Vol. ii., No. 4 
THE CHEMIST AND DEUGGIST OF AUSTRALASIA. 
100 
instead of demanding an “intimate acquaintance,” drops the | 
adjective, and requires onlyan “ acquaintance ” with theparts | 
of the flower, fruit and seed. The following natural orders in 
the above list are omitted in the New Zealand Syllabus : — ' 
Cruciferj.'e, Labiatie, Scrophulariacefu. and Euphorbiacea?. 
Of the British Major Chemistry Scheme, the same may be ; 
said as of the Botany Scheme, it is adox^ted in its entirety by ! 
New South Wales, while in a slightly abbreviated form it has | 
been transferred to the New Zealand Syllabus. It runs as i 
follows : — ! 
Chemistry. — This comprehends an intimate knowledge of ! 
the laws of chemical x>hilosox)hy, a x^ractical knowledge of the 
nature and )oi‘operties of the elements and their coinx^ounds, ! 
both organic and inorganic, especially those used in medicine j 
or the arts. The different combinations and decomjiositions j 
must be ex^ilained by equations, also the qualitative analysis | 
of the more im}portant chemicals, e.g. nitrates, chlorides, car- I 
bonates, sulx^hates, xphosphates, oxalates, tartrates, <fec., and ! 
the detection of imimrities in them, and the volumetric esti- ( 
mation of the strength of all pharmacoiioeia preiiarations in j 
which standard solutions are ordered to be us<=»d. An elemen- 
tary knowledge of the iiroperties of light, heat, electricity and i 
magnetism, is also required. 
lu Victoria, the conditions of the qualifying examination | 
are considerably different from the above. The Pharmacy I 
Board of Victoria conducts, in addition to the xireliminary ‘ 
examination, only one other examination, namely, that in ! 
Practical Pharmacy, to which no candidate is admitted who * 
has not passed the preliminary examination^ comxDleted his j 
4 years’ apprenticeship, and xiassed at the Melbourne Uni- ' 
versity, or some school or college of pharmacy recognised by the ! 
Board, in materia medica, medical botany, and x)ractical j 
chemistry. Although candidates seem to have a large amount j 
of latitude left them as to how they shall conduct their 
studies, the practical effect of these regulations on Victorian 
students is to induce them to attend for a session at the lec- 
tures of the Melbourne College of Pharmacy, and to enter for 
the examinations for the certificates of the College of Phar- 
macy, which entitle the holders to enter for the Practical 
Pharmacy Examination of the Board. This examination 
usually x>asses under the name of the Major Examination, a 
meaningless title, seeing that there is no minor examination ; 
and, moreover, the name is not applied to it in the regulations 
-of the Pharmacy Board. The syllabus of the Practical Phar- 
macy Examination, x)ubliA-hed by the Victorian Board, is 
almost identical in subject matter with that of the British 
Minor Examination given above under the headings — Pre- 
scriptions, Practical Dispensing Pharmacy, and Materia 
Medica, phiH the subject matter of the British Major Materia 
Medica Examination. The only additions are that the candi- 
date must be able to spread i)lasters with dexterity and neat- 
ness. He must know the strength of sim^Dle solutions ordered 
in the Pharinacox)oeia, and must possess some knowledge as 
to xDoisons and antidotes. . A x^ortion of the British Minor 
Chemistry Scheme is also incorporated in the Victorian Prac- 
tical Pharmacy Scheme, namely, that which requires candi- 
dates to recognise the ordinary chemicals used in medicine ; 
to possess a practical knowledge of the processes by which 
they are produced, of the comx)osition of such as are com- 
pound, and to be able to ex|hain the decoinx^ositions which 
occur in their production and admixture. It is thus seen that 
the scope of the Victorian Practical Pharmacy Examination 
is about the same (as far as syllabuses go) as those which in 
New South Wales and New Zealand pass under the names — 
Prescriptions, Practical Dispensing, Pharmacy, and Materia 
Medica. 
With respect to the Melbourne College of Pharmacy Exami- 
nations in materia medica, botany, and chemistry, it may be 
said that they aim at covering the same ground as the New 
South Wales and New Zealand Examinations in the same sub- 
jects, the details of which we have seen to be identical with 
those of the British Major Examinations. 
In the Queensland Pharmacy Board regulations there seems 
to be a rather slavish adherence to the Victorian model, for 
after the details of the Preliminary Examination are given, 
only those relating to pharmacy follow under the headings— 
Pharmacy, Prescriptions, Practical Dispensing, and Materia 
Medica, although the Board conducts sexmrate examinations 
in chemistry and botany. The absence from the Victorian 
Bcheme of any details as to chemistry and botany is only to 
be expected, seeing that the Victorian Board does not examine 
in these subjects, but the omission in the case of Queensland 
points to a certain amount of laxity on the part of the Queens- 
land Board. 
