September 7, 1372.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
195 
lengthened period of time, and the Board was and is .of 
opinion that it would he of immense advantage to insist 
upon 20 or 21 years as the minimum age at which 
a candidate should come up for the Minor examination. 
It was conceived that in all probability such an one 
must have obtained a certain amount of practical 
-experience, and that the errors which must necessarily 
occur in every examination would be, to some extent, re¬ 
duced. Well, this question was also remitted to the Council, 
as already mentioned, and their solicitor’s opinion was 
asked, and he reported on the subject. I do not know 
what the final report to the Council was, but I have made 
an appeal to more than one member of the Council since, 
to take the bull by the horns, and interpret the Act in 
a liberal spirit, and insist upon the age of twenty or 
twenty-one (twenty-one I prefer) as the minimum of age 
at which a candidate shall acquire the legal privilege of 
a chemist and druggist. It does seem to me that to insist 
upon this is essential in the interests of the public 
as well as ourselves. In the Act itself it states that a man 
to be eligible for the Modified examination shall be of full 
age, and have been three years engaged in business; but 
for the Minor examination we have no guarantee, and 
candidates come up at the age of sixteen or seventeen 
deficient in practical knowledge, but full of cram.. This 
proposition then is a safeguard that would tell in the 
Professor’s direction. Well, the last thing he proposes 
—and that is the only new proposal in the scheme—is 
that there shall be a certificate of having attended lec¬ 
tures, and he says, “ I am of opinion that thus 95 per 
•cent, of the cramming now practised will be prevented.” 
I was brought up in a medical school. There was 
■an attendance-book, and it was necessary for every can¬ 
didate to send in his schedules to the examining body. 
Where the candidates were by nature idle or stupid, they 
Lad ample opportunity to, and very often did, walk out of 
the room immediately after they had signed the book, 
or within a few minutes. I have myself seen as many 
as twenty students get up from a lecture immediately 
after signing the book. Wherever there is an induce¬ 
ment for moral fraud, it is very difficult indeed to con¬ 
trol it, and I do not think that the certificates proposed by 
Professor Attfield would materially prevent cram. You 
would get some excellent men, but others would still 
sidle out of the room, and, when the time came for exa¬ 
mination, seek any man who would assist them, on a 
new principle, for money. The fault, the Professor 
thinks, does not rest with the examiners. Well, I 
must say, in spite of what the President of the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society has told you, that I do not think 
the examination for the Minor by any means perfect. 
It is quite capable of improvement, and I believe it to 
Le possible for the board to correct some of the evils of 
which Professor Attfield complains. Any process by which 
that would be brought about would involve a complete 
change in the system of our examinations, and I think it 
could be done without increasing the stringency. In 
opposition to the statements in the paper, I may mention 
that not long ago the Board had an opportunity of meet¬ 
ing with a gentleman who had been in Professor Att¬ 
field’ s laboratory for one or two years. He was an 
excellent chemist, a very good botanist, and well up 
in materia medica. In fact, he possessed all the know¬ 
ledge that could be obtained by work in a laboratory 
or by reading. Well, he had to appear no less than twice 
for the Minor, and three times for the Modified, 
before he could pass in prescriptions and practical 
dispensing. But we all know that crammers are 
-very skilful, and it is necessary to vary the mode of 
examination and the questions. I think it would.be 
an immense gain if the examinations, instead of being 
monthly or oftener, were held once a quarter, and con¬ 
ducted from day to day. It would give us then only 
four examinations in the year, and it would, I think, 
prevent the frequent recurrence of stock questions, 
some of which it is almost necessary in certain subjects to 
put to every candidate. It would also present an 
immense advantage—an advantage of which some of 
my colleagues as well as myself would avail our¬ 
selves, viz., that of resigning our seats to some 
of our provincial friends. I ought in justice to the 
Board to rectify one omission on the part of Mr. 
Haselden. He forgot to mention that about three 
months ago a committee was appointed to consider the 
question of cram at these examinations, and to decide 
whether anything could be done in the way of checking 
it. That committee is actually extant. There is a 
scheme drafted for the consideration of that committee, 
and I think this fact shows that the examiners are 
really alive to the evil, and that, so far as they are con¬ 
cerned, they are disposed to do all they can to check it. 
But it is very important that the examiners them¬ 
selves should bear in mind the particularly transitional 
state in which we are. I hear complaints about the 
number of failures. If you were to see the hands and 
faces of those who have come up for the last three 
years for the Minor examination, you would say that 
most had just been shut out from the Modified. These 
are men who became registered under that inefficient 
Preliminary which was extant before the passing of 
the Pharmacy Act; and who only want just that 
modicum of knowledge which is necessary to ensure 
registration as chemists and druggists. As soon as that 
class is got rid of, and you get men who have passed 
a respectable Preliminary, I am sanguine enough to be¬ 
lieve that fewer persons will resort to the cramming- 
establishments alluded to by Professor Attfield, and 
therefore I think it would be far better to let the 
whole of this question stand over until this transitional 
period is passed. 
The question of provincial education is essentially a 
political one. It is said that we have no objection to 
assist those who are assisting themselves. But there is 
this enormous divergence of opinion—that while, on 
the one hand, some say that you should only assist tem¬ 
porarily because the circumstances require it; on the 
other, say they, you should do it in perpetuity. I have 
not read the scheme of Mr. Reynolds in the latter sense, 
but if Mr. Schachtinhis scheme means that we are to con¬ 
tinue to carry on this process of examination and payment 
for results-as part of the regular system of the Society, 
I for one decidedly object to it, and would oppose, it. 
I object altogether to being taxed to educate apprentices 
for whose education means should be found by their 
friends. I think it would be wrong altogether.in prin¬ 
ciple to ask a master to take money out of his pocket 
to educate his own apprentice. The shoe pinches just 
where pointed out by Mr. Schweitzer. If a man has 
passed the Minor examination, and takes an. appren¬ 
tice, he ought to be able to prepare his pupil in the 
ordinary course of business, so that at the end of his 
time, without going to any professor, he could pass the 
Minor examination of the present time. Some of the 
very best men who pass, some of the men who know the 
principles of chemistry best, are just the men who have 
not learned their pharmacy. If they have learned 
chemistry pure and simple, I do not think that we 
actually want what is called pharmaceutical chemistry, 
but we do want pharmacy, which should in all cases be 
taught by the master. _ _ _ p , 
Professor Michael Foster : I should have preferred 
having the opportunity of listening to the remarks ot 
speakers to saying anything myself, because.what I have 
to say can only be said from the general points of view. 
I will confine myself, if you please, to two observations. 
One is that it seems to me as an outsider that many ot 
the questions that you have discussed to day have 1013 
decidedly a financial aspect. One sympathizes entirely 
with all your efforts to raise, as you have done, the status 
of the chemist and druggist, but you must remember 
that however high you may become by efforts ot that 
kind, you can only become powerful and numerous as 
