September 28, 1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
259 
the question comes up how to do so. As pointed out by 
Professor Attfield, the only remedy is compulsory education, 
and this may be obtained either by increasing the time and 
area of examination, or by causing the student to attend so 
many sessions of a school of pharmacy. Of these two 
methods, I think the latter the most practicable, and it might 
be carried out in the following manner. 
According to the May report, the Pharmaceutical Society 
derives an income of £7000 from all England in the form of 
subscriptions and examination fees. Now, there are in round 
numbers fifty counties in England which gives £140 as the 
sum annually drawn from each county by the Society in the 
form of fees and subscriptions. The Society annually has a 
surplus of about £2000, and with this might be established 
25 schools of pharmacy, one for each two counties, and 
placed in the most central city, and having each an annual 
grant of £80. Then let the Board of Examiners demand 
from each candidate for Minor or Major a certificate that he 
lias attended two or more sessions, either at the local school 
or at Bloomsbury Square. Let the local association have 
lectures and classes on botany, chemistry, and materia medica, 
■and also a dispensing counter; in fact, a regular session. 
By these means will that usurper, “ cram,” be done away 
with at once and for ever. 
It may be urged that local associations should be supported 
by the surrounding locality; under this scheme such would 
be the case, for the annual grant of £80 would be a share of 
the money drawn from the county by the Society. Others 
might urge that local schools are not wanted at all; let the 
■students go up to Bloomsbury Square ; but they do not con- 
sider the expense of attending two or more sessions there. 
Others again profess that no local school is of any use unless 
■self-supporting, and they point with pride to Bloomsbury 
Square, but omit to state that it costs them £600 per annum. 
If this scheme were adopted, we should see no more of the 
indifference of students; they would kirow that they must 
attend either the Square or the local classes, and would 
buckle to it with the best face possible under the circum¬ 
stances, instead of wasting their apprenticeship as at present, 
and trusting to a month at a “cram shop ” to get them through 
the Minor when their time is out. And can they be blamed for 
preferring a month so spent to spending their time for three or 
four years over dry books ? By.this scheme, instead of having 
about one-tenth of the apprentices at study, we should have 
at least nine-tenths, and the London “crams” might shut up 
shop at their earliest convenience. The indifference of the 
masters would also disappear; the country members and 
associates of the Society would know that they got some¬ 
thing for their money besides the Journal in the form of aid 
to their own district. Another objection might be raised, 
that if, for instance, a school were established in Norwich, it 
would be unfair to Lynn and to Yarmouth; but it should be 
remembered that neither Norwich, Yarmouth, nor Lynn could 
separately support a school; yet under this system, by com¬ 
bined effort, they could support one in the most central place 
for all. 
. Another argument in favour of this scheme is its inexpen¬ 
siveness. The Society need have no “back-boue of gold ” to 
carry it on, tor the annual surplus would be amply sufficient 
for all purposes, while in two or three years many of the 
schools would be self-supporting, owing to the large number 
of students attending them. £80 per year at first sight seems 
a small income for an association; but it must be remembered 
that there would be the fees of the students. Norwich, for 
instance, contains between 40 and 50 assistants and appren¬ 
tices, and taking all Norfolk at about 50 more, and reckoning 
subscriptions at £1 per session, gives an income of nearly 
£200 per annum. 
There are often heard complaints of the trade, owing to the 
large number of men with little or no capital in it. Were 
this scheme to be adopted, it would, to a great extent, do 
aVi a .Y ^ this, for when a man went to place his son to the 
tiade he would find that it required such an expenditure, 
both of time and money, that only those who could well 
afford it would place their sons to it. As things stand at 
present, it is said, and with a great deal of truth, too, that 
this trade is a refuge for all men with a little more brains 
and much less capital than the ordinary trader. Make the 
obtaining of the Minor certificate more difficult, fewer will 
enter the trade, and those who do will come with more capital. 
