NOTES AND ABSTRACTS IN CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACY. 
541 
that the apprentice’s services would be reckoned as of no value, and that there 
would be uo objection to curtailing the hours of business so as to meet the re¬ 
quirements of study and recreation. Punctuality and strict attention to 
business during the appointed hours would of course be insisted upon. The 
term of apprenticeship should be limited to three years, and the introduction 
which would thus be obtained in a good house of business in the several depart¬ 
ments of laboratory, dispensary, and shop, would be better value for the fee 
than the old-style lengthy servitude in second-rate shops without laboratory, 
and often with an insignificant share of dispensing, where the services rendered 
constituted a main element in the consideration, and too often became a source 
of discontent on the one side and dissatisfaction on the other. The expense of 
such a system of apprenticeship as is here sketched need not greatly exceed that 
of the custom which it is intended to replace (the scientific education being a 
necessary addition under any system), while it would leave the apprentice at 
liberty to take a salaried situation at the end of three years, and would relieve 
the master from the intolerable responsibility of guardianship. Of course, 
there is nothing to prevent an arrangement being made between the parties 
for the lodging, maintenance, and supervision of the apprentice if it is mutually 
convenient, but looking at the question in its general aspect, it would greatly 
facilitate the admission of apprentices into first-class houses if the institution of 
apprenticeship was dissociated from this usage. 
I have not attempted to do more than briefly to outline points for discussion. 
My object would not be attained by an elaborate essay representing the 
opinions, perhaps the bias, of a single mind, but requires the concurrence of 
numbers and influence. Whether the views here advanced are right or wrong, 
this fact will scarcely be disputed, that the best houses—especially the highest- 
class dispensing houses—are closed against apprentices, and the practical edu¬ 
cation of the future representatives of pharmacy is thereby exposed to great 
disadvantage. 
Such a fact is disastrous ; its cause is not obscure. Surely the appropriate 
remedy can be devised. Yours respectfully, 
Clifton, January 26, 1869. Richard W. Giles. 
NOTES AND ABSTRACTS IN CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACY. 
BY C. H. WOOD, F.C.S. 
Use of Phosphorus in Medicine ; Phosphorized Oil. 
During the past year several communications have been made to the Societe 
de Pharmacie of Paris, on the best means of preparing a solution of phosphorus 
of definite strength for administration in medicine. The therapeutic action 
of this substauce has been extensively studied latterly by French physicians; 
and in the treatment of paralysis and certain nervous diseases especially, phos¬ 
phorus has been advantageously employed. The administration of this dan¬ 
gerous and poisonous agent, however, is attended with considerable difficulty ; 
and the attention of pharmaceutists was therefore directed to the production of 
solutions of phosphorus which should be uniform in character and perfectly 
definite in strength. Sulphide of carbon is, par excellence, the solvent of phos¬ 
phorus, but it exerts such an injurious action on the human system, that its use 
is entirely precluded. Ether, chloroform, and oil are the solvents which have 
been employed. Solutions in each of these menstrua have been prepared, and 
put up in gelatinous capsules, adjusting the quantity in such a manner that 
each capsule should contain the same amount of phosphorus—namely, 1 milli¬ 
gramme (0-015 grain, or about one-seventieth of a grain). This method of ad- 
