THE LATEST THING IN FEEDING-BOTTLES. 
517 
and laboured, and toiled until they have gained that on which they have set 
their heart; then they have set before them another aim, higher and more dif¬ 
ficult than their former one, and their toil has been renewed until once more 
their labours are crowned with success; and so they have gone setting their 
mark higher and higher each time they succeeded, until there now they stand, 
“ head and shoulders ” above the rest of the people. 
Let us from them take a lasting lesson. If we want to take an interest in 
our trade, and if we are discontented with our present lethargy and indifference, 
let us set before us some object for the accomplishment of which we must strive 
and labour. Such an aim the Pharmaceutical Society supplies. It offers to the 
apprentice its medals and certificates, its honours and scholarships ; and as he 
studies in order to pass these tests, an interest is immediately raised in trade 
matters, and so it goes on, until that which he once hated now he learns to 
love ; and even horseball-rolling, and blue-vitriol-powdering, and furniture- 
paste-making are seen in a new light, and even become auxiliaries in increasing 
his knowledge and deepening his interest. My advice, then, to all apprentices 
is—llesolve to pass the Pharmaceutical examination ; study Csesar and other 
subjects until you can pass the classical examination ; this done, do not relax 
your exertions, but go in for the Minor Examination, the Herbarium Prize, the 
Junior Bell Scholarship. Take them one after the other, and work for each 
resolutely, earnestly, and continuously, until you conquer. And while you thus 
keep the aim steadily in view, do not regard it with any fear lest you should 
never obtain it; when you decide to strive for it, also make up your mind to 
obtain it. Plucking is a contingency you must not even entertain for a moment. 
“Can’t’’ is a word you must entirely expunge from your vocabulary. Here, 
obstinacy is a virtue; nail your colours to the mast, and stick to them.* 
Taunts you will have to endure ; those associated with you in the shop, too 
lazy to tread in your footsteps, may jeer at your bold attempt, and try to dis¬ 
suade you from your purpose; but heed it not. Tell them that neither laugh¬ 
ing nor frowning, neither coaxing nor threatening, can deter you. Say— 
“ I pray you tliink you question now with me. 
You may as well go stand upon the beach 
And bid the main flood bate his usual height. 
You may as well use question with the wolf. 
Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb. 
You may as well forbid the mountain pines 
To wag their high tops, and to make no noise 
When they are fretted with the gust of heaven. 
You may as well do anything most hard, 
As strive to alter that (than which what’s harder ?) 
My res’lute heart.” 
Trusting that this may fall into the hands of a fellow-apprentice who may 
be stimulated by it to search diligently for “the hid treasures” that lie all 
glittering under the apparently unlikely soil of a general country druggist’s 
trade, 
I remain, yours obediently, 
A Registered Apprentice. 
Bury St. Edmund's, March 1 9th, 1866. 
THE LATEST THING IN FEEDING-BOTTLES. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—A few days since, I was informed by a chemist in West Hartlepool (and 
he afterwards afforded me ocular demonstration of the fact) that he is constantly 
