The old Northwest territory and pharmaceutical education / [Edward Kremers].

  • Edward Kremers
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The old Northwest territory and pharmaceutical education / [Edward Kremers]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    •si- pharmaceutical home rule influenced the druggists of the City of Broth¬ erly Love. Let us hope that it was a controlling motive. As to what occurred, there is no doubt whatever. The druggists of Philadelphia organized themselves into a College, not a teaching- institution, but a closed corporation after the fashion of the College de Pharmacie of Paris which, shortly before the French Revolution, had replaced the former local guild of apothecaries. Organization having been effected, the first step taken by the college was—and may I add, to its credit—to establish a “school,” i.e., to offer evening courses of lectures for clerks and apprentices. There also were established a library, a museum, and, several years later, a journal. Like organizations were effected in Boston (1823), in New York (1829), in New Orleans (1838), in Baltimore (1841), in Cincinnati (1850), in Chicago (1859), and in St. Louis (1864). Not all of these, however, took their educational duties as seriously as did the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. Thus the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, while it created a library and arranged for occasional lectures, devoted more time to price discussion than to educational affairs. As a matter of fact, almost half a century was allowed to elapse before systematic courses were offered. Again, some of the institutions, while anxious to educate better the rising generation of pharmacists, found that they were in advance of the time. Even the large cities in which these colleges were situated did not provide a sufficient number of students to pay the professors a moderate lecture fee. Thus after several attempts in New York, Dr. Squibb offered his services free and even dragged his lecture equip¬ ment from his Brooklyn factory to the lecture room in New York City. In St. Louis the preceptors appear to have been interested more than were their apprentices. Students were few and, in order to have any graduates whatever, the St. Louis college offered honorary degrees to its own members. With the wave of resentment, the first wave of enthusiasm also passed quickly in Philadelphia. Successful as was the Philadelphia College when compared with the other institutions, its success was due largely to a few members who would not take their hands off the plow after the furrow had once been started. To them is due much of the credit for what advancement pharmacy in this country made during half a century.
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