And it is in this particular that MI. Schacht’s scheme, beau- 
,iiful as it is in many respects, would do more harm than good; 
it would still further lower the status of the trade and throw 
it open to every one. And it must be remembered that even 
when backed up by Government, it has proved a signal 
failure. During the last two or three weeks I have made 
inquiries as to the working of the Government scheme with 
regard to the student, and the result is anything but grati¬ 
fying. Even at the Teachers’ Training College, the students 
have to learn by rote about one hundred equations; and the 
chances are that the equations required at the examinations 
will fall amongst them. Not one student in ten understands 
them. This, with a little smattering of chemistry from any 
elementary text-book, and a trifle more of graphic formulae 
from the examiner’s own book, and they are sent forth to 
teach others chemistry (P). Then, again, unless a student 
belongs to a registered class, every disadvantage is offered 
him, and even if he passes the examination he obtains no 
prize. Clearly such a scheme was formed for the teacher, 
not for the student. If Mr. Schacht takes a rotten scheme 
like this for his model, he will find in practice that he has 
committed a grave mistake. No scheme would so foster 
“ cram ” as this; and it would do even worse; it would cause 
the studies of an honest student to run in one groove, so that 
students would not learn chemistry or botany, but merely a 
a botanical or chemical catechism. With regard to the other 
systems proposed, the majority are practically worthless, on 
account of one grand flaw, viz., that of coaxing and petting 
and paying the student to study. No one ought to expect tech¬ 
nical education for a mere nothing; like every other commo¬ 
dity, it has its price; but by the tone adopted lately by many 
leading pharmacists, many students have inferred that edu¬ 
cation is to be provided for them gratuitously just when it 
is their sovereign will and pleasure to study. 
T. G. S. 
Norwich, Sept., 1872 
Sir,—So much has been written advising chemists to re¬ 
ject all youths as apprentices who have not passed the Pre¬ 
liminary examination, that it has become a pharmaceutieal 
aphorism, and one must be rather of an antediluvian cast of 
mind who ventures to think differently. 
Let us see what the result of the new dogma will be. We 
may assume that the only candidates for examination are 
those who have some knowledge of Latin, and think they 
will pass it. Fifty per cent., or more, of these likely ones 
fail, the others who don’t try we need not consider, but their 
number must largely exceed the former. The consequence 
will be that soon there will be very few apprentices to choose 
from; they will go up in the market, and correspondingly 
their premiums will go down. 
Some of us have been bold enough to think that an ap¬ 
prentice should be something more than a drudge, and that 
time and opportunity should be allowed for attending 
classes for qualifying for a responsible position, but all this 
means expense and must be paid for in the premium, which 
cannot be the case if my first position is correct. A certain 
amount of commiseration has been expressed for assistants 
and a “ Modified” examination provided for their benefit; 
a little, I think, might be reserved for all the youths who 
hope to be druggists and are just leaving school. I would 
not by any means do away with the Preliminary, but I 
would not shut the door in their faces, as we are advised, 
till this be passed, for the reason I have already stated ; and 
for another and weightier one, namely, this,—we are punish¬ 
ing these youths and their parents for the sins of our 
middle-class schoolmasters, on whose heads the punishment 
ought to fall, and whose manifold shortcomings will, I hope, 
ere long come under the discipline of some middle-class 
Forster, who will reserve some of his energy and the nation’s 
money for them and not spend it all on the over-much 
sympathized-with working classes. 
Actual experience beats a great deal of theory. I will 
trouble you with mine ; it will doubtless find a parallel with 
others. In the last few years I have had five apprentices— 
all respectable youths—all sent as their parents supposed to 
good schools, and all paid a premium of £100 or more. I 
merely mention this to show that their parents were not 
poor, so as to seek cheap schools. All these youths were 
sixteen; all had learned Latin, and all were intelligent well- 
conducted lads. Two only could translate a single line of 
Coesar, and, strange to say, they had been educated at the 
Ripon Grammar School, now being remodelled, owing to its 
not satisfying the requirements of the Endowed School s » 
