294 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 12, 1872* 
some slight effect, as the Registrar received informa¬ 
tion respecting a few persons, hut the proportion of 
these to the whole number was so small that he 
determined to put in force the provision of the 
Act of Parliament for enabling him to keep the 
Register correct. As a preliminary proceeding, a 
circular was sent to every Chemist and Druggist 
whose name appeared on the Register, except 
only those connected with the Pharmaceutical 
Society, and with whom he is therefore in communi¬ 
cation weekly in the transmission of this Journal. 
Of these circulars, about 1200 were returned through 
the Post-Office. The “ first registered letter ” re¬ 
ferred to in the tenth section of the Pharmacy Act, 
1868, was then (in March last) addressed to the 
persons whom these circulars had failed to reach I 
and in September,—after the specified interval of 
six months,—the “ second registered letter” was 
sent. About 150 of these letters reached the per¬ 
sons for whom they were intended, and their ad¬ 
dresses have been corrected. There still remain, 
however, as will be seen by the List published at 
page 286, 1040 persons whose whereabouts are not 
known. 
One of the principal causes from which this state 
of affairs arises is the fact that many young men 
who pass the Society’s examinations are re¬ 
gistered at a time when not being hi business they 
have no fixed address, and they never afterwards 
communicate with the proper authorities. Another 
cause, which we have repeatedly pointed out, is the 
number of unreported deaths. It does not appear to 
be generally known by Registrars of Deaths through¬ 
out the country that it is their duty to report the 
death of any Chemist and Druggist occurring in 
their districts to the Registrar of the Pharmaceutical 
Society, inasmuch as that duty is seldom performed, 
although it entitles them to a fee. All of our 
readers, and more especially the Local Secretaries 
of the Society, might assist in obviating this by 
ensuring, as opportunity may occur, that the Re¬ 
gistrar of Deaths in the district in which they reside 
is acquainted with this “ Instruction.” 
The Registrar has now performed all the duties 
prescribed by the Act of Parliament in endeavouring 
to find the persons named in the List. It now only 
remains to wait until three months shall have elapsed 
since the issue of the second registered letter, dated 
30th September last, and on the 30th December next 
he will be authorized to erase the names of all those 
in this List who have not up to that time communi¬ 
cated with him. The names of all such persons will, 
therefore, be omitted from the Register of 1873. 
LADY PHARMACISTS. 
It may interest some of our readers to know that, 
as the result of the decision of the Council at their 
last meeting to allow the attendance of ladies at the 
professors’ lectures, there has already been one entry 
for the present course. In alluding to this subject, 
we may mention that we have received a letter from 
a correspondent who is of opinion that “ the new 
dodge ” of allowing ladies to pass the examinations 
and become chemists and druggists is “ one of the 
most disgusting acts the Board of Examiners has 
allowed since he joined the Society in 1844.” Pro¬ 
bably this fresh decision of the Council will be still 
more obnoxious to this gentleman; and doubtless 
there are those who, without endorsing his rather 
coarse language, may agree with him in opinion as 
to its policy. 
With respect to the first point, however, we appre¬ 
hend that the Examiners had no legal power to re¬ 
fuse a person who is not excluded by the terms of 
the Act. As to the second, there is little doubt that* 
considering the present state of public opinion on the 
general question, the Council acted wisely in judging 
that they had no moral right to object to ladies 
availing themselves of the School of Pharmacy to 
a certain extent, in order to fit themselves for a posi¬ 
tion allowed them by law. 
As illustrating the general tendency of public 
opinion on this subject, we may point to the address of 
the Rev. Canon Kingsley, delivered at the Birming¬ 
ham and Midland Institute on Monday last. In it 
he said that he had for twenty years past, and 
should as long as he lived, advocated the training of 
ladies to the medical profession. And now he was 
seeing the common sense of England, and indeed 
of every civilized nation, coming round to that which 
seemed to him when he first conceived of it a dream 
too chimerical to be cherished save in secret; and 
he trusted soon to see a supply of lady doctors suffi¬ 
cient to establish in every town health classes for 
young women. 
The question has been carried to a further stage 
in the profession of medicine, in which an attend¬ 
ance at a recognized source of instruction is compul¬ 
sory ; but it must be remembered that in pharmacy 
there is no limitation as to where or how the educa¬ 
tion has been obtained, so long as the candidate is 
able to pass the examination. Therefore, should 
intending lady pharmacists be nearly so numerous 
as fear suggests in some quarters, according to the 
known law of supply and demand, there would not 
be much difficulty in their obtaining the education 
they require. But these fears, like those that sug¬ 
gest the time when the strictness of the Examiners 
shall have rendered the supply of pharmacists insuf¬ 
ficient, are probably very wide of tliis mark. 
UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION AT VIENNA. 
Vienna, which in 1869 was the seat of the third 
and latest meeting of the International Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Congress, is next year to become the head 
quarters of an International Exhibition that will 
