450 
PREPARING FOR EXAMINATION. 
stones may be few in number; they should be solid, as simple in form as pos¬ 
sible, and so laid as not to require subsequent removal. Ample time should 
aiso be given to allow of the solidification of that which is to bear the super¬ 
structure. As the building proceeds, the construction will necessarily become 
more complex, and the progress made may appear to be slow, but still the work 
must consist in adding one stone after another, each stone being fitted to its 
place in accordance with the predetermined plan. Thus, by successive addi¬ 
tions made in proper order, a building suited for the purpose for which it was 
intended will be produced, and the time occupied in the wrnrk, and the pains 
taken to study all the parts and fit them well together, will be justified by the 
stability and usefulness of the structure. 
It is in a somewhat similar way that the knowledge of a subject should be 
built up in the mind of the student. Its acquirement must be by successive 
additions of new matter, and it is most important that these additions should 
be made in the proper order, and that the knowledge of each fact as it is used 
should be thoroughly mastered before passing to another. The error most com¬ 
monly committed in studying from books is, that the student, with a book before 
him, reads too much and understands too little. Let him take up auy systema- 
t ; c work on chemistry, or botany, or materia medica, and read off ten pages. 
How much of the matter thus presented to his mind leaves a correct and lasting 
impression there? He thinks he understands what he reads, but he is apt to be 
very indulgent to himself in testing the accuracy of his conceptions. A page 
well studied, with every fact noted and paraphrased, would contribute much 
more useful information than more extended but more loosely conducted 
reading. 
It is very important also that a proper selection of books should be made. 
The student is sometimes overwhelmed by the magnitude of the works before 
him. He takes up a book on chemistry, and finds it consists of a thousand 
pages of closely printed matter. If he is to study one page at a time, when 
shall he get to the end of his work ? And this is but one subject out of many. 
He must either satisfy himself with taking a small part of the whole, or rushing 
from page to page he skims oil, as he thinks, the cream, and fancies his know¬ 
ledge to be much more real thauf, when rigidly tested, it proves to be. 
in some respects, there is a want of books suited to the requirements of the 
class of students we are alluding to. Fownes’s 4 Manual of Chemistry,’ and 
Pereira’s or even Ilovle’s 1 Materia Medica,’ are too voluminous to admit of their 
\J 7 
being studied in the way and for the purpose we have indicated. Much smaller 
works would answer much better. Hoscoe’s 1 Lessons in Elementary Chemistry,’ 
an excellent book of its kind, and Garrod’s ‘ Essentials of Materia Medica,’ or 
Scoresby- Jackson’s ‘Hote-Book of Materia Medica,’ would be found to answer 
the required purpose with reference to the subjects they treat of. Even something 
slighter than these, and treating the subjects in a different way, is required by 
many of the existing class of students. We have been glad to observe that 
attempts are being made to provide easy and simple lesson-books for pharma¬ 
ceutical students who have but small means for getting assistance personally 
from teachers in preparing for their examinations. Lescher’s 1 Guide for the 
Modified Examination,’ is a work of this description, which, we think, is likely 
to prove very useful. Similar works adapted for the other examinations are, 
we see, contemplated, and these, together with materia medica specimens fur¬ 
nished by Southalls and Dymond, and also by Evans and Lescher, will supply 
some of the most pressing wants of a numerous class of our correspondents, in 
reply to whose communications these remarks have been written. 
