August 10, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
115 
proportion would year by year be found incompetent; 
most of those who thought themselves well qualified 
Raving probably come up for examination soon after the 
passing of the Pharmacy Act. 
Sixteen meetings were held during the year for the 
Minor examination, and at these meetings 323 candi¬ 
dates presented themselves, of whom 204 passed, whilst 
119, or 36 per cent., were found incompetent. Many of 
these failures were obviously due to defective early 
education, especially in Latin; the candidates, although 
they had passed the Preliminary examination, having 
failed when required to read Latin prescriptions. Many 
■other candidates failed from ignorance of the elements 
of chemistry and from inability to recognize the com¬ 
monest drugs. In my first report on the examinations 
of the Pharmaceutical Society, I stated that the Minor 
•examination was, in my opinion, as stringent as could 
with fairness and practical advantage be enforced at 
that time. Three years have, however, now elapsed 
since the provisions of the Pharmacy Act came into 
operation, and there could be no hardship, provided due 
notice were given beforehand, if at the end of another 
year candidates for the Minor examination were to be 
examined practically as to their ability to determine by 
means of the proper tests the presence of the acid and 
base in solutions of one or more of the salts commonly 
used in medicine, or to ascertain the purity and 
strength of some of those officinal articles most 
likely to be impure or to vary in strength. This 
addition to the present subjects of examination seems 
the more desirable when it is considered that can¬ 
didates who have passed the Minor examination, and 
been registered as chemists and druggists, are thereby 
•qualified to keep shops for the retailing and dispensing 
of medicines, and need not, unless they choose, present 
themselves for the Major examination; and that, in 
fact, only a comparatively small number of them do 
•subsequently present themselves for that examination, 
at which such evidence of practical skill is required as I 
now consider should be necessary for passing the Minor 
•examination. 
At the Major examinations which were held on the 
same days as the Minor, 67 candidates presented them¬ 
selves during the year, of whom 47 passed, and were 
registered as pharmaceutical chemists, whilst 20, or 
nearly 30 per cent., were rejected. In my first report 
I stated that the examiners intended to require candi¬ 
dates for this examination to determine the strength of 
one or more given pharmacopoeial solutions byvolumetric 
analysis, and in my last report, with the view of assist¬ 
ing the Board to carry out their intention, 1 suggested 
that the requirement of this proof of practical skill 
should be at once enforced. I read to the examiners the 
passage in my report which contained this suggestion, 
and from that time I have been gratified to find that 
volumetric analysis has formed a part of the Major 
examination. 
The Major examination occupies two days. On the 
first day candidates have hitherto been required to 
write answers to questions in chemistry and pharmacy, 
and to perform under the eyes of the examiners a cer¬ 
tain amount of practical testing, to which I have 
already adverted. To these subjects has now for nearly 
a.year been added the volumetric analysis of such offi¬ 
cinal solutions as hydrocyanic acid, solution of ammonia, 
etc., the candidates being supplied with the necessary 
apparatus and tests, and being required to perform the 
analysis and to work out the calculated results in the 
presence of the examiner. 
It is, perhaps, desirable to explain with reference to 
the very large apparent numbers of candidates rejected 
at the examinations of the Pharmaceutical Society, that 
very many of the candidates rejected in one examina¬ 
tion present themselves again on subsequent occasions, 
.and that of these many ultimately pass. Hence the 
number of the candidates who finally fail to pass each 
stage of examination is smaller than would appear from 
the proportions I have given above in analysing the 
results of separate meetings for the various examinations. 
Having given in my previous reports many details 
respecting these examinations, unnecessary to be re¬ 
peated here, it only remains for me, in conclusion, to 
confirm from my observations of the past year the 
opinion I have given on former occasions, that the 
| examinations of the Pharmaceutical Society are con¬ 
ducted in such a manner as to afford a satisfactory 
guarantee for the competency of persons admitted to 
registration under the Pharmacy Act of 1868. 
(Signed) E. Headlam Greenhow. 
14«, Manchester Square , 
March, 1872. 
Mr. Urwick then brought forward the following re¬ 
solution, of which he had given notice : 
“ That all Registered Chemists and Druggists be ad¬ 
mitted members of the Pharmaceutical Society on 
payment of the annual subscription of £1. Is., sub¬ 
ject to the same rules that at present govern the 
election of members, excepting only the entrance 
fee.” 
He said he moved this resolution upon policy, self inter¬ 
rest, consistency and liberality—liberality to those who 
were sailing in the same boat with themselves, and who 
had the same interests to protect and the same rights 
to defend. With regard to the policy, he was struck 
with the necessity of it last year when he formed part of 
a deputation who waited on Mr. Forster on behalf of 
the trade. He then found there was one weak point 
about their action, which was that the Pharmaceutical 
Society did not represent the whole trade, but merely a 
minority, and a minority which, he was sorry to say, was 
very small. The whole* body on the Register amounted 
to about 12,000, whilst the members of the Society were 
only 2466, and it was with a view of inviting, if possible, 
many of those gentlemen who were now outside the 
Society to join in promoting the cause of Phar¬ 
maceutical Education that he moved this resolution. 
There might of course be objections to many of 
these being admitted, on the grounds that they 
were not fully qualified or eligible in other respects, 
but these objections would be met by the same rules 
which at present governed the elections. As to the point 
of self interest, he believed it would tend to increase their 
funds and give them a better position generally. In the 
year 1871 it appeared they were entering on a period of 
decadence, for while the number of Pharmaceutical 
Chemists on the Register was 5029, only 2054 of these 
were members of the Society, showing that those who were 
admitted did not for some reason or other join the Society, 
andno longer supportedit, either with funds or by their in¬ 
fluence. On the ground of consistency, he would only 
add that they had in many ways done all they could for 
the benefit of those outside the Society—in the Juries 
Bill, for instance ; and on the same principle, he thought 
they should use every effort to get these men to join the 
Society. . . 
Mr. Hami>son seconded the resolution, thinking it 
very important that some attempt should be made to 
bring the chemists and druggists throughout the country 
and the Pharmaceutical Society into closer umon. From 
the statistics read by Mr. Urwick, it seemed to.be a me¬ 
lancholy fact, that the great majority of chemists could 
not in any way be identified with the Society, not one- 
twentieth of them being members, and he could not con¬ 
ceive of the Society being a stable representatfv e institu¬ 
tion while such a state of things existed. He did not 
say whether this resolution would meet the difficulty, 
but, at all events, it was an attempt to do so ; and on 
those grounds he should support it. _ 
Mr. Atherton suggested that as time was rather 
limited, and the matter was an important one, it should 
be adjourned to a future meeting. 
