152 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
August 24, 1872. 
out the presence of several representatives from the great 
northern county and the principality. In short, by sup¬ 
porting the School, the Society did all it could towards 
the support of pharmaceutical education throughout the 
wholejjco untry. 
Pharmaceutical Education. — Present. 
What has the Pharmacy Act of 1868 done for phar¬ 
maceutical education ? Exactly a quarter of a century 
before that Act was obtained, namely, in 1843 (1. 3. 196), 
we were told that the schools of pharmacy—there were 
five in England at that time—were established for pur¬ 
poses of education, the libraries and museums of the 
Pharmaceutical Society organized for purposes of educa¬ 
tion, the examinations of members and associates de¬ 
vised for purposes of education, the Pharmaceutical 
Journal instituted for purposes of education. In 
-1841, education was to be the lever by which the 
character, influence and respectability of the wdiole 
body of chemists and druggists was to be raised. In 
1842, the provinces caught up the cry. In 1843, lec¬ 
tures on pharmaceutical education were delivered in 
eight large towns. In 1844, to the London School for 
Pharmaceutical Education was added a laboratory for 
the pursuit of practical pharmaceutical chemistry. In 
1845, the metropolitan was converted into a national 
school for pharmaceutical education. In 1846, the Phar¬ 
maceutical Council elected to retain the power and pri¬ 
vilege of educating rather than examining if either were 
relinquished. During the whole life of the Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Society, its watchword has been Education. Com¬ 
pulsory education, compulsory examination, compulsory 
registration. This is the order in which the three ob¬ 
jects of the Society have generally been set forth (1. 5. 
246), while education has always been looked to as an 
object superior to examination. Well, compulsory regis« 
tration has been obtained, and a strong staff it has 
proved. Compulsory examination has been granted, and 
an admirable agent for good it might be made. But 
compulsory education, which everybody always thought 
was to follow in the wake of compulsory examination, 
as a valuable train follows a powerful engine, Where is 
itWhere ? It does not exist. What has the Pharmacy 
Act of 1868 done for it? Nothing. Emphatically, 
nothing. W orse than nothing ; it has degraded volun¬ 
tary education from its previous promising position; it 
has reduced its value by one-half. Prior to 1868, the 
average period of study of each pupil in the laboratory 
of your national school of pharmacy was from four to 
fli e lull months, each student working daily from eight 
or nine o clock till five ; since 1868 it has been a little 
over two months. Till 1868, the Professor of Practical 
Chemistry in the school succeeded in teaching all stu- 
dents chemistry ; after 1868, the majority have shown 
disinclination to learn anything beyond certain facts 
regarding the definite chemical bodies of the Pharma- 
cop<eia. Class examinations of all candidates for the 
Minor and “Major were instituted, the Professor 
taking upon himseli the office filled at medical schools 
by the tutor; but as soon as it was found that these 
examinations covered the whole area of pharmaceutical 
chemistry, then the men who most needed them those 
who only wanted to learn what was required for “ the 
Minor, contri\ed to keep away. But worse than all 
this, the place which every well-wisher of pharmacy ex¬ 
pected _ to see occupied by compulsory pharmaceutical 
education is filled by that hideous usurper, cram. Let 
me at once say that this is no fault of our excellent ex¬ 
aminers. I shall have to use some very strong lang - ua <r e 
in denouncing the practice termed “ cramming,’ but not 
one word against the examination for which candidates 
are crammed. My remedy for cramming, on the con¬ 
trary, is intimately connected with the elevation of edu¬ 
cation. I am of opinion that ninety-five per cent, of 
the cramming now practised can be prevented. With 
regard to this cramming or “ coaching,” it is a fact that, 
during the past ten months, more students have been 
crammed than have been legitimately prepared for 
the Minor Examination of the Pharmaceutical Society 
of Great Britain. There are establishments for cram¬ 
ming which received last session more pupils than 
sought the aid of the Society’s School of Pharmacy. “It 
is not astonishing that so obvious a demand for ‘ coach¬ 
ing’ should produce a commensurate supply of the 
abomination, and that we should be unblushingly told 
by advertisement that an ignoramus may be transformed 
into a Chemist and Druggist in a month !” (‘ Chemist and 
Druggist,’ January, 1872). And what is very terrible, 
these crammers keep their word in most cases. I know 
I am helping to advertise them in stating all this, and 
would not do so but that I trust their days are num¬ 
bered ; added to which any one may know that they do 
what they promise or they 'would not flourish as they do. 
The manner of performing it is as follows : A promise is 
exacted from every candidate that after passing the ex¬ 
amination he shall return to his crammer and reproduce 
the questions he has been asked. Those brought by first 
pupils are carefully written down ; and thus, in a "short 
time, the crammer has a list of the questions commdnly 
asked by each examiner; the lists are revised from time to 
time by the aid of subsequent candidates. On the entry 
of a pupil, a list of questions and answers in each subject 
is placed before him with the general instruction that 
the first half of each set is to be leamt by heart, and the 
second to be acquired if possible. And so, one week is 
given to what is called “chemistry,” one to “botany,” 
one to “materia medica,” and one spent over the “ phar¬ 
macopoeia;” and any young man who has previously 
been in a druggist’s shop is thus successfully prepared 
for the Minor. Nay, even if he has never before seen a 
prescription, an extra fortnight or so at “ practical dis¬ 
pensing” enables him to satisfy the examiners. The suc¬ 
cessful legitimate candidate knows his subjects; the suc¬ 
cessful illegitimate candidate knows the questions that 
will be put to him. Will the Council of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society allow these dreadful odds to obtain much 
longer P This is not a case of competition, even unfair 
competition, between one kind of education and another, 
for.education means 4 to bring out,’ not ‘to thrust in;’ 
it is a question of education versus cram. Can any 
language used in describing the latter system be 
too strong ? Can it be characterized by too vile a 
name ?. Its true designation has been furnished by 
one of its own promoters. Eighteen months ago (3. 1. 
629), “ Charles Gerrard, described as a teacher, living in 
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, together with another man, were 
charged with inciting a person in the employ of Messrs. 
Rivington, the printers, to steal an early proof of one 
of the examination papers of the Apothecaries’ Hall. It 
appeared that the prisoners had for some time been 
striving to obtain a copy, and at length, by arrangement 
with the police, the proof-puller was 'allowed to supply 
them with two copies, for which he received ten pounds. 
A detective then immediately arrested the prisoners, 
while the proofs were in their hands. They were both 
committed for trial,” and subsequently convicted. What 
is the difference between stealing questions which have 
been written by the hand of an examiner and those 
which come from his mouth ? Students, I trust the 
temptation to traffic with the crammer, this destroyer of 
your self-respect and enemy to your real progress, will 
soon be. removed; meamvhile, pause before you listen 
to his wiles or purchase his wares, for if you buy you will 
probably be haunted by the reflection that you have 
been made receivers of stolen property. There is 
a vast deal of difference between crammers and private 
tutors, though all are not private tutors who so call 
themselves, and all is not cramming that is so termed. 
Many a student swallows his intellectual food too 
fast.; and honest teachers often have to warn honest 
pupils against this . evil. All this is occasionally de¬ 
scribed as “ cramming ;” but the cramming I wish to 
