LOCAL EXAMINATIONS. 
327 
Can we reasonably suppose that one-fourth of these 464 candidates would have 
offered themselves if compelled to attend in Loudon? I think not. And here 
it is worth while noting the relative quality of the London and provincial can¬ 
didates. Out of those examined in London 56*7 per cent, of those who pre¬ 
sented themselves were successful; of the whole of the centres collectively 601 
per cent, were successful; thus showing, that when tried by the same test, the 
provincial candidates were superior to the metropolitan. 
Now, I know it may be said that these examinations are not professional exa¬ 
minations, and, however excellent they may be, that they are intended more as 
tests of the schoolmaster’s work. This is not strictly so in the case of many 
senior candidates between the ages of fifteen and eighteen years. Examination 
papers are set in chemistry, and in various branches of physics, which would 
satisfy our board of examiners if answered by a Minor candidate. Further, the 
experience of the Society of Arts, and of the Department of Science and Art, 
both of which are holding local examinations, proves that it is possible, by a sys¬ 
tem of written papers, to test the knowledge of candidates in the following 
branches of knowledge:—Chemistry, botany, vegetable and animal physiology, 
and such departments of physics as electricity, heat, light, etc. 
The machinery required to do this work is simple. The Central Board of 
Examiners fixes a periodical examination, to be held simultaneously at those 
towns where a sufficient number of candidates have offered themselves to justify 
the town being made a centre. In each place a delegate from the central board 
attends, and is met by local gentlemen who have taken the responsibility of 
making preliminary arrangements. 
When all the candidates are present, at a given hour, the delegate opens his 
copy of the sealed questions which have been drawn up by the central board, and 
of which each delegate has a copy. It is these questions which must be an¬ 
swered within a given time, without any aid from books, etc. The replies are 
collected, marked with a distinguishing number instead of the name of the 
candidate, dispatched to the central board, and adjudicated upon by it. This is 
nothing more than our own system of prize examinations, and since we adopt it 
as preferable to a viva voce examination in testing the acquirements of men 
educated to a maximum, it is strange if it is unequal to discriminate the attain¬ 
ments of those making far less pretensions. 
This is the sort of local examination which I feel bound to advocate as being 
a desideratum to the Pharmaceutical Society. Can anything be more uni¬ 
form, more impartial, more feasible? To combine a personal examination, as 
in practical chemistry, etc., is quite easy, and is already done by the univer¬ 
sities. 
But some warm supporters of local examinations have turned their eyes in 
another direction, and have said—Why not have independent boards of examiners 
in our chief towns, in the same way that we have a board for Scotland? 
I reply, because it is next to impossible to find even three towns at present 
prepared to furnish the material for such boards, and that this difficulty would 
limit the number of possible centres for the future ; so much, that five-sixths of 
the country would be indifferent to such .a scheme. But chiefiy I object be¬ 
cause of the far graver fault, that the plan would destroy all uniformity of ex¬ 
amination. 
AVe know how the medical profession has found its greatest difficulty in 
the existence of various examining bodies, and though our local boards would 
all be appointed by the Council, it would be impossible, in the nature of things, 
to attain uniformity of examination • and if we did, people would not believe 
so, which would be equally mischievous. 
When the Oxford examinations were first founded, a number of pupils from 
a distance took their examinations at that city, in preference to their own 
“centres,” having some vague idea that they would get a “more genuine 
