SUPPLEMENTARY BENEVOLENT FUND. 
381 
value of time well occupied. Then comes the disheartening truth, coupled with 
the bitter discovery how hard it is to force the undisciplined mind to answer, 
when bidden, to the work required. Add to this the distraction of business 
engagements, late hours, and some amount of exhaustion. No praise can be 
too high when such difficulties are surmounted. 
The subject is placed, without reservation, briefly but conscientiously before 
the reader. Soon we shall have text-books inspired by the laudable ambition 
of bridging over a neglected education. These guides are good for those who 
need them, but they are not to be accepted in place of systematic study. Their 
writers would be among the first to say that while crutches were useful for the 
lame, legs were to be preferred. 
Sound (not necessarily advanced) scholarship is the royal road to Pharmacy 
or to any other conceivable branch of learning ; it breaks down future difficulty, 
gives certainty in all subsequent work and self-reliance. Before it the techni¬ 
calities of those twin stumbling-blocks, Chemistry and Botany, disappear; and 
yet out of fifty Pharmacists who offer themselves for a modified examination, it 
will happen that not ten can read a physician’s recipe in the language in which 
it is written. I should be grieved in the most serious manner were this sen¬ 
tence to be interpreted as either ill-natured or sarcastic—the fact is mentioned 
only in order to express a feeling of personal sorrow as to the amount of effort 
implied in thus passing the ordeal. 
Mathematics, by parallel mode of reasoning, may be said to produce identical 
results ; but to many they are a sealed book. Let us not dilute our energies in 
fighting over the relative merit of classics and mathematics; whether one or 
the other be preferred, let us agree upon the one main point. Give the key to 
knowledge, a trained and disciplined mind, and fear not but that the student 
entering on life will thus be best prepared to unlock whatever door a kind Pro¬ 
vidence may offer. 
SUPPLEMENTARY BENEVOLENT FUND. 
In connection with the election of annuitants on the Benevolent Fund, a 
system has been adopted in some places which we think is worthy of a brief 
notice, especially at this period of the year. A correspondent at Birmingham 
has sent to the Secretary a supplementary list of subscriptions “ for the unsuc¬ 
cessful candidates.” A few pounds have thus been subscribed in small sums in 
that locality, and if the same thing were done elsewhere a very acceptable con¬ 
tribution might be thus made, which would tend to mitigate the feeling of dis¬ 
appointment after the excitement of an election. We strongly commend the 
example of Birmingham in this respect as worthy of imitation. 
