242 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS; [September 28,1872. 
tliey discern it, their own interests also, which are 
involved in the efficient performance of their pro¬ 
fessional duties. These obligations cannot be too 
strongly insisted upon; but it must at the same 
time be admitted that there are circumstances affect¬ 
ing many of the present race of students which 
claim for them a special indulgence. Many of these 
have been induced to enter upon the study of phar¬ 
macy with little school knowledge, and unprepared 
for the necessity of incurring further expense than 
that of their appenticesliip to enable them to pursue 
the business of a chemist and druggist as their future 
livelihood. They have found themselves suddenly 
placed in a critical position not previously ^contem¬ 
plated, with examinations to pass for which they 
were unprepared, and the preparation for which in¬ 
volves expenses they can ill afford. Is it matter of 
surprise that many of these should seek to bring 
themselves within the requirements of the law by the 
easiest process ? The moral obligations of this class 
can hardly be measured by the standard we may 
hope to see applied to those who shall succeed 
them. 
Then with regard to the interests of the public; 
these seem to demand that there should be to some 
extent a gradation of qualifications among chemists 
and druggists. The conditions are so different under 
which the business has to be conducted in different 
places, that it would be unreasonable to expect the 
same qualification in all those who are engaged in 
it. There are many country towns and villages.the 
inhabitants of which are supplied with the medicines 
they require by men who rarely, if ever, see a pre¬ 
scription, and to whom a knowledge of analytical 
chemistry would certainly be unremunerative if not 
useless, but who, like Lord Elclio’s dealer in mouse¬ 
traps, may be profitably applying a kind and amount 
of knowledge such as their position requires, and 
which is not inconsistent with that position. It is 
from tins view of the subject, no doubt, that the ob¬ 
jection has arisen which has been urged against 
fixing a higher standard than that which is comprised 
in the statutory qualification of a chemist and drug¬ 
gist. 
The law defines the minimum qualification, and it 
certainly is not very exacting. It leaves much to 
voluntary effort, to the influence of public opinion 
and combined action, by which so much has already 
been effected. 
It might have been expected that our educational 
arrangements would require some modification to 
meet the altered circumstances resulting from recent 
legislation. That the means which, during the last 
t hir ty years, have been employed, under an exclu¬ 
sively voluntary system, for promoting and provid¬ 
ing pharmaceutical education, should prove insuffi¬ 
cient, and should be considered unsuited hi cliaractrer 
as well as extent, for the accomplishment of what 
is now required, does not necessarily imply that 
those means were inappropriately or unwisely devised 
at the time when they were called into operation. 
That they have been incomplete, and in some res¬ 
pects insufficient, has resulted from conditions under 
which they were established; but they have never¬ 
theless been productive of much good which could 
hardly have been effected hi any other way. 
It cannot be denied that existing arrangements, 
as applied to the whole body of chemists and drug¬ 
gists, are defective, and very insufficient for the ac¬ 
complishment of what could be desired, or indeed, 
of what the law demands. Tins may be admitted 
without detracting from the credit due to those who 
have provided and those who are using such .means 
as the course of events has called into requisition. 
Whatever has been done, and is now doing, in the 
way of systematic education, is so much in advance 
of what was done thirty years ago. During that 
period we have made steady progress, and I cannot 
admit that there has been within the interval, any¬ 
thing like a retrograde movement. Yet, looking to 
the future, it is obvious that much remains to be 
done. 
It appears to me that the circumstances affecting 
the future are so far different from those of the past, 
that it will be necessary to entirely remodel our edu¬ 
cational arrangements. I look to the application 
of the Preliminary-examination-lever, together with 
the esprit de corps which our association in Blooms¬ 
bury Square is calculated to promote and maintain, 
for the means of establishing a system of education, 
both central and provincial, more adequate to the 
wants of the student-class, more conducive to the 
advancement of the interests of pharmacy, and more 
consistent with the principles upon which such a 
provision ought to be founded, than any now exist¬ 
ing in this country. 
A sound pharmaceutical education should be both 
practical and systematic. Much of the former can 
only be acquired at the retail and dispensing counter 
of a pharmaceutical establishment. The latter is 
best acquired through lecture instruction and syste¬ 
matic laboratory work. The education should com¬ 
mence with apprenticeship or pupilage with, a 
pharmaceutical chemist or chemist and druggist, 
capable of imparting a general knowledge of the 
mode of conducting business, and the special know¬ 
ledge of medicines, their preparation and the art of 
dispensing them. During this period of pupilage 
opportunities will be afforded of studying chemistry, 
botany and materia medica from books, and pro¬ 
bably in some instances, to a greater or less extent 
from attendance at lectures. But the instruction thus 
acquired is often fragmentary and incomplete. A 
few lectures on chemistry or botany may tend to 
create a taste for scientific study, and may commu¬ 
nicate valuable matter for which lecture illustration 
is necessary ; but the student will find it difficult by 
mere reading, with occasional attendance at short 
courses of lectures, to acquire a sound and general 
knowledge of subjects so comprehensive as those of 
chemistry and botany. Hence the importance of 
having schools with extended and well illustrated 
courses of lectures, in which the subjects in a con¬ 
nected, systematic and sufficiently complete form, are 
explained and illustrated, the matter being as far as 
possible made applicable to the particular uses to 
which the students intend to apply it. 
In establishing such schools there are two objects, 
the fulfilment of which should be especially aimed 
at. One is, that in every case provision should be 
made for complete and thorough instruction in all 
departments of knowledge required for the highest 
qualification in pharmacy; and the other is, that 
the schools should be self-supporting. 
All the objections that are urged against the sort 
of superficial teaching called cramming, may with 
equal justice be applied to any attempt at teaching 
chemistry and the allied branches of physics, botany 
