^August 31,1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
1G0 
Hmtttogs of Stmttiftc Varieties. 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
Tuesday , August 13 th, 1872. 
(Continued from page 156.) 
Pharmaceutical Education. 
EY J. SCHWEITZER. 
Amongst tlie chemists of the present day, we find 
some who have passed the Major or the Minor ex¬ 
amination, and a great many who have passed no ex¬ 
amination at all, a very mixed body of men, many of 
them far from what we aim at, and what a pharmaceu¬ 
tical chemist should be. I say this without any disre¬ 
spect to those gentlemen who were in business before 
the passing of the Act which made a strict and regular 
examination a sine qua non . They have a perfect right 
to their present position, but as long as we count a 
large number of men amongst us of doubtful qualifica¬ 
tion, so long our position must be of necessity unsatis¬ 
factory and anomalous. While we admit these gentle¬ 
men on a footing of equality in business matters, and 
allow them to shape their course as best they can, we 
have certainly to guard ourselves against judging the 
past from the present, nor need we, in making provisions 
and laws for the future, fetter ourselves, with .unneces¬ 
sary considerations on their behalf. Indiscriminate ad¬ 
mittance into our ranks has ceased now,..and a better 
and more uniform standard of men only will be added to 
the register, whereby many of the present difficulties 
will disappear. 
The idea that the present system of pharmaceutical 
education is not what it should be is not at all so well 
.founded as w r e are made to believe; anyhow, I must 
differ in toto from the plans hitherto proposed as a 
remedy. I protest against placing on the shoulders of 
the Pharmaceutical Society the shortcomings of those 
who for years were strangers, if not enemies,, to the 
Society, and who recently were compelled to. join. No 
new system of education will alter these, and it is wrong 
to speak and to act as if these men had sprung from or 
grownup intheLecture Rooms and Laboratory of Blooms¬ 
bury Square, and were a living proof of the insufficiency 
of this institution. The fact that the Society possesses at 
present a surplus income of £2000 or £1800 per annum 
is a proof that it is founded and carried on on sound 
principles. It is perhaps a little too parsimonious, but 
the fault, if any, is on the right side. To use this 
surplus for the introduction of a new and expensive 
plan of provincial education is a hazardous, waste¬ 
ful, and wrong step, almost certain, in my judgment, to 
.lead to failure and rain. It is generally acknowledged 
that small donations in money or books to provincial as¬ 
sociations is so much money thrown away, while the 
establishment or maintenance of a number of regular 
. schools would be equally ineffective, and only cause 
.greater jealousy, and tend to cripple the parent society. 
I do not lose sight of the training of apprentices and 
assistants, nor of the fact that their want is greater 
than London alone can supply, and that a successful ter¬ 
mination of apprenticeship requires more opportunities 
than many provincial businesses can afford. But no 
chemist is compelled to take an apprentice; and I maintain 
that we have amongst us plenty of intelligent Pharmacists 
■who, in every respect, are competent and willing to take 
and instruct apprentices. When we demand .that the 
pupil should possess sufficient schooling to pass the Pre¬ 
liminary examination, we may, -with greater right, 
expect that the master should possess also sufficient 
theoretical knowledge to fulfil his part of the contract, 
. and be able to prepare and instruct his apprentice pro¬ 
perly, or so that, when out of his time, he should, with¬ 
out much difficulty, be able to pass the Minor examination. 
'.The agreement between master and apprentice is a legal 
document, wherein one promises to do certain things in 
return for certain considerations, and it is, of course, the 
business of the contracting parties to see that they aro 
able to fulfil their promises. I will not trouble you about 
apprentices who will not learn, nor have I much to say 
about masters who are unable to teach; the sooner 
both disappear the better. I feel, also, little compassion 
for unexamined men who maintain that their business 
does not afford means to keep an assistant, and, who for 
such reason, think themselves justified in continuously 
looking out for apprentices, and are ready to take any 
comer, uneducated, untrained to study, and unable to 
pass the Preliminary examination. They accept the pre¬ 
mium, employ their apprentices for all sorts of. work, 
save the services of a paid assistant, and clear, in this 
way, a good round sum every year. Such apprentices, 
when out of their time, never attempt to pass, or, if they 
do, fail, as a matter of necessity. If you can put a stop 
to proceedings like this, do so, but, if you cannot, cer¬ 
tainly do not burden yourself with unnecessary respon¬ 
sibility, leave time and circumspection to discover and 
apply a remedy for individual cases. It is usually 
masters of this kind that clamour most for help from 
the Pharmaceutical Society. Not being able to educate 
their apprentices, they seem to think they have a right to 
call for help, but their right has no existence, and their 
difficulty is of their own seeking. If you listen to them 
you sanction their proceedings, and encourage them to 
continue in their reprehensible course.. 
Neither do I think claims of this kind more reason¬ 
able or legitimate if, instead of individuals, a town or pro¬ 
vince should furnish such instances by the score. The esta¬ 
blishment and maintenance of a local school requires at 
least a yearly outlay of from £300 to £600,. and even 
then you do not get a perfect school, while the fair 
distribution of such establishments over the country 
must of necessity cripple the Society in London. Es¬ 
tablish as many such schools as you like, you would 
get calls for more, while every new establishment 
would be a new source of jealousy to the neigh¬ 
bouring towns, and it is not difficult, to predict 
what the end would be. Instead of possessing what we 
should now have in London, at least, one good eflective 
centre of instruction, provided with the best masters, the 
largest laboratory, the completest library, and the richest 
museum, an institution of which all of us can be proud, 
you would have jealousy everywhere., and a number, of 
elementary schools all good for very little, and all alike 
contemptible in the amount of knowledge they, would 
diffuse. Gentlemen, I say there is no necessity for 
such steps; the days of the uneducated amongst us 
are numbered ; in a few years every chemist in business 
must be educated, and must have proved his knowledge 
by an examination, and I have no hesitation in saying 
that every one of such will be able to educate his own 
apprentices without troubling any Society for assistance. 
A few years’ patient waiting will bring you what you seek, 
without risk, without much expense. One. thing 5 ou 
certainly must always bear in mind ; the .raising of the 
standard of the future chemists by subjecting every 
fresh comer to a strict and proper examination. 
I have said before that every intelligent chemist who 
has passed his examinations will be able to instruct his 
apprentices, so that when out of his time he could vith 
perhaps very little additional study, pass the Minoi 
examination. But to teach with success 3 ou must know 
more than your bare lesson, and I consider, the Minoi 
examination not a fit standard for a chemist in business. 
The Preliminary or classical examination is the proof of a 
youth’s fitness to become an apprentice; and I think the 
Minor examination nothing more than a test for the com¬ 
petency of an assistant, but for the master I demand more. 
The mere word Minor indicates that you do not mean o 
end your days with such qualification, but that you intent 
to go a step further and pass the Major. Gentlemen, 
nobody should be allowed to carry on business on his 
