THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
VOL. X.—No. IX.—MARCH, 1869. 
PREPARING FOR EXAMINATION. 
In an article headed as above, we endeavoured last month to encourage a 
somewhat numerous class of young men, who have been suddenly placed under 
difficulties, to adopt what we believe to be the best course to enable them to 
fulfil what the law now requires, and what would tend to their permanent ad¬ 
vantage. The advice we have there given was not offered unsolicited, nor was 
it lightly or unadvisedly offered. It represents convictions long formed, much 
of the substance of which has found expression from time to time in the pages 
of this Journal from its first appearance until now, and we ask for an attentive 
perusal of it with a view to its practical application, if deemed worthy, for ad¬ 
vancing the interests of those to whom it is addressed. 
While the system of education and examination which was introduced by the 
Pharmaceutical Society in 1842 continued a voluntary system, it was desirable 
and indeed necessary, that the test of qualification should be uniformly applied, 
and should indicate as high a standard of proficiency as the circumstances of 
those who came under its influence would admit. The men who availed them¬ 
selves of systematic and scientific education and passed the required examinations 
were recognised as qualified men, and took a position accordingly. In the in¬ 
terests of these men, and of the system which, as a voluntary system, could not 
be otherwise maintained, it was necessary to guard against the lowering of the 
standard to meet special cases. No exceptions were admitted, nor were they 
required ; and those who failed to come within the boundary-wall of examina¬ 
tion remained as outsiders, but retained the legal right to exercise the business 
to which they had been trained, and in which they had acquired a vested 
interest. 
It has often been our duty during the last quarter of a century to urge upon 
students of this class the importance of their pursuing their studies in such a 
way and to such an extent as to make the knowledge so acquired a permanent 
'acquisition, which would prove a valuable investment of the cost of instruction. 
We have thus pointed out that the best and only thoroughly sound method of 
studying the subjects involved in a pharmaceutical qualification is the practical 
method. For botany the gardens and fields, for chemistry the laboratory, for 
Materia Medica the drawers and bottles. But neither gardens and fields, nor 
laboratory, nor drawers and bottles, would avail alone. There must be the 
guide and instructor to point out what to observe and what application to make 
of the observed facts. Hence the necessity for the tutor, the lecturer, or the book, 
and as personal instruction is much more effective than that derived from read¬ 
ing, the latter without the former can only be recommended where the other 
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