this matter up and have pointed to a work in which I feel quite well assured that the American Conference of Pharmaceutical Faculties will take a deep interest. If the sentiment of the community demands this we are very glad, for no action on the part of any such body will be effective unless it has back of it and behind it a healthy sentiment on the part of the public. I hope that this new body formed at Richmond will enter upon such work with wisdom and proper caution, and I trust that its efforts in this and every other direction will be for the benefit of the profession and the good of the community.

Lawrence, Kansas, November 1.

FRANK X. MOERK, Ph.G.,

Professor of Analytical Chemistry in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.

Your editorial, "This is the least that the colleges owe to Pharmacy" seems to be based, in large part, upon the conviction that colleges of pharmacy make pharmacists, and that by regulating the former you will correct the existing and forcibly denounced evils set forth, whereas it is a fact that probably 95 per cent of the college applicants have spent one or more years in the business before seeking admission to the colleges. THINKS COLLEGE ACTION WOULDN'T CORRECT THE

EVIL.

Granting that the colleges should maintain a strict entrance examination, would this bring about your desired results? I think not, because the young men refused admission to the colleges are not thwarted in their efforts to secure employment or the privilege of opening a store so long as only a State board examination is the necessary legal requirement. By private instruction, or otherwise, the young men can be coached for, and eventually will pass, such examinations; and their example and influence will not be for the good of higher education.

The effect of a rigid entrance examination would

necessarily improve and elevate the standard of the graduates, but, as stated above, this alone cannot, and will not, prevent the influx of undesirable material which is only interested in itself and cares nothing for the elevation and progress of pharmacy as a profession.

BELIEVES APPRENTICESHIP EXAMINATION NECESSARY.

To do justice to the profession and also to this undesirable element requires, in my opinion, prompt measures before the young men have spent one or more years in the business and before they are ready to go to college. Why not do the sifting before giving them a foothold in pharmacy? This can very easily be done by a State board examination in the elementary branches before allowing the time spent in the store to count as experience. The boards of pharmacy then would have a record of the young men's entrance in the drug business (ie., the date of the successful examination in the elementary branches), and the board would also know when they were eligible for certificate examinations. And in case of removal to another State, communication between the two boards would prevent possible abuse. Inasmuch as the State boards of pharmacy are constituted for the protection of the public, it is but natural that this protection should commence with the application for entrance into the ranks.

A young man desirous of entering pharmacy and failing to pass the entrance examination will do his utmost, at this early stage, to make up his deficiencies, or he will seek some other employment; in either case, it means the elevation of the profession, and in addition a just dealing with the young man, for he is not then allowed to waste one or more years of his life before he is made to realize that he is not fit for the profession.

Philadelphia, November 3.

ADOLF G. VOGELER,

Editor of the Western Druggist.

The BULLETIN is right in saying that in the ranks of the pharmaceutical press our schools of pharmacy have their warmest friends and most active supporters, and the BULLETIN has only acted as a true friend of those institutions in holding up to them for self-contemplation the truthful mirror in its November issue, it affording me great pleasure to indorse singly and as a whole the arguments there set forth. It is only too true that under stress of competition for support, some of our pharmaceutical schools are admitting into the educational ranks anything that comes along with a clinking dollar in its pocket, and grinding out professional cripples of the variety described by Professor Searby at an alarming rate, and the damage done to legitimate pharmacy by those unfits and misfits has been not a whit overdrawn by the BULLETIN.

Surely, it is

HIGH TIME TO CALL A HALT,

and much is expected from the Conference of Pharmaceutical Faculties, but what this aggregation of diverging and conflicting interests can actually accomplish awaits to be seen. For there are largely concerned those private-in a broad sense-enterprises that needs must look after the financial aspects and immediate consequences. Hence there immediately arises the question, Is not the time approaching when our schools of pharmacy should be relegated to the State universities, in view of the radical changes American society has undergone since first broad-minded and unselfish pharmacists took this matter in hand? No longer then could the demand for a higher preliminary education be called an "iridescent dream of a hopeless ideal!"

With fully equipped pharmacy schools attached to our State universities, and a diploma equivalent to the gradation requirements of those institutions made a prerequisite to admission to examination by the board of pharmacy, the pace would be set for all competing colleges and schools. This would mean, of course, the completion of a high-school course and at least two years in the university course. But this is in the future and can only be an ideal toward which to bend our

course.

FOR THE PRESENT,

presumably, we must content ourselves with the good grammar-school education as demanded by the BULLETIN, and, surely, our colleges at this day can insist upon that, and make sure of the fact. On the other hand, as has been pointed out, our boards must take the same stand, demanding educational standing not only as a prerequisite to examination, but to admission to apprenticeship in the drug business.

