262 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 5, 1872. 
"be said to be professional examiners, it is in that 
termed “pharmacy,” yet this is precisely the one in 
which the Board is asking the co-operation of the 
Council respecting power to require external evi¬ 
dence of education. I say that if in the subject in 
which the examiners are most likely to detect super¬ 
ficial information, they desire to have their hands 
strengthened by certificates of attendance for a 
certain number of years in a pharmacy, then any 
proposal that in the other chief subjects similar 
certificates of attendance for a stated time in a 
recognized school should be required, cannot logically 
be considered as uncomplimentary to the Board. 
Dr. Edwards thought that while the strong point of 
my paper was advocacy of thoroughness in educa¬ 
tion, its weak point was support of this schedule 
system. I submit that my friend’s remarks only 
touched the abuse of the method, and not the method 
itself. I can speak from eight years’ personal ex¬ 
perience of its working in a large medical school; 
and while I know how formerly in some schools it 
was inefficiently carried out, I also know how easily 
its abuse can be and is now generally prevented. 
Professor Redwood’s suggestion that candidates 
should be required to state where, when, and how 
their education had been conducted, would be useful 
to the extent to which it were made effective. 
The plan might be anything between a mere form 
and the recognition of certain schools, or rather 
certain modes of education to the exclusion of 
superficial teachers and teaching. Effectively car¬ 
ried out, it would end, I believe, in the system I 
have urged for adoption. Under any circumstances 
its tentative value is considerable. 
A few sentences on the question, “ Does the pros¬ 
pect of remuneration warrant much outlay for 
pharmaceutical education, or, briefly, does it pay ? ” 
Listen to Professor Markoe, himself a pharmacist 
engaged in trade. “What you, Professor, want to 
see done in England we have already accomplished 
in America. In the States a man is prevented either 
by law or the force of public opinion from opening a 
shop unless he can pass an examination and has 
attended a certain length of time in a recognized 
school of pharmacy, as well as worked practically at 
dispensing. You see, we give no opportunity for the 
rise of ‘ coaching’ or ‘ priming.’ Then the expense of 
education keeps out of pharmacy the crowd of poor 
and ignorant men that would otherwise enter ; and 
so we have a smaller number of pharmacists in pro¬ 
portion to population than you have, and each 
business, consequently, is larger; besides, our phar¬ 
macists pull together better than if they were less 
well educated, and so get more fairly remunera¬ 
tive prices from the public and the confidence and 
help of the medical men.” To my remark that this 
course seemed to discourage brain-power unless asso¬ 
ciated with money-power, Professor Markoe an¬ 
swered that a pharmacist received no premium 
with a pupil, and thus was enabled to turn a lad 
away if he had no aptitude for pharmacy; or, on the 
other hand, to keep him, and even, after a time, pay : 
him and in other ways give him the means and op¬ 
portunity of rising. He also alluded to the system as 
one under which there was always a good supply of 
■well-paid assistants. I am hoping soon to hear 
more about pharmaceutical education in the various 
States of the Union. 
I do not see why the system of education I sup¬ 
port should not in due time be adopted to the extent 
suggested by the Board of Examiners, and carried 
out from year to year at such a rate and in such 
a manner that existing interests should not in any 
way be affected. 
PRESENTATION TO M. CHEVREUL. 
I A very interesting episode took place at the seance of 
the French Academy of Sciences of September 2nd, on 
the occasion of what may be regarded as the academic 
jubilee of the Dean, the famous chemist, M. Chevreul. 
The fiftieth year of his membership does not strictly 
occur till 1876 ; but it is well know that he would have 
been elected in 1816, had he not urged the Academy to 
j give the A r acant place to M. Proust. M. Faye, as presi¬ 
dent of the Academy, intimated that the members had 
resolved, as a token of their estimate of his works, and 
their regard for his personal character, to present the 
venerable Dean that day with a medal, without waiting 
for the arrival of the formal jubilee. M. Dumas, in an 
I eloquent and gracefully-worded speech, recounted the 
many valuable services rendered by M. Chevreul, and 
at the same time bore testimony to the personal character 
of the man. After M. Elie de Beaumont, who had been 
pupil of M. Chevreul, had added a few words of venera¬ 
tion and respect for his old master, the latter attempted 
to respond, but had simply to express his inability to do 
so. 
LEEDS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE. 
The Winter Session of the Leeds School of Medicine 
commenced on Tuesday, October 1st, when the Intro¬ 
ductory Address was delivered by J.D. Heaton, Esq., M.D. 
In the evening the Council, with old students and 
others interested in the school, dined together at the 
Great Northern Hotel. 
In replying to the toast of “ Former Members of 
Council and Lecturers,” proposed by Mr. Wheelhouse. 
Mr. R. Reynolds said he was quite sure they were 
right in having instituted such a gathering as that, and 
in having recognized the importance of maintaining the 
esprit de corps of their profession. He could not forget 
that he was there representing pharmacy in some degree, 
and that they stood towards the medical profession, he 
supposed, as a sort of poor relation, but they were 
anxious to maintain the credit of the family. Those 
connected with pharmacy had before them at present 
the great problem of how they were to educate their 
young men. The Pharmacy Act of 1868 had rendered 
education compulsory. It had provided for examinations, 
but had made no provision whatever for schools, or a 
system of education. But in a country like England 
they must not look to the Government to establish such 
schools. They must follow the example ■which the me¬ 
dical profession had set them; they must go through 
those modest attempts of which’the chairman had spoken 
when the Leeds School of Medicine was satisfied with 
doing honest woi'k—doing it in rooms which made no 
pretension as public buildings—and they had now got 
similar work before them. They would admit, if phar¬ 
macy were essential or complementary to the skill of the 
physician, that it was impossible that work should be 
done well without the requisite instruction was afforded 
to those who were to undertake that work; and the 
very kind way in which those connected with pharmacy 
were treated by the profession generally gave them 
much encouragement. They found that a great difficulty 
existed from the want of previous training in their 
pupils. Their boards of examiners told them of deficient 
education, and they had students who translated “ summo 
mane deglutiendus ” as “to be taken in the morning, in 
jelly,” and lactis vaccini recentis ,” as “ recent vaccination 
being calmer.” But they were honestly trying to do their 
best, and as being in charge of the ordnance department 
of the army, they would certainly try to keep the powder 
drv. 
V 
