•'October 19, 1872.] 
1US PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
309 
IwMnral Iransaxtim 
-SHEFFIELD PHARMACEUTICAL STUDENTS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
On Thursday, October 10th, a meeting- of assistants 
nnd apprentices of chemists and druggists in Sheffield 
was held in the Music Hall, Surrey Street, for the pur¬ 
pose of inaugurating a society to he called “ The Phar¬ 
maceutical Students’ Association.” There has been a 
great want of a society of this kind, and it is to be 
hoped that the efforts of the founders may be successful 
in benefiting educationally the young men, and also 
prove conducive to the welfare of the trade generally. 
Upon the proposition of Mr. Ilollinrake, seconded by Mr. 
Thompson, Mr. E. R. Learoyd was unanimously ap¬ 
pointed president, Mr. James Appleton being elected 
secretary and treasurer. A general committee was also 
formed. Mr. Brad wall has kindly consented to give 
.the opening paper of the session. 
BRISTOL PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION. 
The first general meeting of the present session was 
held at the Philosophical Institution, Queen’s Road, on 
Friday, October 11th, under the presidency of Mr! C. 
Townsend. There was an average attendance. It had 
been announced that the president would introduce the 
subject of pharmaceutical education, with the view of 
eliciting from the members of the association an expres¬ 
sion of opinion thereon. 
The President, in introducing the business, said he 
was glad to meet the members and students at the com¬ 
mencement of another session, which he hoped would be 
even more prosperous and harmonious than the one 
before. 
I he minutes of the last meeting having been read and 
confirmed, 
The President delivered the inaugural address as 
follows:— 
The council of your society having in a moment of 
weakness re-elected me as president, it becomes my duty 
to open our fourth session. But, in place of the usual 
address, it has been thought well that this evening- 
should be devoted to the consideration and discussion o'! 
•the one question which is of the most vital importance 
in the future of pharmacy; which lies at the root of all 
success, and will become, accordingly as it is dealt with, 
either a source of strength and vigour, gathering fresh 
life and energy for us every year, or a rock of danger 
and ruin upon which we may, if we are not wise and 
cautious, find ourselves in a wreck of almost’hopeless and 
helpless confusion. 
It is not too much to assert that, upon the treatment 
of the question of Pharmaceutical Education in the pre¬ 
sent crisis will depend the entire character of pharmacy 
for the next half century; a mistake may prove fatal 
to. all our brightest hopes; a wise decision, carried out 
with breadth and firmness, will win for us the respect of 
the whole trade, by degrees remove the prejudices of 
those who now would willingly stand aloof, and will lay 
the foundation, strong and firm, for a future of gradual 
and wholesome progress. 
In introducing the subject for discussion this evening, 
I propose very briefly to recall to your attention some 
of the most important and prominent opinions which 
have already been expressed, notably at, and subse¬ 
quent to, the meeting of the British Pharmaceutical 
Association at Brighton in August last. These may 
bo fairly taken as representative of the various phases, 
of thought in the matter throughout the kingdom, 
and will clear the way for a better understanding- as 
to the position in which matters now stand. And 
the first point which comes out is, that it was the 
idea and intention of the founders and early supporters 
of the Pharmaceutical Society that it should be and 
should continue to be an educating body; and that as 
time piogresscd, local and provincial schools of phar¬ 
macy should be established. Then, according to Dr. 
Attfield (and I see no reason to doubt his conclusions)', 
there has been, since 1868, a large and most unhealthy 
increase of cramming for the Minor examination,—the 
result doubtless of the desire upon the part of large 
numbers of applicants whose early education has been 
defective to qualify themselves to enter into business. 
I his is to be deplored, but might reasonably have been 
expected under the circumstances ; and the remedy for 
this appears to be a more severe Preliminary examina¬ 
tion in the future, and the compulsory requirement that 
the applicant shall have attended a course of lectures 
upon chemistry and botany, with some recognized teacher 
or school (not necessarily in any way connected with our 
Society) ; and last, but by no means least, that he shall 
have spent two, three, or four years with a chemist and 
druggist, or pharmaceutical chemist. All the laboratory 
instruction, course of lectures, and other aids to scientific 
knowledge, absolutely necessary as they are, will never 
enable young men to dispense with that practical know¬ 
ledge which can only be gained at the counter and in 
the dispensary at home. 
If it were possible to prevent any chemist taking an 
apprentice who had not passed the Preliminary exami¬ 
nation, I would go as far as this in the future. The 
fountain must be kept bright and clear if we are to have 
a pure and healthy stream. 
Passing on, you will find several schemes pi-oposed for 
the establishment of either technical schools in the pro¬ 
vinces or local schools of pharmacy to be aided more or less 
by the parent Society ; and Dr. Attfield himself suggests 
the establishment of residential halls in connection with 
such schools. My friend Mr. Schacht has, as you are 
aware, himself proposed a scheme which has met with 
more approval than any other, and since he is, I am 
happy to say, present here to speak for himself, he will 
enlighten you on this part of the subject far more than 
I can do. A late President of the Society, Mr. Sandford, 
dissents from Dr. Attfield’s conclusions that the Society 
was originally intended to be permanently an educating 
body, and protests against the conclusions that it was to 
become “a vast charity for the education, not of the 
children of chemists, but of all those lads whose parents 
might in future claim to make them chemists.” Doubtless 
the founders had no intention to form any such per¬ 
manent charity; and as Mr. Sandford points out, the 
London schools having established the fact that they 
can be made self-supporting, all other schools must, if 
they are to last, be ultimately made self-supporting also. 
Mr. Sandford proposes to grant aid to such provincial 
schools as prove themselves to be working in the right 
direction, and'this unfettered either by special details or 
by payment for results, until they are able to stand 
alone. 
The most important contribution to the discussion of 
the whole question is the paper by Professor Redwood, 
published in the Journal of September 28th. 
I will endeavour to indicate its chief points. Strongly 
urging the need of an early passing of the Preliminary, 
the Professor thinks that young men of average ability, 
havin'? the acquirements necessary for this examination, 
ought in a three or four years’ pupilage under a com¬ 
petent master, either with the aid. of systematic instruc¬ 
tion by classes and lectures, or without that aid if the 
pupil be properly guided in his studies, successfully to 
prepare for the Minor. Considering that there may be 
some gradations in the needed qualifications for a chemist 
and druggist, suitable to different circumstances, Profes¬ 
sor Redwood yet believes the present minimum qualifica¬ 
tion to be sufficiently low, and our present arrangements 
defective and insufficient even for the accomplishment 
of what the law demands ; advocating the establishment 
of schools where in every case provision should be 
