588 GOVERNMENT AID FOR SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION AND RESEARCH. 
to be interested in a letter from him, which appears in our correspondence of 
th Wer<Tall pharmacists imbued with as sound an opinion on the one thing need- 
ful to raise pharmacy to a profession, as Mr. Giles is, so convinced of the error 
of expecting from without that which can only come from within, and of the 
damage done to every body corporate by the laches of its members individually, 
the progress of advancement would be infinitely more rapid. . , 
As to the homoeopathic system of administering medicine, we feel as st o g y 
as our correspondent that it is an utter absurdity, useful only where total absti¬ 
nence from physic is required ; we know, too, that a prescnber in ordering 
o-lobule containing the decillionth part of a grain of any given drug to be divided 
into two doses, does not intend that it should be divided at all, but taken entire 
in powder No. 1, and that No. 2 shall be only sugar of milk given as a placebo 
to the patient; but if there be fraud in this system it must surely be on the 
part of the physician, and we are not prepared, as Mr. Giles is, to declare the 
dispenser “ particeps criminis .” It is the business of the pharmacist to dispense 
faithfully the prescription presented by his customer; when he presumes to pass 
judgment on the value of the medicine, as applied to the special disease forwhc 
it is prescribed, he steps beyond his province, and, pushing Mr. Giles s principle 
a little further, may sometimes be tempted to decline compounding the prescrip¬ 
tion as well of an allopath as a homoeopath. Is it an abnegation of principle to 
divide bread crumb into pills, and direct one to be taken every six hours ? \Y ould 
the man who condescended to do this be, for that reason, fairly open to the sus¬ 
picion of mixing slate with his scammony ? We think not; and on this sweep¬ 
ing charge of fraud against ah allopathic pharmacists who dispense homoeopathic 
doses (and, by the way, are said to humbug consenting parties, therefore may 
contend that they are not humbugging at all), we must be allowed to diff e rfrom 
our able correspondent. But on this point only do we differ, we w g ^ 
see the two systems of pharmacy kept in separate hands, as the two systems ot 
prescribing are usually, but not always. We believe the physicians too would 
prefer sending patients to dispensaries purely allopathic or homoeopathic. Ike 
allopath, because he would, like Mr. Giles, have a suspicion of the man who was 
“ all things to all men the homoeopath, because he professes to believe that 
the emanations from a multitude of drugs in their pure and simple form, will 
utterly destroy the power of his medicines in their infinitesimal attenuations. 
GOVERNMENT AID FOR SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION AND 
RESEARCH. 
We briefly alluded to this subject in our last number, and described the steps 
which had been taken with reference to it, at the instigation of the Council ot 
the British Association. Since then, it has been noticed in the House ot 
mons, and Mr. W. E. Forster, Vice-President of the Committee of Council on 
Education, in reply to Mr. Samuelson, stated that Earl de Grey intended forth¬ 
with to advise her Majesty to issue a Royal Commission to inquire mtofte iBd 
given from all sources to the different scientific societies, and to ascertain and 
report whether they considered that this aid could be given \vi e er 'U v . 
tage. It appeared from Mr. Samuelson’s statement, that the accommodation 
now provided for tfie School of Mines, the College of Chemistry and the Geo- 
logical Survey, is insufficient to meet their requirements, and that a P^posRion 
has been made to transfer the Jermyn Street and Oxford Street Schools to 
South Kensington. The whole subject will come under the consideration of the 
Commissioners, but until their report appears the existing arrangements will 
not be disturbed. 
