CORRESPONDENCE. 
661 
month, and supplement the opinions then advanced on the “ Apprenticeship Question.” 
Before doing so, however, I would express the hope that the typographical error of 
Sunday for sundry in my former communication, has not misled any of your readers as 
to the drift of my argument. In discussing this most important and vital question of 
apprenticeship, we have to guard against confounding things that essentially differ,— 
differing widely both as to cause and effect. An impression exists, and is somewhat 
widely diffused amongst us as a body, that fewer youths are now being trained as 
chemists and druggists than formerly. I confess to have shared that impression ; cor¬ 
respondence, however, with several well-informed men in different parts of the kingdom, 
conducted during the past month, with the express design of collecting data, has led 
me to the conclusion that the impression is incorrect. At the same time I am startled 
to find the number of young men who, having partly or entirely completed the term of 
their apprenticeship, quit the business for other avocations. Now, if so much grist 
goes to the mill and so little flour is the outcome, or, changing the metaphor, if so 
many recruits enlist and so few effectives is the result, what is the cause, or what are 
the causes? for that there is just now an inadequate supply of competent assistants is, 
I believe, a generally-admitted fact. The causes are various, some remediable, others 
not so. Long hours, close confinement, and the demand for intellectual exertion 
requisite to prepare for examination, detach numbers of young men. The well-meant 
but, I fear, mistaken zeal of an eclectic school amongst us who speak lightly of mere 
trade, and would exclusively cultivate the professional instinct, fosters a pseudo-gentility 
in our young men, which, when it comes in contact with the stern realities of life, 
succumbs. On this subject, as on many others, the great body of Chemists throughout 
the country rarely expresses its verdict. Busily engaged,—too much so, indeed, for 
controversy,—they allow judgment to go by default; whilst, on the other hand, the 
eclectic school, compact, educated, and with the advantage of possessing a definite 
conception of what, according to their ideal, pharmaceutists should be, has pressed 
forward that conception with an energy and ability that cannot be disputed. I am 
content, however, to wait for that healthy reaction which, sooner or later, must set in; 
and in making this statement I do not refer to educational status. That the demand 
for higher culture exists, is bound to exist, and should be encouraged by every thought¬ 
ful man, may be inferred, not only from our own experience and observation, but also 
from the analogies to be drawn from every department of public life. What the 
coming generation of pharmaceutists need to be reminded of is, that there is no neces¬ 
sary divorcement between work and science, thorough culture and attention to petty 
detail. These remarks, although a seeming, are not a real digression from my theme ; 
their bearing on the question of apprenticeship is evident. In arguing the points, we 
will assume there are two kinds of establishments in which it is desirable our youth 
should be trained as pharmaceutists. First, the select dispensing houses, whom I ven¬ 
tured to designate in my former communication as our patrician order,—the few whose 
reputation is wide-spread. Secondly, the large, substantial, influential body of men 
conducting businesses of great respectability, though of a mixed character. A third 
class of incompetents I would remit to the limbo of obscurity to which they properly 
belong. And yet it is a fact, that for the consideration of the premium involved in the 
transaction, these are too often the men who contract to educate our youth. However, 
in viewing this matter, we may exclude them from our consideration. In regard to the 
first of the two classes above-mentioned, the suggestion of Mr. Giles, as to re-modelling 
the conditions of apprenticeship, would be of great importance. The proprietors of 
such establishments, in most instances, reside in private houses entirely disconnected 
from the business ; indoor pupils, in such cases, are inconvenient and undesirable. 
Hence the specific difficulty. Many a man, desirous of placing his son in such an 
establishment, is not content to do so, if there be no guaranteed supervision of his 
career during his term of apprenticeship. It is not asking too much, that this watchful 
care be exercised ; but if it be, then must our first-class pharmacies be closed as our 
training schools. This fact, whilst affording ground for sincere regret, need not cause 
despair. If only the influential body of provincial Chemists constituting my second 
classification, will consent to receive and train our youth, we may well be content. I 
entertain not the shadow of a doubt, that the curriculum of such houses, for all practi¬ 
cal purposes in the after experience of life, constitutes the very best discipline. If such 
men decline the task, we may well cherish apprehension. I cannot speak with confi- 
