August 17, 1 S 72 .] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
133 
to the examiners. His criticism would diminish the 
tendency of the examinations to settle into particular 
grooves, and would help to give them a wider scope and 
higher significance. The moral effect would he to in¬ 
crease the confidence of the examiners themselves when 
obliged to act as their judgment rather than their will 
might dictate, and to support their decisions in the eyes 
of the public. 
In these observations I know I shall not^be under¬ 
stood to express any distrust of the Board of Examiners. 
My object is to strengthen their hands in the perform¬ 
ance of laborious and thankless duties: and I gladly, 
from knowledge, bear testimony to the ability, and 
conscientious care, and self-sacrifice which are the very 
atmosphere of the Board-room. 
There is still another subject closely connected with 
the foregoing, upon which I would say a few words. 
I cannot regard with any satisfaction the large unused 
balance of income which the Pharmaceutical Society 
has of recent years annually funded. The day is gone 
by for laying up talents in napkins. A professional or 
business man is morally bound to put aside part of his 
income, so that he may rest in after life when his capa¬ 
city for toil is lessened; but for a public body, no such 
plea will hold. So long as the Society was on a volun¬ 
tary basis, and doubt might be supposed to exist as to 
its pecuniary stability, the executive was bound to 
provide against many contingencies, and our thanks are 
due to those who then so economically administered the 
funds placed in their keeping. But we are no longer 
beset with the dangers of that period, and beyond an 
investment sufficient to guarantee the means of carry¬ 
ing out the examining and governing functions entrusted 
to the Society by Government—a limit long since passed 
—there can be no excuse for the accumulation of 
wealth. These constantly recurring investments under 
our present circumstances represent good left undone— 
opportunities unaccepted. Nor in this hoarding' of 
money instead of science is the Pharmaceutical Society 
true to the spirit of its founders. The Society was 
formed to do in a collective capacity what could not 
be done by individuals. The chance of recognition by 
the Legislature, the efficient organization of chemists 
as a body, the establishment of a central library and 
museum, are, for instance, all matters depending on the 
co-operation of numbers. The laboratory and lecture¬ 
ships may be included in the same category, but are 
only right objects for corporate provision, in so far 
as they bring what could not otherwise be obtained. 
But the relation of the Society to these latter de¬ 
partments has entirely changed, and their existence in 
the old form is becoming, if it has not already be¬ 
come, an anomaly. AVhat they provide, as at present 
constituted, might even now in great measure be safely 
left to private enterprise. Far be it from me to under¬ 
rate what the laboratory instruction and lectures at 
Bloomsbury Square have been to the Society. The 
founders saw clearly, that without giving facilities for 
education which did not previously exist, the establish¬ 
ment of examinations whilst the Society was on a 
voluntary basis, could meet with no general response. 
Now the response is certain because it is supported by 
compulsory powers—hence the co-existence of other 
schools of pharmacy with that in Bloomsbury Square.. 
Your excellent Treasurer makes a strong claim in 
behalf of organization and subsidies for local schools.. 
Such establishments, even in the larger provincial 
centres, are not likely, at first, to be entirely self-support¬ 
ing, any more than was that in the Metropolis thirty 
years ago, and the demand for assistance is nothing 
more than the maintenance of our first principle—that 
the corporate Society should help forward Pharmaceuti¬ 
cal Education when individual effort is insufficient. The 
subject is one which may be safely left in the hands of 
those who have already given so much time and thought 
to it. 1 need not here pass any opinion on the relative 
merits of the various systems which have been proposed 
for the regulation of money-grants, and I would not 
willingly weaken the claim of any by my less mature 
suggestions. One thing, however, must be borne in 
mind, namely, that the very fact of requiring assistance 
is an evidence of weakness, and that no school can be 
said to exist on a permanent or satisfactory basis until it 
is self-supporting. We must bo careful to do nothing to 
place further away the time when science-teaching amongst 
us shall be a properly remunerative occupation, and it can 
only become so when those who reap its benefits are content 
themselves to pay a remunerative price for it. There is 
already far too great a disposition to regard education as 
a thing that should be supplied for nothing, or at least 
that an increased amount should be obtainable without 
increased cost. A physician or a lawyer spends his 
money and time cheerfully upon lus technical education, 
regarding the outlay as capital invested in business ; and 
the pharmaceutist, until he does the same thing in like 
spirit, has not established his title to professional status- 
or remuneration. 
But there is another claim which must be made, not 
stronger than that which has been alluded to, but one 
which may well coexist without interfering with it - 
namely, the provision for higher training, and for 
scientific research of unremunerative nature. Every 
one here will, I am sure, support the proposition, that- 
the larger the amount of scientific culture possessed by 
pharmaceutists, the higher must be tlie.geneial status 
of the profession, and, even in a pecuniary sense, the. 
better their position as a body. The recognition of 
this, to us, new field of usefulness need not imply any 
neglect of the duties at present recognized as pertaining 
to the Pharmaceutical Society. .Without materially in¬ 
terfering with its existing functions in respect of ludi- 
mentary education, a great deal more might be done, 
ffian has yet been attempted in the.e.ncouiagement of 
• i , • •__ j -farnli-f-ipa -for original 
higher training, and in affording facilities for 
nvestigation. It has seemed to me that the most substan¬ 
tial aid which could be rendered in the direction alluded 
to would be the setting apart of a numbei of free benches- 
n the Society’s laboratory for students who, having 
massed the Major examination with credit, might desire 
to continue their studies. 1 hese should even be endow ed 
with a small annual income, under certain conditions, if 
bund necessary. The only primary stipulation should be 
-hat, possessing the requisite preliminary knowledge, 
he recipient should be ready to work lor the advance- 
nent of pharmacy under the direction of the professor, 
fhe Bell Scholarships will, I knowq be pointed to as 
m effort in the direction indicated, but these have 
ailed materially to influence the body, firstly, from 
heir insufficiency, and secondly, from the conditions 
iroperly associated with them. They would be moie 
ikely to answer a good purpose it they w ere hot 1 
applied as the Junior Scholarship now is. In the 
.resent state of pharmacy we require not the stringent 
•onditions of competitive examinations to prevent men 
rom carrying forward their studies, but rather flu 
.pen-handed liberality that will induce students to con- 
icier whether they cannot give up another session 01 
wo, before commencing business, to that higher sort- 
.f education which is not immediately remunerative, 
[die effect of half-a-dozen or a dozen men so trained, 
ent out annually from Bloomsbury b T£are, would 
nakc a British school of pharmacy, the like of which 
las never existed; and were this earned out, the most 
erious difficulties in the way of provincial education 
would resolve themselves in a few years. It maybe 
irged that no demand for a higber bci«i-G fic culture 
xfsts • I reply, how do you know ? But it it be so, me 
ooneryou create the demand-and.you.will - ™^Y f 
reate it if you are m earnest m offtnn 0 " f 
upply, and have the necessary patience— the better 
he interests of pharmacy and those who fel • 
S notsJpposc that a crop of brilliant discover.es would 
