738 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
If I had been requested to dispense the 
prescription to which you made reference, 
I should have mixed the globule with a few 
grains of sacch. lactis, and reduced it to a 
uniform powder in a mortar. If, as is usual, 
the prescription was written in Latin, with 
the signs and abbreviations common to both 
schools of medicine, will you allow me to 
suggest that it probably was written without 
any intention to deceive the patient, or that 
it should be dispensed in the manner stated? 
The division of globules into two or more 
doses is not an infrequent occurrence; but 
it is usual to direct them to be dissolved in 
water, as in the following formula:— 
R. B^onite Alb. 
Aquae destill. §vj. M. 
Ft. mist. (Japiat Cochl. mag. i ter die. 
I am, yours respectfully, 
John Barton Berry, M.R.C.V.S., 
Registered Chemist and Druggist. 
Northampton, April 14 th, 1870. 
The Examinations op the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society. 
Sir,—I beg to call your attention to a few 
points of inconsistency in the carrying on of 
these examinations, which all well-wishers 
to the cause will gladly hail the removal of. 
First, with regard to the so-called Prelimi¬ 
nary Examination : in this the exercise of 
the greatest amount of care is needed to 
show that the promoters of the Pharmacy 
Act, 1868, were really anxious to do what 
they then pretended, viz. to respect vested 
interests, their Bill assuring that all persons 
having been connected with the trade for a 
period of not less than two years were en¬ 
titled to respect, Not being able, however, 
to carry the measure in this form, a clause 
was inserted to the effect that all persons 
not actually engaged at that time in the 
business on their own account, or not having 
been so previously, must be subjected to some 
examination before being registered, blow, 
in the case of those who had arrived at the 
age of twenty-one years at the time of the 
passing of the Act, this examination was 
modified, provided they had been in the 
business not less than three years^ this was 
only right, and was the first step the Society 
made to carry out the recognition of vested 
interests as far as lay in their power. But 
here also is where the first great mistake 
begins to which I before gave the name of 
inconsistency. 
Next to these come a class of young men 
equally entitled to respect on account of the 
length of time they have been engaged in 
business; and not only so, but the analogy 
that exists between the two classes. 
I refer to those who, at the time of the pass¬ 
ing of the Act, were within a few months, per¬ 
haps, of the required age, some of whom were 
then actually engaged as assistants; and this 
class numbers not a few, it being a very com¬ 
mon thing in some houses for a young man to 
be loose of his apprenticeship at the age of 
20, whilst there are others who take appren¬ 
tices for a term of years irrespective of age. 
These are the people who, in fact, feel the 
full force of the law, and whose cases call 
for our sympathy and consideration, because, 
whilst their opportunities of acquiring the 
classical, and I might say “theoretical,” 
part were certainly not greater than those 
of the class just referred to (so much impor¬ 
tance not having been attached to a lad’s 
having a knowledge of Latin grammar and 
the first book of Caesar some eight or ten 
years ago as now), they are subjected to a 
severe and elaborate classical examination, 
going as far into grammar as the rules of 
syntax, if we are to take the papers of the last 
Preliminary Examination as a sample. I say 
difficult, because it really is so to persons 
with such opportunities only having been 
afforded them; whilst the Modified men, 
with the same opportunities, are supposed 
to be eligible for exemption on that account. 
Surely this is miserably inconsistent on 
the part of the Examiners; the remedy, 
however, is in their own hands, if they wish 
to apply it, and carry out in practice what 
they, as promoters of the Act, proposed to. 
If this Preliminary Examination is to be 
imposed upon tills class of young men, then 
let us have it, for some time to come, of a 
simple character, so that any young man 
may easily get through with a fair amount 
of effort. Although not previously a Latin 
scholar, his “Minor” will give him a prac¬ 
tical test, the same as the Modified does 
the other elass. Or, if that would not be 
advisable, on aeount of the apprentices just 
entering the profession, who, according to 
the present state of things, are placed on a 
better footing than those who, it must be 
acknowledged, have some vested interest, 
let us then have a separate examination for 
those whom we know by their age must 
have been three years previously employed 
in it. 
Again: let us endeavour to encourage 
rather than deter our young men from 
coming up to this Examination, by having 
one each month preceding the “ Minor ” 
examination, so that no unnecessary time, 
and consequently money, shall be iost by 
their having to wait a month for the result 
of this Preliminary examination before they 
can go in for the Minor. There is one other 
subject to which I wish to draw the atten¬ 
tion of the Council before closing, which is 
this. One hears it commonly stated of late 
that the Major examination has recently 
undergone great changes; that it has been 
made much more difficult since the Society 
has got the new Act than when all its exa- 
