198 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS; 
[September 7, 1872, 
required by the Board. I do not call it a “result” to 
pass only in chemistry and botany. If you pay for that 
you are getting only a third of the result that is asked 
tor by the Board. I know it is extremely tempting, 
and I make this public confession that I started with the 
impression in 1870—the full belief that the payment-for- 
result system was the ground that we had to work. 
The result of consultation with various other members 
of the Society led me to the conviction that, whilst 
very tempting in appearance, it was not the soundest 
basis for giving us permanent schools in the country. I 
hold that opinion very strongly still. 
.Dr. Edwards : I shall detain you but a very few 
minutes, Mr. Chairman; but there are some matters 
which have presented themselves to my mind in a light 
which I think will enable me to indicate two or three of 
the strong points, and perhaps some of the weak points of 
the discussion. In the first place, in reference to our friend 
Professor Attfield’s excellent paper. It has evidently 
conveyed to us the result of a very great deal of careful 
thought, and it is also a very interesting history of the 
progress of pharmaceutical education. I think that one 
strong point is conveyed in a word used by yourself on 
another occasion, and that is the insistance upon the 
word thorough. I read in it, and I read in that expression 
by yourself, the pith of Professor Attfield’s strong point. 
The value of the education given in Bloomsbury 
Square may be appreciated rather by its thorough¬ 
ness than by the number of students And, there¬ 
fore, it is with very great regret that I find that 
the average of attendance which used to be some ten 
months, in the case of the larger number of students 
who entered, has been reduced to such a very small 
period.. Regarding the present value of the educa¬ 
tion given there, it is certainly unfortunate that the 
education should be distributed over so large a number, 
and the. thoroughness be so very obviously reduced in 
proportion. Then, I think, the weak point of Professor 
Attfield s paper is his reliance upon lecture certificates. 
I remember my experience as a professor in a medical 
school of some years’ standing. I must say that I can 
place no reliance whatever upon the production of 
lecture certificates. Perhaps, also, as a teacher of 
pharmacy for some years I may say the same thing. I 
have really found that attendance for considerable periods 
of tune upon lectures, or merely upon oral instruction, 
has very much less value than it appears to have on 
paper; and I estimate as of the very greatest importance 
in pharmaceutical education the practical work in the 
laboratory. I place this practical work in the 
laboratory, manipulative chemistry, far beyond oral in¬ 
struction. As regards what fell from my friend Pro¬ 
fessor Markoe on the American system of education, 
there is one point which is a strong point, and which 
might be with advantage added to the examination at 
Bloomsbury. Square, and that is the preparation of a 
thesis; I believe in requiring from every man who comes 
up for the Major examination some attempt at mastering 
a subj ect, especially such a one as manipulative chemistry. 
He might write on some substance, giving all the infor¬ 
mation he can from his own experiments on the matter. 
It is of immense advantage to the man, besides which it 
would be the opening of future research, and gives the 
man the opportunity of expressing to his own mind the 
way in which he arrived at information which would 
afterwards be valuable to the whole community. It would 
e.nrich not only the Society, but the body of pharmaceu¬ 
tists at large and such institutions as the Pharmaceutical 
Conference, if every one of the students who had to pass 
a Major examination were required to produce a thesis— 
to give some account which he has composed himself, 
and which is founded, to some extent, upon researches 
he.has made in his laboratory. And then for the weak 
point. I am quite satisfied that mere evening instruc¬ 
tion, whether it be in the laboratory or lecture-room, is 
extremely weak. A man can never feel upon his legs in 
learning such a subject as chemistry unless he can afford 
some portion of the time—two or three or five months— 
in which he will devote his whole energies to the science' 
of learning. A man who is occupied entirely by the 
business of the day, and simply comes to a night school 
of chemistry, never acquires that kind of information 
which will thoroughly fit him for his future duties in 
life as a pharmacist. That is, I think, the weak point 
of the College of Pharmacy at Massachusetts. We have 
had a little experience of that kind in Canada. We 
endeavoured to sweep away the absurdity of a medical 
curriculum for our students which required a two years’ 
attendance and a six months’ course of chemistry and two 
years and three months of botany and Materia Medica, 
which were all required in the province of Quebec. The 
chemists having taken it in hand, endeavoured to substi¬ 
tute something else for it. They took the principle of the 
Pharmaceutical Society that they would not require at¬ 
tendance on lectures, and only required certain standards- 
of examination. When those standards of examination 
were discussed I felt it incumbent upon me to retire entirely 
from this voluntary association, because I could not 
subscribe to their terms of examination. The idea was 
to push a man through a purely commercial examina¬ 
tion, and with so little previous education, that I felt 
compelled to throw up my appointment on the Board of. 
Examiners, and declined to sit any longer and sign their 
certificates. This I did out of justice to my alma mater ► 
Now, we ought to go a little beyond the ranks of our 
profession with regard to this question of apprentice¬ 
ship, and endeavour to educate the public mind on the 
subject. I think we do not sufficiently avail ourselves- 
of a frank and open press. I think we give all the infor¬ 
mation we can in the Pharmaceutical Journals, but we 
do not give sufficient information to the public, who, as 
parents and guardians, have young men for whom they 
have to provide instruction. As to the requirements of 
the body of pharmaceutists, occasional articles appear 
here and there ; but we might follow up such meetings 
as this, and such as we have from time to time in 
different parts of the country, by interesting a portion of 
the press, and giving them from time to time informa¬ 
tion from the secretaries as to what is passing in the 
pharmaceutical world. There is frequently something- 
that is really interesting to the public in such facts. In 
this manner the way might be prepared for a better class 
of young men to come in and pass a preliminary exami¬ 
nation. The public, as a whole, are not sufficiently 
aware of the necessity for this preliminary examination 
for entrance into the business. I would also offer as a. 
suggestion that, in addition to the knowledge of classics,, 
it is very desirable in the Preliminary examination that 
the subject of accounts and bookkeeping should take a 
larger place. In our Preliminary examination, it should 
not be merely a question of arithmetic ; but I think that 
even in our Minor examination we ought to require a 
higher standard of bookkeeping and accounts than is at 
present required. We overlook that matter, but I t hink 
it is one of the sciences which it would be desirable to 
increase in stringency in the examination. As to ap¬ 
prentices, I rather disagree with Professor Attfield. I 
think that the day for paying premiums for apprentices is 
past, and you have to look at that as one of the old customs- 
of the country which have passed away like the curfew. 
The President intimated that it would now be ne¬ 
cessary to close the discussion, unless the Conference- 
decided to sit on Thursday. 
Professor Atteield said that he had no intention of 
replying to the discussion under the present circum¬ 
stances, for by doing so he should be bringing himself 
far too prominently forward in connection with the sub¬ 
ject. This paper on the subject had been only one 
among many contributions to the discussion of the matter 
He should probably reply through the Pharmaceutical. 
Journal to some of the views which had been adduced. 
, The Conference then adjourned to the next day. 
