188 
THE DREAD OF AN EXAMINATION. 
liarity with practical detail is one thing, while technical knowledge is another, 
it may be answered fearlessly that the daily devotion of the work of one 
morning or evening hour, for no longer period than three months, would en¬ 
able such a student to satisfy the most rigid examiner. 
Let us, in this calm autumn month, quietly talk the matter over. What is 
the nature of this proposed Modified Examination, which has caused such a 
flutter of consternation ? Strip it of technicalities and this is the result. 
Candidates must know how to read prescriptions, write a label, and be on 
their guard against dispensing a drachm of arsenic if ordered for a dose; 
they should be thoroughly clear in their own minds that rhubarb is not jalap, 
nor ought they to confuse senna leaves with, chamomile; they should know 
when calumba root is good, and when it might reasonably be rejected. 
Further, it has been thought not a too stringent regulation that compound 
tincture of cardamoms should be distinguished from sal volatile, and that the 
proportion of the active ingredients existing in more powerful remedies should 
be remembered. Seven plants have to be recognized, all specified before¬ 
hand, being the amount of botany required, and the assistant should be able 
to determine whether specimens submitted are such as he would choose to 
vend in an establishment of his ow T n. What less could he be asked to know ? 
With how much less would he feel comfortable himself? We implore those 
interested to take the matter into their earnest consideration : at least let 
them shake off once and for ever the shadow of that unwholesome fear of an 
examination which might paralyse their exertions. 
Here we must pause while an episode of argument is presented. There 
are men amongst us (long may they remain) who have borne the full heat 
and burden of their day. Popularly they are described as the founders of 
our Society. Whether so or not is matter of no moment. Early in life 
they accepted pharmacy as a vocation; they struggled hard during many an 
unprofitable .season to scrape together a decent business. That unremitting 
care, assiduous application, and never wearying exertion should be finally 
rewarded is but an illustration of the eternal law, that whatsoever a man 
soweth he shall reap. 
They have succeeded,—have made money, and transmitted to their de¬ 
scendants the heritage of a name as well as solid pecuniary advantages. 
Shall we say they were subjected to no examination ; why should we? Ho ; 
for these men are, of all others, the most eager that their sons should accept 
the better and larger facilities of the age in which we live ; the first to rejoice 
over and to advance the cause of classical and pharmaceutical education ; the 
first to feel grateful that their children are spared the drudgery, loss, and 
social degradation which their fathers not unfrequently were forced to 
undergo; the last to entertain any sympathy with scarcely fledged appren¬ 
tices, who would rather indolently sink into a duck-pond than manfully pre¬ 
pare for the duties that lie before them. 
Respecting these, by far the most numerous class of applicants for informa¬ 
tion, we scarcely know what to sa}\ At the commencement of a new* phase 
in the career of Pharmacy not one word of discouragement shall escape our 
lips. These young gentlemen being occasionally of the advanced age of 
twenty-one, having served a few years’ apprenticeship less or more, and in 
some cases having been assistants for two years at most, tremble with anxiety 
to ascertain whether the provisions of the Amended Act will wink at such a 
want of qualification, and permit them to remain incompetent for life. We 
can imagine no greater mistaken kindness than the slightest effort made in 
tins direction, and no conduct more suicidal. The pharmacist of to-day cannot 
rest the druggist of fifty years ago. All classes are influenced by the pro¬ 
gress of the age; the world imperatively demands more than ever it did be- 
