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DUTIES OF MASTERS AND APPRENTICES. 
Of the advantage in having some final purpose in view, some testing ordeal 
to pass, there is also no doubt, for it gives impetus to emulation; and to be 
connected with any institution which holds out the means for having one’s 
qualifications properly directed, tested, and publicly proved, frequently induces 
the parents of a youth to be more liberal and anxious on their son’s behalf than 
otherwise they would think, or therefore care to feel. 
From having been connected with the Pharmaceutical Society fifteen years, 
and as a late student at the laboratory there, I can venture to say that but for 
the prospect of examination I should never have read so much, during a five 
years’ apprenticeship, as I did; and but for after practice at the laboratory, 
and attendance at the lectures, I could not, with like ease and satisfaction, have 
passed the necessary examinations. And further, my experience impressed me, 
as many others have independently observed, that there is not another school 
where, for like expenditure of money and time, so much can be acquired that 
is so fitted to the practical and scientific calling of the chemist and druggist. 
Then, in closing these remarks, I would just beg of apprentices or improvers, 
who may be hesitating about joining the Society or its school, to come and see 
for himself; and having made personal inquiries of the Secretary and teachers 
at Bloomsbury Square, I think he will be agreeably surprised to find how much 
can be done for him, how comprehensive and complete is the system of pharma¬ 
ceutical education as there instituted. If there be any who being old enough 
are not sensible of the benefits there offered, I fear it bespeaks their fault and 
misfortune ; and I am sorry to believe that such complaints, supposing it fair 
to judge from the few that I hear direct, emanate chiefly, if not entirely, from 
those who have not succeeded very creditably before the Board of Examiners, 
or from those who have not ventured or passed at all. The sympathy of those 
who respect education will always attend any means for promoting it, nor dis¬ 
courage the patronage of schools and institutes through which the elements of 
knowledge are made accessible to the rising generation, who are never, certainly, 
too sensible of the value of knowledge. The chemist especially, from the compre¬ 
hensive nature of his required information, is expected to keep pace with the 
times; his mind, like a clock, should be kept in going order; and thus, how¬ 
ever humble his position, or unpretending his lucrative means, he will always 
command a certain amount of respect for doing his duties with integrity, intel¬ 
ligence, and skill. Faithfully yours, 
173, Sloane Street. Charles J. Radermacher. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—Many letters have appeared in the Pharmaceutical Journal on the sub¬ 
ject of the “Error and its Remedies,” but there is another error which requires 
to be remedied, to which hitherto, I believe, no allusion has been made,—the con¬ 
duct of the master to the apprentice. Now let us examine their relative positions. 
A youth is articled to a chemist and druggist, let him be for the nonce a 
pharmaceutist, and therefore the youth is supposed to be a pharmaceutist in 
embryo, and it is fondly hoped by his parents that he will be so instructed as to 
fit him, in process of time, to become a full-blown pharmaceutist—“ a member 
of the Pharmaceutical Society by examination.” 
A liberal premium is given with him, and the master, by his indentures, en¬ 
gages to teach him the art and mysteries of the business of a chemist and 
druggist. The Pharmaceutical Society requires that an apprentice should 
have received a liberal education, and should be able to pass an examination 
in Latin by the clergyman of the parish, or some competent person. He 
