266 
AGE OF CANDIDATES FOIL THE MAJOR EXAMINATION. 
In addition to the above infusions, I might mention that they readily form in 
a weak solution of citrate of iron and quinine, when kept in a vessel imperfectly 
excluding the air, and placed in a warm room ; indeed I have known them form 
in a mixture (to the astonishment of the patient) when kept longer than it 
should have been. 
These growths must frequently have come under the notice of the Pharmaceu¬ 
tist, and perhaps some of those who are microscopists will be able to furnish fur¬ 
ther particulars respecting them; also the conditions least favourable to their 
development, one of which I presume to be low temperature.* 
AGE OE CANDIDATES FOE THE MAJOR EXAMINATION. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—In the August number of our Journal the question is asked, and has 
been asked before, how it is that, after the Society has had a twenty years’ ex¬ 
istence, Pharmaceutical Chemists bear so small a proportion to Druggists in 
general. 
May I attempt a reply by asking another question ? Why are our Associates 
virtually excluded from the Society, by being prevented from passing the Major 
before they are twenty-one years of age? 
Take a case in point. (I know of three.) 
A young man (from the country, perhaps) passes his preliminary, and is 
registered. At the age of eighteen or nineteen he goes in for the Minor, and 
succeeds. After a run home for a week, which his principal is very pleased to 
afford him, that he may air his new distinction, and receive encouragement from 
his friends (who never withhold it, if they are wise), he returns to his work, 
like a young giant refreshed, and six months later, perhaps, is ready for the 
Major. But a difficulty awaits him. He is told it cannot be done by a sapling ; 
he must have attained the vigorous age of twenty-one. Now, probably he was 
apprenticed for four years at the age of fifteen, and at nineteen has served his 
term. What is he to do? He cannot remain idle, so he takes a situation, and 
then “ Farewell, a long farewell, to all his greatness !” Why? Well, he begins 
work at seven, or half-past, finishes at nine, if he is lucky—if unlucky, at ten, 
eleven, or twelve. “ Books are excluded during business hours,” so he probably 
forgets a good deal of what would have been useful for the Major, and being in 
the country, perhaps, he may not be able to afford the expense of coming to 
apartments in London ; nor may he succeed in getting accommodated with board 
and lodging in lieu of services, so he looks forward to the lucky time (as he 
believes) when he will be able to go into business for himself, and that time 
having arrived, he wants to know what good the Society is to him. He does 
not care to stick up Associate over his door. He may not call himself a Phar¬ 
maceutical Chemist, nor can he hope to become one, as henceforth he will have 
no time to do aught but earn a living, so he calls himself “ Chemist and Drug¬ 
gist,” and is lost to the Society for ever. 
Anticipating the usual objections to this view, I appeal to the experience of 
my brethren if there is anything unfair in my way of putting it; and if it be 
true, I need not suggest the remedy, although, by the constitution of our Society, 
I believe it difficult of application. 
Another question has also presented itself from time to time, viz. the status 
which the Society gives us in public estimation. 
The following incident occurred in my shop some time since, and it is but one 
of several:—A gentleman requested me to prepare a prescription, with the re- 
* Our correspondent will find some valuable papers “On Microscopic Vegetations de' 
veloped in Pharmaceutical Liquids,” by the late Dr. Pereira, in the 7th and 8th volumes o* 
the ‘Pharmaceutical Journal.’— Ed.Pii. Jouetl 
