-July 20, 1372.] 
49 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
SATURDAY JULY 20, 1S72. 
Communications for this Journal, and books for review, etc., 
•should be addressed to the Editor, 17, Bloomsbury Square. 
Instructions from Members and Associates respecting the 
transmission of the Journal should be sent to Elias Brem- 
RIDGE, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square . IV.C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, London, W. Envelopes indorsed u Pharm. Journ.” 
PHARMACEUTICAL EDUCATION. 
The acceptance by the Council of the principles 
of Mr. Schacht’s scheme for promoting pharmaceu¬ 
tical education, and the wish that has been expressed 
for free criticism and discussion of the whole subject 
in order that it may now be settled upon a durable 
basis, will no doubt increase the growing interest 
which has been taken in the question for some time 
past. As we have before suggested, the columns of 
this Journal afford a convenient medium for inter- 
•cliange of opinions. 
In order, however, to make the discussion as pro¬ 
fitable as possible, it will be necessary that those 
who take part in it should have a clear conception 
of the object entertained by the founders of the 
Pharmaceutical Society. If this were more per¬ 
fectly understood, not only by the trade generally, 
but even by members of the Society, there would be 
no occasion to comment upon the sentence in Mr. 
Atkinson Pickering’s letter last week to the effect 
that the Council, as far as this subject was con¬ 
cerned, had been an organized hypocrisy to the 
■country members of the trade, and it is probable that 
sentence would not have been written. 
This statement was put forward by a leading 
actor in the education movement as expressing an 
opinion very generally entertained, but without any 
disparagement to its author, we have no hesitation 
in declaring that it has no foundation in fact, nor 
indeed any excuse, save the writer’s enthusiastic 
appreciation of the need there is for better means of 
educating the rising members of the trade. 
We can appeal to no higher authority upon this 
point than the printed words of the prune originator 
and founder of the Society, Mr. Jacob Bell. In a 
paper entitled “ The Constitution of the Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Society of Great Britain,” read by him at the 
Introductory Evening Meeting of the Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Societ}'', May lltli, 1841,* he said :—“ The ulti- 
■“ mate objects contemplated in this Society are the 
“ union of the Chemists and Druggists of Great 
“ Britain into one ostensible, recognized and inde- 
“ pendent body; the protection of their general 
“interests, and the advancement of the art of Pliar- 
“ macy. They consider that their own interest, as < 
“ well as the safety and welfare of the public, demand 1 
that no person shall become an apprentice in their 
business who has not had the advantage of an 
adequate fundamental education ; and that no per¬ 
son shall dispense medicines who has not under¬ 
gone an examination as a test of his competence 
to perform that important office. But in order to 
afford ample means of acquiring the requisite quali¬ 
fications, and in order to ensure the greatest pos¬ 
sible uniformity in the system of education, the 
chemists and druggists consider it expedient to 
establish a School of Pharmacy as a prominent 
feature of their Society.” 
Here there is a definite purpose kept in view; the 
raising of the body of chemists and druggists from 
the uninfluential and unsatisfactory position which 
it then occupied. A better and more available 
means of education was seen to be the principal 
requisite, and for this purpose, and for fixing a stan¬ 
dard sufficiently high, a school of pharmacy was 
established. At no time was a promise held out 
that this education should be provided for those 
who were not prepared to pay for it, or that by facili¬ 
tating the entrance into the trade of the largest 
possible number of persons, the Society should be¬ 
come a machine for increasing competition amongst 
those in business, or for providing an unfailing sup¬ 
ply of “assistants” on the lowest possible terms; 
and without fear of being tedious, we may supple¬ 
ment this prospective sketch with some reference to 
the subsequent proceedings of the Society in regard 
to education. 
In the Report presented by the Council to the 
first Annual Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society, 
the following sentences occurred:— 
“ It should be considered that the Societ}^ is esta- 
‘ blished for the general good of the trade, and that 
‘ the solid advantages which are ultimately to ema- 
£ nate from it will benefit the members in the 
£ country as well as those in the metropolis. . . . 
£ It is only hy the joint assistance of the whole body 
‘ that an establishment for conducting the business 
! of the Society can be maintained—that its library 
; and museum can be established and kept up—and 
; that the foundation can be laid for an economical 
: and systematic education of the rising generation. 
This latter advantage is principally for the 
younger branches of the Society, who will have 
to incur an additional expense, in proportion to the 
extent to which they avail themselves of it; but 
the plans of the Society are intended to diffuse 
general benefit, by furnishing throughout the 
country a supply of competent assistants to the 
trade, and well-qualified Chemists and Druggists 
to the community at large. . . . The Members 
will perceive that it has been the object of the 
Council to commence their educational plan upon 
a scale compatible with the present means and con¬ 
venience of the trade generally, which plan may be 
modified and enlarged, as circumstances may ren- 
* Pkarm. Journ., 1st ser. Yol. I. p. 7 
