170 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[August 31, 1873. 
own account, or be allowed to conduct the business of 
another, without having passed the Major examination. 
So long as we cannot enforce this, so long will our posi¬ 
tion be unsatisfactory, and all our lectures and our 
schools will be useless, and only waste of time and 
money. I am prepared to be told that examinations 
are no real proof of a man’s knowledge. To a certain 
extent I admit this, but only to an exceptional extent. 
Examination is like a sieve, a few coarse particles may 
find their way into the sifted powder, and now and then 
a trace of the fine may be rejected with the coarse 
residue, but these are exceptional cases, while the 
result in both directions is most satisfactory and 
just. Gentlemen, to sum up my ideas in a few 
words—I consider three examinations necessary. The 
Preliminary or classical for the apprentice, the Minor for 
the assistant, and the Major for the chemist in business, 
or for those appointed to manage businesses. All these 
examinations, the Major included, should be compulsory, 
Nobody should be admitted to occupy any place without 
having qualified himself for it. The master should 
prepare, or be answerable that his apprentice when out 
of his time can pass the Minor examination. 
With the departure of the apprentice all our responsi¬ 
bility for imparting theoretical knowledge must cease. 
No chemist in business can be troubled with the in¬ 
struction of his assistants ; they are engaged to help a 
master in his daily work. The knowledge for the Major 
examination they may acquire whenever and w r herever 
they like, but without interference or strain on the 
business; it is their interest to acquire knowledge, as 
much as that of their masters. Of course, every right- 
minded master will be pleased to see that his assistant 
studies in his leisure hours, and will be ready and able 
to assist and help him over any difficulties that he may 
encounter. But to establish schools all over the country, 
and to preach that our assistants must attend there, and, 
if necessary, be induced by their employers to do so, is 
against human nature, and neither desirable nor necessary. 
If an assistant has the wish to learn he can do so at home, 
with better results, without losing so much time, and 
without such interruption as attendance at local schools, 
while engaged in business, would of necessity occasion. 
But should he desire to spend some time entirely for 
study, I would wish one thing, namely, that there should 
be no better, no cheaper place than Bloomsbury Square. 
If you have a surplus in your income, you could not spend 
your money more justly or to better purpose than by 
improving your present establishment at Bloomsbury 
Square. Pay your officers and professors so that in case 
of a vacancy you may have the best in the land to apply 
for it, and when you have them, treat them handsomely 
that they may willingly stay with you. Open the labor¬ 
atory and the whole establishment gratuitously for a limited 
time to every apprentice and assistant. Nobody should 
come to Bloomsbury Square unprepared; and when well 
prepared by private study, the gaps in his knowledge 
may well be filled up in a comparatively short time. 
If you have still funds to spare, find a different place 
for your examining body, and separate that department 
altogether from your place of instruction. 
Should it ever happen that Bloomsbury Square can¬ 
not offer the necessary accommodation to all its appli¬ 
cants, then it will be time to establish a second Phar¬ 
maceutical School, as far from London as possible. 
Perhaps no better place could be found than Edinburgh, 
but heretofore I have always heard that Bloomsbury 
Square suffered more from want of pupils than from want 
of room to accommodate them. Times, however, may 
alter, the present complaint of non-attendance at places 
of instruction may cease, and it may be necessary at a 
future time to find more room for accommodating our 
students. May we all live to see this, to see a second 
northern Pharmaceutical School, emulating with Blooms¬ 
bury Square, and striving with it to turn out men to 
become the ornaments and pride of our profession. 
Unfortunately, at present there exists no such necessity ; 
what we want is more pupils, not more schools. 
Note on Pharmaceutical Education. 
BY B. S. PROCTOR. 
In my letter to the Pharmaceutical Journal of July^ 
20 th, 1872, I spoke favourably of the education scheme- 
presented by the committee in 1870. It has since been 
objected that the project then advocated did not give 
sufficient detail to enable its merits to be fairly judged. 
In the letter above alluded to I named two points of 
detail, viz., that satisfactory lectures delivered under 
suitable conditions should be paid for to the extent of 
215. per lecture. That the students should pay at least 
1 «. per lecture each, the Society, where necessary, making; 
up the deficiency. I now propose to add a few further 
suggestions, and if they appear arbitrary and open to- 
criticism, they may at least prove starting-points for- 
discussion. 
One source of failure in the promotion of a satisfactory 
condition of pharmaceutical education is the disposition^ 
so common in students to shirk persistent study in favour 
of a violent effort of short duration. The experienced, 
examiner fully appreciates the difference in value be¬ 
tween these two processes, and usually can distinguish- 
by which the student under examination has sought to • 
obtain his position, and not unfrequently rejection is the- 
reward of the latter process. But the candidate thinks, 
it an injustice to draw so fine a distinction between 
those who are well grounded, and others who are well 
grinded. We must aim at making the distinction more 
clear and forcible, especially to the student class. This, 
I believe, will be ultimately accomplished by prescribing, 
a particular course of education as a necessary prelimi¬ 
nary to candidature. It appears to me that the required, 
course of education should be something like the follow¬ 
ing :—After the Preliminary examination, there should 
be a term of apprenticeship, or pupilage, of not less than, 
four years, followed by attendance on lectures on che¬ 
mistry, botany, materia medica, and pharmacy, in all 
not less than x y z lectures, spread over two years. 
The Minor examination should then be passed, and after 
a lapse of x months, including y months spent on, 
laboratory work, the student should be qualified to enter- 
for the Major. 
A course like this would afford some sort of guarantee- 
that the student had received a fair amount of solid in¬ 
struction, and not the mere smatttering which may be- 
gained to-day and lost to-morrow. But such a course 
would not be practicable at the present day, because of' 
the want of schools in which the student could go 
through the required curriculum, and our present step* 
should be to lay the foundation of such schools. 
It would be necessary that lectures at registered schools 
only should be acknowledged, but any local school might 
claim registration on submitting to periodical inspection, 
by the central body, and showing that it provided the 
requisite quantity and quality of instruction. The- 
lecturers would have to be appointed under the approval 
of the London Board or Council, and the lecturer’s 
certificate of a student having attended his lectures, 
would have to include a statement of the number of" 
times he had been present, and how many absent. 
Then in respect to the quality of lecturing, nothing 
could be regarded as satisfactor)’- which consisted of 
simply reading a lecture. The reading by a lecturer has 
but little advantage over the reading by the student 
himself, unless it be illustrated by specimens, diagrams,. 
experiments, or some other species of practical demon¬ 
stration. The more practical demonstration accompanies 
a lecture, the greater will be its advantages over those- 
obtainable by simple reading, but we must also admit 
the greater will be the labour in preparing it; and it 
cannot be supposed that a guinea will pay for time, ap- 
