THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
VOL. IX.—No. VI.—DECEMBER, 1867. 
INDUCEMENTS TO STUDY. 
If a standard of qualification should at any time be recognized by law as 
that to which all must attain who are licensed to dispense medicines and deal 
in dangerous drugs, it is not likely to be fixed above the point required for 
the safety of the public ; and consequently, in the Bill which has been pre¬ 
pared by the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society, it is proposed to make 
the Minor Examination of the Society the test of the legal qualification to 
practise pharmacy and to be registered as a Chemist and Druggist. Some 
persons have thought that under such circumstances there would be little in ¬ 
ducement for men, in studying pharmacy, to aim at a higher qualification,— 
that they would rest satisfied with that which the law required, and would 
only in comparatively few instances prepare themselves for the Major Exa¬ 
mination, and seek the title of Pharmaceutical Chemist. It has even been 
suggested that if none but those who pass the Major Examination be admitted 
as members of the Society, and intrusted with the important duties devolving 
upon that body, the number of these may become so reduced as to constitute 
a very imperfect and insufficient representation of those engaged in the prac¬ 
tice of pharmacy throughout the country. 
We think these anticipations of the result of the proposed law are not jus¬ 
tified by experience in other analogous cases, and that there are really no 
grounds for the apprehension of a deficiency of candidates for a title indi¬ 
cating a bona-fide qualification for the exercise of important and responsible 
duties required by the public. In expressing this opinion it is, of course, 
implied that the qualification referred to is such as the general or professional 
public can appreciate,—such as is calculated to make a man more useful to 
those in whose service he proposes to apply his qualifications. There is ob¬ 
viously a limit to the extent to which it would be desirable to encourage the 
cultivation of the branches of knowledge involved in a pharmaceutical quali¬ 
fication. It is not necessary, and it would not be useful, in the exercise of 
the professional duties of a pharmaceutist, that he should possess a large amount 
of classical knowledge, or that he should be a profound mathematician, or even 
that he should be distinguished as a chemical philosopher. These acquire¬ 
ments would rather tend to disqualify him than to qualify him for such duties 
as the public require in connection with the practice of pharmacy. The 
highest qualification in such a case as we are contemplating is such as would 
ensure the most efficient performance of all the duties that might be required 
under any probable circumstances. If such qualification could be fairly tested, 
and a title conferred in virtue of the test, what inducement would there be 
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