THE DREAD OF AN EXAMINATION. 
187 
prescriptions, should be defined with scrupulous care and exactness, either 
directly or by reference to some generally accessible source of information. 
It is in the case of non-official medicines that difficulty from uncertainty most 
frequently occurs, and it should therefore be most carefully provided against. 
Unfortunately a large number of such medicines are constantly forced upon 
the attention of medical men, and they are not unfrequently prescribed, per¬ 
haps without due consideration of the probable influence of such a practice. 
It has sometimes led by insensible gradations to practices still more objection¬ 
able,—to prescribing in cipher, and to the use of terms not comprised in the 
conventional rules of the profession. The adoption of such practices is equiva¬ 
lent to impeding a rail w^ay-train at the imminent risk of the destruction of life. 
Cases such as we have just referred to are fortunately rare exceptions to 
the general rule which maintains the authority of the Pharmacopoeia and re¬ 
pudiates quackery as inconsistent with the high character of a liberal profes¬ 
sion. It behoves those who occupy the position of dispensers to contribute 
their part, faithfully and well, in furtherance of the objects so greatly to be 
desired. Their discretion is more limited but their duty is not less sacred than 
are those of the physician. They are the interpreters and part-executors of 
the instructions contained in the prescription. They are expected to act with 
intelligence and judgment, and faithfully to fulfil the duties which devolve 
upon them. Any medicine prescribed by a name used in the Pharmacopoeia, 
without any qualifying mark or expression, should strictly answer to the de¬ 
scription given in that w T ork. This is a rule that will hardly admit of ex¬ 
ception, for it is to be hoped that any medical man, upon reflection, would 
see the impropriety of verbally directing a deviation from the simple and 
only safe course which law and practice and common sense indicate. 
If the relationship most natural and befitting for those whose duties are 
so naturally dependent, be established in good faith, and have for its pri¬ 
mary object the advancement of the interests of medicine as an art and 
science, blessed alike to those who administer and those who are adminis¬ 
tered to, they will unite in furthering harmonious co-operation, by which 
the interests of all parties concerned will be most effectually secured. 
THE DREAD OF AN EXAMINATION. 
Let us try, whilst on the eve of an opening session, to rob this ordeal of its 
terrors. During the past two months the Secretary of this Society and cer¬ 
tain others have been overwhelmed with letters desiring information as to the 
exact limit of qualification required in order to enjoy the privileges accorded 
by the Amended Act of Pharmacy. Most of the questions asked might have 
been spared by an attentive reading of the September number of the Journal: 
our present duty, however, is not to enter on a review of law r s and schedules, 
but to say a few kind, though serious, words to Assistants of long standing 
and undoubted capability, whose inquiries have formed a minimum portion 
of the late correspondence. They have our most cordial sympathy and 
strongest wishes for their future welfare. It is perfectly intelligible, that 
those who are conscious of being skilled dispensers, competent to conduct the 
entire routine of a druggist’s business, and superintending others less ex¬ 
perienced than themselves, and to some extent advanced both in years and 
station, should hesitate to be exposed to the smallest chance of failure. 
That men so well fitted to do credit to themselves and reflect honour on 
the Society to which they might belong, should not have availed themselves 
of the position which the formality of an examination would have conferred 
cannot be otherwise than a subject of regret; and if it be stated that fami- 
o 2 
