1902 Report of Oklahoma Board of Pharmacy

Submitted by: Jennifer Ammons

Report
of the
Oklahoma
Board of Pharmacy
by F. B. Lillie, Secretary
to Gov. T. B. Ferguson

Report of the Secretary
of the
Oklahoma Board of Pharmacy,
For the Year Ending June 30^th, 1902; also
Biennual Report to Dec. 30^th, 1902

___________________

TO HIS EXCELLENCY, THE GOVERNOR AND THE SIXTH
SESSION OF THE TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE.

January 9^th the board met in regular quarterly session at Oklahoma City. Present, C. A. Dow, Pond Creek; E. E. Howendobler, Perry.

F. B. Lillie, the secretary, was in Colorado for the purpose of recuperating his health. F. M. Weaver, of Oklahoma City, assisted the Board and presented Materia Medica. Dow had Pharmacy and Howendobler, Chemistry. A class of 51 took the examination of whom the following passed and received certificates of registration:

Certificates of registration were granted on diploma from the Oklahoma University as follows:

Assistant certificate No. 20 was granted to Henry Hale, Guthrie, O. T.

_______________________

Guthrie, O. T. Apr. 8, 1902.

Board met in regular quarterly session. All members present.

A class of 36 took the examination and the following received certificates of registration:

During the year there has been 89 registered, 6 on diploma from the University and 83 upon examination. The general qualifications of the candidates have been good. Some, however, have been deficient in what is almost an absolute necessity to a thorough understanding of the profession--and that is a good common school education. There is no profession where the necessity is greater for a good education and it seems there is none where it is so thoroughly disregarded.

In this connection we desire to call attention to our Territorial University at Norman. Students from the Pharmacy Department show a thorough knowledge of the branches taught and seldom fail in passing the Board examinations. Students contemplating taking up pharmacy after spending an apprenticeship of two years, can materially aid themselves by spending the time there necessary for graduation.

In this connection we call attention to the Secretary's report for the year 1900 as follows: "Among those who have received certificates of registration from the Board during the past year are quite a number of students of the University.

Under the amended law passed by the last session of the Legislature, graduates of the Pharmacy Department may be granted certificates of registration, after having had one year of practical experience.

The Board has made it a rule to require two years and have only granted certificates to those presenting proof of this time of service. But even with this amount of experience, we find that druggists in the Territory, desiring efficient help are prone to look elsewhere than to graduates of the University.

The diplomas from all of our Territorial institutions should be prima facia evidence of qualification and in the opinion of the members of the Board of Pharmacy, a diploma to a graduate in Pharmacy should not be issued until a student is fully qualified to manage a pharmacy. If this course was pursued our graduates would soon be in demand and would command the highest salaries paid.

As it is, a diploma is evidence of a limited amount of experience and the applicant for a position holding a diploma, together with a certificate of registration from the Board of Pharmacy, is compelled to serve his apprenticeship at a low salary, much to the discredit of our institution and humiliating to himself.

The Board would most respectfully recommend that the authorities of the University withhold the granting of diplomas to graduates until such time as they are satisfied that the student is thoroughly qualified to take charge and manage a pharmacy, in all its departments. Then, and not until then, will a diploma as graduate in Pharmacy mean something to the student and be of value to him.

While the students of the University have shown thorough training and are undoubtedly qualified, so far as the theoretical part of their education is concerned, there is a business or commercial side to Pharmacy that can only be acquired in the shop, where a man must be a student of human nature and learn to secure the confidence of the people, for in no other way can a pharmacist be successful.

The thousand and one things to be learned in a modern drug store can not be properly acquired by the average man in less than four years which is the apprenticeship required by most of the popular colleges of Pharmacy of the present day, and our own institution should be fully up to the standard.

It is the desire of the Board to be of all the service possible to the profession in the Territory, but in order to do this, it is necessary for them to have full knowledge of the conditions existing in every section of the Territory and your assistance is necessary in giving information of all violations that prompt action may be taken.

During the past four meetings about 150 applicants have been before the Board--the largest number during any one year of our existence as a Territory.

I desire to call your attention to one fact, that is, that few, if any, States or Territories pay the pharmacists better salaries than are paid here, and, further, that in no state that I have visited, will be found a brighter, more up-to-date lot of pharmacists; nor can you find anywhere in the country neater, more tasty, and better kept drug stores than can be found in Oklahoma.

There are, however, in the Territory a large number of stores without sufficient registered help. For instance, in Guthrie are three of the largest stores with only the proprietor registered and other towns in about the same proportion. Lack of sufficient men has made it impossible to get qualified pharmacists and the Board has been completed to show a great deal of leniency in this respect.

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