TIIE ERR Oil AND THE REMEDY. 
125 
regard its certificate of membership as a certain passport to success, the summnm 
bonuin of its entire worth residing in the advice (in imagination inscribed there¬ 
on), “Put money in thy purse.” This, Sir, is the fallacy we have fallen into, 
and hence the disappointment which occasionally finds its way into the pages of 
your Journal. A moment’s reflection will suffice to convince the most ordinary 
observer that success in business does not depend upon connection with the 
Pharmaceutical Society (though I believe it is often enhanced thereby), but 
rather upon certain individual qualifications which.it is out of the power of that 
Society either to offer or bestow. The Pharmaceutical Society does not guarantee 
success to its members when granting them their certificates. It does not con¬ 
template turning out a number of “men of business” already cut and dried. 
It has no power to deal with constitutional tendencies, or to eradicate constitu¬ 
tional defects. It does not profess to dispense good manners and pleasing ex¬ 
teriors ad libitum , or to infuse into its members the qualities known as energy, 
neatness, dispatch, good-judgment, and so forth, and to expect that it should do 
all or any of these would be simply absurd. What, then, has the Pharmaceutical 
Society done “ after an existence of nearly twenty years,” and what will it yet 
do ? Though I am far from believing that the title “ Pharmaceutical Chemist” 
is without its weight in public estimation, yet there cannot, I think, be a doubt 
that hitherto the benefits conferred thereby have been mainly indirect, and there¬ 
fore not so distinctly traceable as otherwise they might have been. As time 
wears on, however, these benefits will undoubtedly become more apparent, and 
consequently more in accordance with the views of those who look only at the 
stern practical realities of the counter and the till. In the meanwhile, presuming 
an error to have been committed, what is the remedy? Plainly the following : 
—(1) To take a right view of the objects contemplated by the Society. (2) 
To bring its influence to bear upon individual interests as far as possible, con¬ 
sistently with the position and title of Pharmaceutical Chemist. (3) To bear 
in mind that success in business (i. c. pecuniary success) depends more upon 
personal fitness for the occupation in a trading point of view, than upon any 
amount of theoretical knowledge per se which study and experiment can pos¬ 
sibly secure. With the adoption of these suggestions in the light of a remedy 
for the supposed error, I think we shall cease to be disappointed with the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society. But it may be asked, as it has been asked hundreds of times 
before, “ If the Pharmaceutical Society is so powerless to assist us as men of 
business, of what use is it?” I am by no means sure, that besides watching our 
interests generally, the Pharmaceutical Society does not greatly assist us as 
men of business ; the remark made by your correspondent that “ non-members 
are equally successful in business, and non-associates or assistants, as their con¬ 
forming brethren,”being very judiciously qualified by the phrase “so far as my 
experience goes.” But apart from this, I would ask:—Is there no satisfaction, 
no pleasure, no profit, in understanding the nature of the compounds it is our 
lot (I was about to say our privilege) to deal with and dispense ? Is our occu¬ 
pation so unremunerative that we cannot occasionally rise above the counter and 
its attendant phenomena? Are we ever to slave on to the cry of hair-oil and 
Epsom salts, without an effort in the cause of pharmacy, or a thought in the 
direction of science? Is the story of the cash-box the “be-all and the end-all 
here”? He must be a most obdurate disciple indeed of the old school who 
would reduce all alike to 'pounds, shillings, and pence. But even here the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society is something more than a mere “abortion.” If it does not 
openly and freely put money in our purses, as we have been too much accustomed 
to expect, it offers an equivalent in the opportunities given for theoretical pro¬ 
ficiency, and consequently for the application of theoretical knowledge to the re ¬ 
quirements of trade; thus, to say the least, placing the candidate in the best 
possible position to succeed, the inference being, eseteris paribus , that under such 
VOL. V. L 
