114 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[August 10, 1872. 
Scotland. 
Candidates. 
Examinations. Examined. Passed. Failed. 
Preliminary. 42 18 24 
Minor. 10 7 3 
Major....... 3 2 1 
55 27 28 
Preliminary.—One certificate received in lieu of this 
•examination. 
Redout on the Examinations by the Government 
Visitor. 
The following letter and report were read :— 
Medical Department of the Privy Council Office, 
20 th July , 1872. 
Sir,—I am directed hy the Lords of Her Majesty’s 
Council to forward to you, for the consideration of the 
Council of the Pharmaceutical Society, a copy of the 
report made hy Dr. Greenhow, to the Lords of the 
Council, on the Society’s Examinations in England in 
the year 1871. 
I am, Sir, 
Your obedient Servant, 
John Simon. 
E. Bremridge, Esq., 
Secretary to the Pharmaceutical Society, 
17, Bloomsbury Square. 
Deport on Examinations of the (JVo . 12) Pharmaceutical 
Society conducted in London during the year 1871. 
During the year 1871, the Board of Examiners of the 
Pharmaceutical Society held twenty-four meetings for 
the examinations of candidates, namely,— 
Four for the Preliminary Examination in Latin, En¬ 
glish and Arithmetic, after passing which candidates are 
registered as apprentices or students ; and 
Twenty meetings for the Technical Examinations, 
Modified , Minor and Major, qualifying candidates who 
have passed the Modified or Minor examination to be re¬ 
gistered as Chemists and Druggists, and those who have 
passed the Major as Pharmaceutical Chemists. 
Of these twenty meetings (at twelve of which I was 
present), four were held for the “ Modified ” examination 
of candidates who had been actually engaged in the dis¬ 
pensing and compounding of prescriptions as Assistants 
to Pharmaceutical Chemists or to Chemists and Drug¬ 
gists for a period of not less than three years previous to 
December 31st, 1868. The other sixteen meetings were 
devoted to the examination of candidates presenting 
themselves for the Minor or Major qualifications. 
At the four Preliminary examinations, 1101 candidates 
presented themselves, of whom 714 passed and 387 were 
rejected. The proportion of rejections at this first stage 
ot examination has therefore been at the rats of 35 per 
cent., showing that, as yet, no improvement has taken 
place in the previous general education of the candidates 
since the passing of the Pharmacy Act of 1868. The 
standard of the examination is in no respect too high. It 
comprises the translation into English of two short sen¬ 
tences from either the first book of Caesar, Pereira’s 
‘ Selecta e Prasscriptis’, or the last edition of the London 
Pharmacopoeia; four or five simple questions in Latin 
Grammar; five or six sums in the first four rules of 
Arithmetic, simple and compound, and in Vulgar Frac¬ 
tions and Decimals; and five or six questions in English 
Grammar and Composition. 
It is certain that no youth who is unable to pass this 
elementary examination can with safety to the public 
be allowed to dispense medicines, involving as this does 
the reading of prescriptions written in abbreviated Latin, 
nnd frequently the calculation of the respective propor¬ 
tions of the several ingredients of a prescription, in order 
to dispense a larger or smaller quantity than that pre¬ 
scribed. Even of the candidates who have passed this 
Preliminary examination, a considerable proportion sub¬ 
sequently fail to acquit themselves well in reading 
Latin prescriptions ; for I must now repeat what I said 
in my first report, that many of the candidates coming 
up for the Minor examination are unable to read with ac¬ 
curacy the Latin prescriptions submitted to them, al¬ 
though these prescriptions have been without exception 
already dispensed in chemists’ shops. 
The total number of marks given for the Preliminary 
examination is 300, allotted in equal proportions to the 
three subjects, Latin, English and Arithmetic. In order 
to pass the examination, candidates must obtain a total of 
at least 150 marks, but a candidate who obtains less than 
25 marks in any one of the three subjects is rejected, 
even though he may have obtained a greater total than 
150 marks in the three subjects collectively. .A very 
careful analysis of the numbers of marks obtained by 
candidates at the Preliminary examinations during the 
year 1871, has been made by Mr. Haselden, the Presi¬ 
dent of the Pharmaceutical Society, and forms the basis 
of a special report from the Board of Examiners to the 
Council of the Society. It appears from this analysis 
that during the past year no less than 1 10 candidates 
obtained less than one fourth of the number of marks for 
Latin; whilst in English and arithmetic only 64 and 44 
candidates failed to obtain one fourth of the marks for 
those subjects respectively. Again, in Latin, 362 can¬ 
didates fell below one half the number of marks for that 
subject, in English 275, and in Arithmetic only 204. 
These numbers clearly prove exceptional deficiency in 
knowledge of Latin, and it is in fact stated in the report^ 
that arithmetic has been in many cases the means of 
passing candidates, the large number of marks obtained 
for it making up for deficiency in the other subjects. 
Considering, however, the absolute necessity of a suffi¬ 
cient knowledge of Latin to secure the accurate under¬ 
standing of prescriptions, I am of opinion, with these 
facts before me, that it deserves consideration whether a 
higher number of marks should not be given for Latin, 
or whether a larger proportion than one-fourth oi the 
number now allotted to that subject should not be re¬ 
quired for passing both the Preliminary and the subse¬ 
quent examination. 
With respect to the Preliminary examination, I must 
further observe that at present young men are not 
required by law to pass this examination before engag¬ 
ing in the responsible duties of dispensing medicines in 
chemists’ shops, in the capacity either of apprentices or 
assistants. I am indeed informed that many masters, 
nevertheless, require their apprentices and assistants to 
have passed it, but the Pharmacy Act not rendering it 
compulsory on them to do so, a great many youths are 
at present still employed in chemists shops who have 
not given proof of having received even the moderate 
amount of education implied by their having passed 
this examination. It would, in my opinion, greatly 
conduce to the advantage equally of masters and ap¬ 
prentices, if a general understanding could be arrived at, 
that no young men should enter on employment, either 
as apprentices or assistants, who had not previously 
passed the Preliminary examination, and I am glad to 
observe that this opinion is shared by the Board of 
Examiners, in whose report, already referred to, it is 
recommended that indentures of apprenticeship should 
not be signed until the apprentice have passed either 
the Preliminary examination of the Pharmaceutical 
Society, or one of the other examinations approved of in 
its stead. 
At the four meetings held during the year for the 
Modified examination, 163 candidates presented them¬ 
selves, of whom 103 passed and 60 were rejected; giving 
a proportion of failures amounting to nearly 37 per 
cent. This class of candidates will soon cease to exist, 
and it was, perhaps, to be expected that a larger 
