August 24,1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
151 
dignified manner. Jacob Bell, tbe founder of the 
Pharmaceutical Society, the leader of its Council, and 
the editor of its Journal, thus speaks of the educational 
organization of the Society, in words peculiarly worthy 
of reproduction at the present time. Alluding to 
attendance on the Society’s Courses of Lectures, Labo¬ 
ratory Instruction, etc., he says (1. 5. 105), “These 
have been instituted for the purpose of enabling young 
men to become fully acquainted with the theory and 
practice of pharmacy; and the progress which has been 
made has demonstrated the benefit to be expected from 
a continuance of the undertaking. We hope this will 
become in course of time a regular part of the education 
of the chemist, and that parents when placing their 
sons in a house of business, will insist upon the privilege 
of a season being allowed for this very important study. 
The apothecary, or general practitioner, is obliged to 
devote the last two or three [it is now four] years of his 
apprenticeship to lectures, dissections, and hospital 
practice, and could not be admitted to examination 
without producing certificates of such attendance. The 
education of the chemist ought to be as elaborate in 
degree as that of the medical practitioner, and it is 
quite as necessary for him to study in the Laboratory 
as it is for the medical student to walk in the hos¬ 
pital. There is as much science required in one 
department as in the other, although the nature of 
the studies varies with the occupation; and since the 
medical student is obliged to give up two or three 
[four] years to the scientific study of his profession, 
the student in pharmacy has no reason to complain if 
required to devote a year to a similar object. A 
parent who could afford to give an apprentice-fee with 
his son, could equally afford to pay the small addi¬ 
tional expenses of instruction in a school of pharmacy. 
Those who could not defray the necessary charges 
attendant on a proper education, should bring up their 
sons to some other business more consistent with their 
means.” 
1846. Nothing could better show the devotion of the 
Pharmaceutical Society to the cause of Pharmaceutical 
Education, an object which until recent years continued 
to hold the foremost place, than the fact that in 1846 the 
Council positively decided to relinquish the Society’s 
functions as an examining body rather than give up its 
mission as an educating institution. Fearing that Par¬ 
liament would not grant the powers of compulsory 
examination to an educating corporation, the Council 
proposed to transfer its examining powers to what was to 
be called “ The College of Pharmacy of England,” to be 
constituted solely for the purpose, and a Bill was 
drafted on the principle (1. 5. 557). It was considered 
that such a college, by creating a demand for phar¬ 
maceutical education, would give an impetus to schools 
of pharmacy: competition between the schools would 
have a salutary effect, and the emulation thus excited 
would lead to improvements in the system of education. 
1847. Objections to the proposed Bill having been 
urged, especially by the College of Physicians, (1. 6. 497), 
the machinery of the Pharmaceutical Society was 
adapted to the end in view without the co-operation of a 
second body. These preliminaries had, however, occu¬ 
pied so much time that the opportunity passed for in¬ 
troducing the Bill to Parliament. It served, neverthe¬ 
less, to stimulate the arrested energies of provincial 
pioneers in education. Acting on the assumption—then, 
as now, a wrong assumption—that compulsory exami¬ 
nation involved compulsory education, meetings were 
held in several towns, again, notably, Bristol, with the 
object of resuscitating local schools of pharmacy. 
1848 to 1852. During this period pharmaceutical 
education made slow but certain progress. The num¬ 
bers of students at the School of Pharmacy increased, 
though the average period of study decreased. It con¬ 
tinued to be chiefly attended by pupils from the pro¬ 
vinces. A school in Birmingham was also attempted, 
but “ the Committee regret that the attendance was 
neither so numerous nor so regular as could have been 
wished.” Liverpool also started the school which, with 
varying fortune, has been open ever since. 
Once more a Pharmacy Act was sought, and once 
again the dread that Parliament would not listen to men 
-who had sanctioned such an unholy alliance as that of 
education with examination induced the Council to raise 
two spectres,—one, the continuance of the Society as an 
educating body, and the establishment. of a College of 
Pharmacy for conducting the examinations; the other 
the adoption of the Society as the examining body and 
the relinquishment of the school of pharmacy. But the 
ghosts vanished. A Select Committee of the House of 
Commons sifted the question, and finding that the school 
was not only not carried on as a source of revenue, but at a 
great annual expense; that the professors were not inter¬ 
ested in attracting pupils from other schools; and the ex¬ 
aminers not interested in favouring candidates who had 
derived their education from the Society, took no excep¬ 
tion to the Society’s duplex character. | 
Parliament thus tacitly sanctioned the very sensible 
and only possible relationship to education which the 
Society had hithero followed. The editor of the Journal 
hoped that other schools of pharmacy besides that at 
Bloomsbury would eventually flourish and prove remu¬ 
nerative, and that when that result was obtained the 
Society would gladly resign its educational functions. 
The Council also reported (1852) that “ If, contrary to 
past experience, it should be found that Schools of Phar¬ 
macy and Practical Chemistry can be supported without 
endowment or collateral aid, the maintenance of. an 
educational establishment connected with the Society 
may be unnecessary. At the present time the Council 
think it would not be right to abandon the proceedings 
which have contributed to give the Society the character 
and influence it now enjoys.” 
1852 to 1868. During the interval that elapsed, be¬ 
tween the passing of the Pharmacy Acts “The.Council of 
the Pharmaceutical Society continued steadily to per¬ 
severe, according to its original programme, in the ad¬ 
vancement of education, sometimes without much pro¬ 
spect, but always animated by thehope that the object of 
the Bill introduced in 1852,” namely, compulsory edu¬ 
cation, examination, and registration “would be accom¬ 
plished; and this period of probation probably furnished 
the means of success. . . . When the public demanded that 
certain restrictions should be placed on the sale. of 
poisons, the Council of the Society succeeded in obtain¬ 
ing recognition of the principle they had always enun¬ 
ciated, that education of the vendor was the only safe- 
foundation for a Poison Bill.” Midway in this period 
of sixteen years, pharmaceutical education in this country 
lost its founder and best friend, Jacob Bell. In life this 
noble-minded man, never wearied in urging the claims 
of pharmaceutical education, and at death, besides assign¬ 
ing the valuable copyright of the Pharmaceutical 
Journal to the Pharmaceutical Society, he munificently 
bequeathed two thousand pounds “to be expended in 
establishing or otherwise increasing the efficiency of the 
School of Pharmacy, or in promoting Pharmaceutical 
Education in such manner as the Council, of the 
said Society shall deem expedient. The Council ha\ ing 
reason to believe that the donor had contemplated 
such an application of his bequest, erected, vith 
this £2000, the present commodious suite of labora¬ 
tories at the top of the premises in Bloomsbury 
Square. The School during this . long term still 
annually cost the Society a considerable sum of 
money ; but if the whole of the country thus contributed 
to the support of pharmaceutical education, the whole of 
the country received the benefit, three-fourths of the 
students every year being provincial pupils, if the 
members in any one district received more benefit than 
another, Welshmen and Yorkshiremen may be said to 
have had the advantage, a session seldom passing with- 