The details given under the pi’eviously mentioned headings 
amount to about the same as the corresx^onding ones in the 
British Minor Scheme, excex^t that in materia medica they 
indicate a lower standard. Candidates are not re(xuired to 
know the botanical and zoological names and habitats of plants 
and animals, tiiat yield drugs, but they are required to recog- 
nise, either in a fresh or dried state, or in drawings, belladonna, 
stramonium, hyoscyamus, conium, aconitum, digitalis, or 
such other plants as may he produced to them. A general 
proviso like this last, which 1 have put in italics, is calculated 
to worry candidates unnecessarily, and to detract greatly 
from the value of a detailed syllabus, inasmuch as it merges 
the detailed matter into an unknown amount of undetailed, 
and takes away from the definiteness of the students’ work. 
The Pharmaceutical Society of South Australia is the only 
body in Australasia that has adopted unaltered the whole of 
the British Society’s Examination Scheme, thus it conducts 
a Preliminary, a Minor, and a Major Examination, the 
syllabuses for which are taken, with merely a few verbal altera- 
tions, from the British ones. Virgil is omitted from the 
preliminary Latin ; in the Minor Botany Scheme the word 
“ indigenous ” is replaced by “ cultivated,” as in Australia it 
would not necessitate a very extended study to be able to 
recognise the “ more imxmrtant indigenous x^h^nts used in 
medicine.” From the Britiah Major Botany Scheme the 
8 orders after Labiahe are omitted, and candidates are not re- 
quired to re ter to their respective orders such sx^ecimens as 
may be shown to them. Such other alterations as are made 
are merely verbal, and hardly affect the scope of the examina- 
tions, so that we may consider the British and South Aus- 
tralian Pharmaceutical Societies’ Examination Schemes as 
identical, at least, on x^ax^er. In Tasmania the examinations 
are xpurely oral ; and as they are not conducted by a pharma- 
ceutical coiq^oration yet, they are not prox^erly comx^arable 
with those of the other colonies. 
A general glance at the subjects of examination detailed in 
all the syllabuses shows that they may be divided into two 
groups, the one of which may be called Practical Pharmacy, 
and the other the Belated Science group. The objects of 
examining a man in the first group is to ascertain whether he 
has sufficient experience and knowledge of the routine duties 
that an ordinary chemist and druggist is called upon to dis- 
charge in the course of ordinary business, to be entrusted with 
the discharge of these duties. The object of examining him in 
the second group is to ensure that he shall have enough know- 
ledge of the pure scientific principles which underlie, and have 
most relation to his everyday work, to enable him to carry on 
that work as intelligently as possible.. 
The comx^arison of the examination papers in Practical 
j Pharmacy subjects, set in the different colonies, must be left 
to practical x)harmacists. All that I can say is that, as the 
different colonies have all adopted practically the same 
nominal standard, and as t^e task of examining is in each 
I colony entrusted to the most exxoerienced x^harmacists, there 
’ is not much chance that the actual x^assing standard can vary 
seriously from colony to colony. At any rate, it is not pos- 
sible to see how a greater certainty of uniformity could be at- 
tained, unless by the establishment of a Pan-Colonial Exami- 
ning Board. As long as different Boards examine in the dif- 
ferent colonies, no steps can be taken towards uniformity, 
I further than that which has been taken in the adox)tion of one 
i practically uniform syllabus. 
I As regards the science group, the first thing that strikes one 
I on perusing the British Minor Syllabus, is the strangely 
j illogical order in which the details of botany and chemistry 
I are arranged. In botany, the first requirement is, that the 
, candidate must recognise plants used in medicine, and after 
' that, comes the elementary botany which Avould helx) him to 
I recognise and distinguish the plants ; but in chemistry the 
; pei'versity is more marked, for it is only in the last paragrax^h 
of the details, that the candidate is enjoined to obtain a 
general knowledge of the laws of chemical philosox)hy. 
It is very notable how the order is exactly reversed in these 
two subjects in the British Major Syllabus, in botany as phar- 
macists have chiefly to do with classificatory botany, the can- 
didate is first required to make himself thoroughly acquainted 
with the parts of the flower, fruit, and seed, and then he is to 
axffffy his knowledge in his further studies in classification. 
So in chemistry the Major candidate is instructed first, to get 
an intimate knowledge of the laws of chemical philosoxdiy. 
