398 
LIVEllPOOL CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
eye-picce, adapted to the microscope, and delivered a short address in relation to the 
examination of bodies by spectral phenomena, and the benefits which the physiological 
and chemical investigator were likely to derive from adaptations and inventions such as 
that exhibited. In the absence of Mr. Ince, Dr. Edwards read the following paper on— 
“ Industrial Pharmacy.” 
Gentlemen,—The dispensing counter which I have had the pleasure of presenting to 
your Association is designed to meet the ordinary -requirements of a London retail esta¬ 
blishment, the bottles, papers, jars, and sundries having been selected with this view. 
I am told that some of its arrangements will be regarded as a curiosity elsewhere; but 
gentlemen living in the excelsior atmosphere of a place like Liverpool, must make large 
allowance for their brethren who have to work in a less favoured centre. The points 
aimed at in its construction are as follows:— 
1 . Great convenience in little space. 
2 . The counter is made in sections of 3 feet 3 inches, each being complete in itself, 
and designed for one dispenser. The left-end panel is moveable so as to adapt or alter 
the gas and water services. 
3. The proportions have been carefully determined. The counter is neither so low as 
to prove injurious to the assistant, nor yet so high as to be inconvenient. The screen 
is arranged so as to protect the dispenser from intrusion without rendering him invisible. 
The minor details of arrangement must be varied to meet the wants of each particular 
establishment. I lay particular stress on the third observation. The height of the dis¬ 
pensing counter is a point occasionally neglected. It may indeed be seen so low as to 
be most injurious to the health of the assistant; sometimes this is avoided by the use of 
a high desk for writing, copying prescriptions, or directing; but the stooping habit, inevi¬ 
tably contracted by habitual dispensing on a low counter, still remains unremedied. A 
good carpenter, with a few hours’ work, would speedily remove the evil. 
One thing at least this counter is meant to show, namely, that oak and iron need not 
be rigidly excluded from a druggist’s shop. Oak is very clean in use, most durable, and 
not unattractive in appearance. A little iron scroll-work, judiciously introduced, gives 
an artistic finish to an otherwise heavy structure; and I believe that the combination of 
light-coloured wood and iron may be ventured on by the pharmaceutist of the most 
aesthetic tendencies, who has an equal aversion to what is mean and bare on one hand, 
or gaudy on the other. 
Liberavi animam meam. This counter is the text; listen for a few minutes to the ser¬ 
mon. There is a pressing want of an Industrial Museum of Pharmacy, a collection so 
arranged that the humblest pharmaceutist might be brought into direct contact, not only 
with the best forms of chemical apparatus, but with the most desirable shop-implements 
and modes of decoration. 
Such an establishment would promote the immediate interests of the man of business, 
and the man of science. Further, it would create a school of excellent wmrkmen, w'ho, 
having a definite aim before them, would devote their special energies to the industrial 
claims of Pharmacy. 
Take as an opening illustration the erection of a modern druggist’s-shop. First, that 
well-meaning man, the medical shop-fitter, brings a deep, closely-grained glass screen, 
which, being inserted in the window, effectually excludes the view. Inside he plants the 
counters, on which he piles huge erections, called glass cases, all of which fade into in¬ 
significance beside that Mont Blanc of Pharmacy, which is a desk behind, and in front 
an arcade of fancy articles. Should there be any ground-space left, it is instantly filled 
up with some choice erection; the theory of the fitter being, space must be occupied. 
VVhv is the light excluded from a druggist’s shop ? Why may not customers look in ? 
Why not leave room to breathe ? Why are assistants condemned to spend their days 
behind a barricade ? There is but one answer,—this is the result of the tyranny of routine; 
the fitter has carried out that which inexorable custom has prescribed. 
Gentlemen resident in Livex*pool, surrounded by the signs of universal progress, may be 
pardoned in thinking more highly of the present than the past; and yet our forefathers 
had the courage to let the light of day into their shops, and to attend to appropriate 
ornament, leaving the system of overcrowding to the century in which we live. 
Look at this engraving, representing in its way a perfect shop, spacious, yet not ugly, 
convenient and excellently arranged. Moreover, the laboratory is where it should be. 
