THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
YOL. V.—No. III.—SEPTEMBER 1st, 1863. 
THE QUALIFICATION REQUIRED AND THE CONTROL TO 
BE EXERCISED. 
It is satisfactory to find that at least as far as outward demonstration goes, 
chemists and druggists of all classes now agree in advocating the association of 
members of their trade for the protection and promotion of their common in¬ 
terests, for the elevation of their social position, for the advancement of the 
technical and scientific knowledge involved in their professional occupations, and 
for the fulfilment of conditions required for the public good. These objects 
have for many years received a practical recognition and support from the mem¬ 
bers of the Pharmaceutical Society, who have devoted time and talents and 
pecuniary means of no small amount in carrying them into effect and recom¬ 
mending them to the favourable notice of their brethren throughout every part 
of the country. 
That much good has resulted from the efforts thus made no one will deny. 
The members of the drug-trade (we use the term in its most comprehensive 
sense) are, as a body, better qualified for their occupations, they occupy a higher- 
social position, and they are more generally recognized as an important link 
between the patient and the medical prescriber, than was formerly the case. Nor 
is this improvement confined to those with whom it originated and who have 
been the principal agents in promoting it. The public advocacy of pharmaceu¬ 
tical education which the Pharmaceutical Society has never failed to promulgate, 
and the liberal means for imparting pharmaceutical knowledge which that Society 
has established and maintained at so great a cost, have indirectly as well as by 
direct means contributed to a general advancement in pharmaceutical learn¬ 
ing. Even those who have refused to admit the importance of the measures 
adopted, or to support the means by which improved education has been pro¬ 
vided for pharmaceutical practitioners, have nevertheless been compelled, from 
very shame, to keep pace, to some extent at least, with the general advance¬ 
ment. The improvement that has taken place cannot, therefore, be estimated 
by comparing the qualifications of the supporters of the improved system with 
those of others, nor even by observing the efficiency with which the duties of a 
pharmaceutical establishment are performed by those engaged in it, for a higher 
class and greater extent of knowledge are required now than were formerly. 
'The large number of new remedies that have been introduced call for the exercise 
of a more extended acquaintance with chemical and botaniccH terms, as well as 
other information relating to these substances, without which the ordinary routine 
of business could not be conducted. 
That the good that has hitherto been effected has fallen short of what was 
yol. v. i 