THE COLLEGE REQUIREMENT.

A truly valuable diploma, indeed, should be "the only key to the portal of practice," but it must mean much more than now, under present conditions. However, this demand must not emanate from the institutions themselves, as by such a course they only prevent legislation in that direction by arousing antagonism. If the colleges will quietly go on raising their own standards and preeminently look after the intellectual caliber of their graduates, aside from the special knowledge crammed into them by the professors, they will in due time find proper recognition without turning a hand.

"THE SENTIMENT OF THE COMMUNITY." Incidentally and in conclusion I make free to express dissent from one statement found in the BULLETIN article, to the effect that "sentiment of the community demands" a higher standard of education for pharmacists.

This I do not believe. The people do not care one whit one way or the other, nor do they care whether there are pharmacy laws for their protection or not. They do not give this matter a second thought, and I wonder in how many States they would grant State appropriations for carrying on the work, were the druggists not willing to tax themselves.

Chicago, Illinois, November 5.

EDWARD KREMERS, Ph.G., Ph.D.,
Director, School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin.

The question of preparatory education and training which you raise in your editorial is by far the most important educational problem before the pharmaceutical world. The question of pharmaceutical degrees, which stirred the sentiments of American pharmacists a few years ago, was but the sounding of brass and the tinkling of cymbals.

The only way in which the status of the pharmacist can be raised to that of other professional men-to strive for or to adopt a lower standard is but miserable patchwork that will soon necessitate renewed mending-is, first of all, to make the standard of preparation the same for the pharmaceutical student as for the general science student in the respective States. The superstructure may be improved later, if desired. If this more rigid educational requirement for admission will do away with the two or more years of drug-store experience before graduation, by all means let that traditional requirement disappear. It is being dropped, and with the evolution of professional training must be dropped in pharmacy as well as in other callings. This practical experience requirement before graduation, more than any one factor, is now in the way of demanding a better entrance requirement.

In order to make possible the adoption of such a standard in the older and larger colleges of pharmacy, these will either have to secure a large endowment or surrender their independence. To become a part ofI mean an integral part, not a mere attachment to-a large State university or of institutions like Harvard, Columbia, Pennsylvania, or Johns Hopkins, ought not to require much self-denial. West of the Alleghanies, the State universities can look after the welfare of pharmaceutical institutions. If the druggists but want State aid they can get it. In the older eastern States, the property of the better colleges is the equivalent of a fair endowment, which the druggists could easily increase if they wanted better education.

In one particular I cannot fully agree with your editorial. You state: "To the boards we turn for the only remedy that can search out and destroy the roots of the malady." That they can do much if they will, I gladly admit; so can the college professor, if he is willing to

sacrifice a little popular glory and a part of his income. Neither, however, can in the long run stay much ahead of popular opinion.

In the education of the druggist to the needs of the hour lies the only salvation. This can be accelerated by object-lessons such as I have referred to. To give but one example of the inefficiency of boards, let me call your attention to an annual occurrence in the State whose board you justly praise. What do all the strictures of this board on poor colleges and their enforcement of the three "R's" amount to, if the very candidate who has failed several times in the examinations can demand registration (under certain restrictions, it is true, but often sufficient for all practical purposes) from this same board, according to law? In spite of such discouraging features, I hope that this particular board will continue its good work, and that others will follow.

Demand college graduation as a prerequisite for the State board examinations, if this be constitutional; do not recognize those colleges, by law, which do not demand for admission the certificate of admission to the science courses of State universities or similar institutions of their respective States, and the problem of preliminary education of the pharmacist is solved. Madison, Wisconsin, November 6.

S. A. D. SHEPPARD, Ph.G.,

Treasurer of the American Pharmaceutical Association. It would seem that I had already placed myself so squarely on record for years past in favor of your position that it is not worth while to emphasize the fact now. I think you are just right.

Boston, November 6.

H. M. WHELPLEY, Ph.G., M.D., F.R.M.S.,
Professor of Microscopy, St. Louis College of Pharmacy.

I am confident that all teachers in the colleges of pharmacy and the colleges of medicine of this country have occasion to observe that the classes are divided into two distinct grades of pupils. One grade comprises those with suitable preliminary education, who are capable of following, in an intelligent manner, the course of instruction. The other class consists of students who are so deficient in preliminary training that they fail to comprehend many of the words, phrases, and expressions used by the teachers; they are unable to follow lines of reasoning, and, above all, do not know how to study. Of course, we find pupils standing midway between these two extremes. The editorial in the BULLETIN OF PHARMACY for November, entitled "This is the Least that the Colleges Owe to Pharmacy," considers pharmaceutical education in such a light that I trust it will have a tendency to diminish the proportionate number of poorly prepared pharmacy students.

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