154 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[August 24, 1872. 
cram, and hence discourage the development of phar¬ 
maceutical education. 
The remedy tor this abuse is compulsory education. 
In this opinion I shall probably be supported by every 
'One interested in the welfare of pharmacy; but as to the 
form compulsory education shall take there will, I know, 
be a less unanimous declaration. Respecting compul¬ 
sory education in the abstract, it would seem from a 
leading article in the number of the Pharmaceutical 
Journal published on the day I commenced to write 
this paper (July 20th, 1872), that everybody considers 
that this long fought-for and grand object has already 
been obtained. I read, “ In fact it may fairly be stated 
that the Society as a voluntary association has already 
^completed its labour in the cause of education, and that, 
having succeeded in making education compulsory, 
it has done the work it originally projected. It is now 
the time for those who have been at best mere lookers- 
on to come forward and give, their aid in making the 
advantages of that work accessible to all.” Wrong, a 
a thousand times wrong. The Society has not succeeded 
in making education compulsory. That the Society 
will ultimately succeed in so doing I have no doubt, for 
I have faith in its traditional policy as regards educa¬ 
tion and in its educational leaders on*and off its Council; 
but that compulsory education is already attained is a 
statement contrary to all the facts of the case, and one 
that I shall be astounded to hear maintained by any one 
who may do me the favour to discuss this paper. 
Compulsory education must be obtained in one of two 
ways. Either the class of experts whence the examiners 
are drawn must be entirely changed, the time allotted 
for examination greatly prolonged, and the area of 
examination considerably enlarged; or, on the other 
hand, the system may remain as at present, and simply 
be supplemented by a scheduled statement that the can¬ 
didate has attended the classes of a recognized school for 
a stated length of time. Objections may be urged to 
both plans, but so far as I see, one or other must be 
adopted. Neither is perfect, but that any friend to phar¬ 
macy will reject both I cannot believe. 
The “ free-studentship ” method is open to serious, 
and to my mind insuperable objections. I like the idea 
of a man getting his knowledge where and as he likes so 
that he.gets it; but I do not see how the idea is to be em¬ 
bodied in pharmacy without opening a wide door to cram. 
“ A really good examiner,” Tait says, in an entertaining 
and. most instructive article on Examination, or “ Arti¬ 
ficial Selection,” as he terms it, in ‘Macmillan’s Maga¬ 
zine for March, 1872, “A really good examiner is 
perhaps the rarest product of civilization. In an un¬ 
usually large experience extending to each of the three 
kingdoms, I have met but two, and I see clearly how 
each of even these might be greatly improved. . . . An 
examiner ought to possess not merely great knowledge, 
but enormously extensive knowledge, of his subject and 
ef the various modes of teaching it. . . . The examiner 
must possess simultaneously, infinite tact and thorough 
common sense. • • Even if he be possessed of all these 
requisites, the examiner must be allowed sufficient time 
to test a man’s knowledge. . . . Granting that all these 
desiderata can be supplied, there still remains the 
excessive difficulty of examining into the really useful 
part of one’s knowledge. For, in the great majority of 
-eases, the useful part is precisely that which it is least 
possible to break up into detached fragments, such as 
those required in the modern process of examination.” 
The writer of this article, perusal of which I strongly 
recommend to all interested in the subject, further states 
his fondness for two methods of ascertaining fitness for 
work, but candidly says that he does not see how either 
could be applied at present: tbe first is the system of 
trial and approval which we apply to servants of every 
grade from the most menial to the most confidential; 
the other is to take the certificate of such qualified 
teachers as have had the opportunity of observing the 
progress and behaviour of a student. The latter method 
he considers to be something quite priceless compared 
with the quickly-formed, and, therefore, at best, dubious 
judgment of an examiner. For my own part, although 
I believe in freedom in trade, freedom in thought, and 
freedom in most things, I do not believe in freedom in 
education. A few years ago when the agitation in 
favour of free trade was at its height we could not get 
a Pharmacy Act because no one would allow free trade 
in poisons to be an exception to the rule. Even the 
schedule-of-attendance supplement to the medical sys¬ 
tems of examination was said to be on its last legs. 
It was strongly attacked, but with the best results, for 
its abuses were remedied. Freedom cannot bind every¬ 
thing however. It has let the valuable agents vulgarly 
termed poisons loose from its chain and allow them a 
certain amount of protection. Pharmacists are the last 
who should agitate for free trade in education. 
The method of supplementing our ordinary plan of 
examination at the “ Minor,” by requiring the pro¬ 
duction of a Schedule of Certificates of (a) having 
passed the Preliminary examination, (5) worked for a 
stated period in a shop under a registered chemist and 
druggist, and (c) attended certain courses of instruction 
at a recognized school of pharmacy, is a long-tried 
method—a method the details of which are ready to our 
hands by application to the medical examining bodies in 
this country, or the pharmaceutical examining bodies on 
the Continent,' and one under which, in our case, less 
cramming would be practised than by medical students. 
For the medical students who support the medical 
crammers are chiefly those whose friends having driven 
them into medicine against their will, have bribed them 
by a too-full purse. These men take care to be present 
in the body at lectures, and hence get their schedules 
signed, but at other times follow their own foolish ways, 
and at last have to seek the aid of the crammers. In 
the nature of things this class would scarcely be repre¬ 
sented in pharmacy; and I question if, under the 
schedule-of-attendance method, there would be a 
sufficient demand for cram to keep the loathsome thing 
alive. I have no objection, indeed, I have the strongest 
desire, to see any possible improvement carried out in 
the selection of examiners. I do not know that there is 
at present any weak brother on our Board; if so, let 
him be displaced by a stronger forthwith. But, on the 
whole, I do not believe that a more able and patient set 
of examiners could be found in pharmacy than now sit 
at Bloomsbury. To go outside pharmacy for examiners, 
I do not think to be a practicable proceeding. I have 
no objection, indeed, I have every desire to see, both the 
Minor and Major Examinations, especially the former, 
made more practical (3. 3. 115.). To give the public the 
guarantee of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great 
Britain that a man is a “ Chemist and Druggist,” when, 
perhaps, he has never seen a test tube, and does not 
know how to detect an impurity, an adulteration, or a 
falsely-labelled chemical, is an anomaly that cannot 
much longer be excused : indeed, I know that the leaders 
in pharmaceutical progress are most anxious that this 
scandal should be removed with all speed. Let not the 
most sanguine suppose, however, that a more practical 
examination would be less liable to the invasion of cram ; 
a crammer has greater command over some practical than 
over theoretical matters. But neither the selection of 
examiners, nor any alteration in the examinations, is 
involved in the adoption of the schedule-of-attendance 
scheme. It is no part of my intention, nor is it mv pro¬ 
vince, to advocate or decry the slightest interference 
with the present mode of examination. I simply wish 
those examinations, as they stand, to be made thorough. 
I wish them to be so supplemented as to involve the 
death of cram and the life of education. I select and 
support that one of the two methods of securing com¬ 
pulsory education which I believe to be effective and 
practicable. I see no difficulties in the way of the 
