July 13,1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
39 
*** Ao notice can be taken of anonymous communica¬ 
tions. IVhatever is intended for insertion must be authenti¬ 
cated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily 
for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. 
Peovincial Phaemaceutical Education. 
Sir,—Will you kindly further the purpose which the 
Council had in view in publishing the outline of their scheme 
for promoting Provincial Pharmaceutical Education, by giving 
the best prominence you can spare to these few lines/ 
Their object is to urge upon every member of our body who 
has a thought upon the subject to communicate it at once, 
either through your columns or by letter to some member of 
the Committee. 
It may not be possible to reply to each individual corre¬ 
spondent, but I am sure that every suggestion will receive 
careful consideration. 
The Council are most anxious to devise a scheme that shall 
prove generally satisfactory to the trade at large; and, as in 
this matter they are treading upon almost strange ground, 
they teel that the way would be largely prepared for them, 
and their labours would be much assisted by the fullest ex¬ 
pression of opinion upon every point bearing upon the ques¬ 
tion. 
G. E. Schacht. 
Clifton, July 10th, 1872. 
Sir,—As a contribution to the forming a judgment by the 
members of the Pharmaceutical Society on the above all-en¬ 
grossing topic of the hour, I shall esteem it a special favour if 
you can find space in the Journal for some proposals on 
on the subject that I had intended to submit to the Council 
at its last meeting as an amendment upon an intended mo¬ 
tion on the subject by one of my fellow-councillors.* 
In asking a consideration of my own proposals, I cannot 
avoid expressing the deep sense I have of the great obliga¬ 
tions under which our Society is laid to Mr. Schacht for his 
very valuable paper on the subject, as published in the 
Journal of to-day. It will amply repay the most careful 
study ot its contents. It embraces all I advocate on the 
subject, and I venture to place my own proposals before the 
Society with no view of detracting from its merits, but solely 
because, in some aspects of it, it may, as it appears to myself 
•at all events, be more readily appreciated and carried into 
actual operation. 
Daniel Eeazee. 
Glasgow, July 6th, 1872. 
P-S.—It is due to Mr. Schacht to add that though I, 
after reading them in the committee on the previous day, 
omitted to bring the following resolutions before the Council 
on Wednesday, largely because of the withdrawal of the 
motion to which I had intended to move them as an amend¬ 
ment—as notified to the Secretary some days previously— 
I did not so even more because of the fact, brought out in 
our discussion in committee, that his scheme really does 
embrace all that mine does. I may also add that I have now 
the best reason to know that before Mr. Schacht again 
brings his scheme before the Council, this feature of it will 
be made even more explicit. 
a small capitation grant should be given to associations for 
students who had attended the classes a certain number of 
times is well worthy of attentive consideration. 
. } s <? e fr . om the report of the discussion which followed the 
introduction of the scheme that a member of the Council 
whilst approving of it, doubted the propriety of employing 
lecturers, a statement which I have read with considerable 
surprise, coming as it does from an old member of the trade 
My own opinion is that the success of a school of pharmacy 
is, to a very large extent, dependent upon the ability of its 
lecturers. M hat would the medical profession think, if one 
ot its members should express a doubt as to the wisdom of 
employing lecturers on anatomy, surgery, and other branches 
ot science! 
. ^ tdso glad to find .that Mr. Baynes has proposed re¬ 
investing some of the funded property of the Society. I 
trust he will persevere until he has reinvested the whole of it. 
I cannot see the wisdom of investing money at three per 
cent., when large Insurance Companies invest immense sums 
of money on real security at four per cent. There are times 
when Railway Debenture Stocks and Guaranteed Perpetual 
Preference Stocks may be bought to pay four and a half per 
cent., securities quite as safe as Consols. This would make 
a very important addition to the income of the Society. 
Atkinson Pickeeing. 
Hull, July 8th, 1872. 
Sir,—The scheme proposed by the Council to promote 
pharmaceutical education in the provinces is undoubtedly a 
step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough. It 
deals unfairly with all apprentices and assistants not In con¬ 
nection with an educational trade association; in fact, it is 
modelled too strictly on the Government Science Classes 
principle. It may be necessary in conducting the govern¬ 
ment classes, that the student should be under the super¬ 
vision of a properly constituted committee, which is to see 
that the payments are made only on account of those for 
whom the classes are intended. "But such regulations are 
unnecessary with the body of chemists. Of course the grants 
ot the Society must be paid to pharmaceutical students only; 
and this can be secured without making it necessary for 
students to belong to any association or to be under the con¬ 
trol of any committee during his studies. If all registered 
apprentices, and perhaps assistants, eligible to pass the Modi¬ 
fied examination, be entitled to receive payments on results, 
in aid of pharmaceutical education, then, and then only, will 
the Council be acting in fairness to those young men residing 
in those districts where there are no such associations or 
classes. If a registered apprentice passes the necessary ex¬ 
amination, he should receive the grant to reimburse him the 
expenditure he must have incurred to gain the requisite 
knowledge, which in other mere favoured places, would have 
been borne by the masters as a body. If a student belongs to 
such an association as is contemplated in the scheme, then the 
grant should be paid to that body which has given the student 
increased means for study. Let any one take a map of 
England and Wales, and mark each place having, or even 
likely to have, classes for pharmaceutical students, and the 
unfairness of the scheme will at once be apparent. There 
are many assistants and apprentices residing fifty or sixty 
miles away from any such educational centre, and it is im¬ 
possible for them to attend classes at such a distance ; I think 
even ten or twelve miles will generally be found an incon¬ 
venient distance. 
Sir,—At the last meeting of the Council, on July 3rd, I see, 
from the report in the Journal that Mr. Schacht has pro¬ 
pounded a most able, very comprehensive, and highly prac¬ 
ticable scheme for promoting scientific pharmaceutical educa¬ 
tion throughout the country. I rejoice to find that the 
•Council has accepted the principle of it. By doing this they 
.have wiped away the reproach which was very generally felt 
that, as far as this subject is concerned, they were an orga¬ 
nised hypocrisy to the country members of the trade. 
The scheme itself is an admirable one, and with some slight 
alterations in details, and with the additions so nobly ancf so 
.judiciously proposed by Mr. Hills, especially that of assisting 
small classes, it may be made to comprehend the requirements 
of the entire trade throughout the kingdom. I consider that 
assistance to small classes should be made one of the “ Prin- 
•ciples of the Scheme." The suggestion of Mr. Baynes, that 
* See p. 29. 
Ralph Robinson. 
Rochdale, July 10£A, 1872. 
Sir,—In answer to 1 G. T.’ respecting money spent on the 
School of Pharmacy at Bloomsbury, I would remind him of 
what has been more than once stated in your pages. Eirst, 
that the reason money is spent at all on Education by the 
Pharmaceutical Society is that, up to the present time, phar¬ 
maceutical education has not been able to pay its own ex¬ 
penses. Second, that whatever amount of money belonging 
to the whole Society has thus been expended has been spent 
for the benefit of the whole trade, four-fifths of the students 
coming from provincial towns, such as those mentioned by 
‘ G. T.’ The School of Pharmacy in London is not the Lon¬ 
don School of Pharmacy, it is a school for the whole country. 
This distinction has not been made by ‘ G. T.’ and other 
correspondents. 
N. D 
