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THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [November 50,1872 
the Minor examination more stringent. If it was made 
more stringent it would become the Major examination; 
and if they made the present Major more stringent the 
students would have to attend lectures. In a letter he 
sent to Professor Attfield, he hinted that at some future 
time the Minor examination should he abolished. It was 
intended as an examination for assistants. Now he 
thought the employers were the best examiners of their 
own assistants. The result of the continuance of the 
present Minor examination was, that they had two qualifi¬ 
cations existing amongst those who had set up business 
perhaps in the same street. By-and-by the public 
would inquire what was the cause of the difference in 
their designations, and would discover that the one who 
had passed the Major examination was the better man. 
Instead of making the Minor examination more stringent, 
he thought the students should at once pass to the Major, 
and in the course of a few years they would have nothing 
but pharmaceutical chemists. 
Mr. Kinninmont, of Glasgow, thought that the best 
mode of disposing of the surplus money of the Society 
was to reduce the examination fees. At the present 
moment they had a surplus of £16,000. and this was 
the cause of their quarrels and discussions. If this money 
were capitalized, it would bring £600 a year, which they 
might employ according to the suggestions of Mr. 
Frazer. He thought a fee of one guinea for the Prelimi¬ 
nary, two guineas for the Minor, and two for the Major 
examinations were sufficiently high fees. He thought it 
a ridiculous idea to ask that the apprentices before they 
were bound should be made to pass the Preliminary 
examination. If this were enforced, they would find it 
impossible to get young lads. He should protest against 
the alteration of the present Minor examination, which, 
in his opinion, included everything that a druggist ought 
to know. He might learn as much after as he pleased, 
but it should not be compulsory. He maintained that 
the higher branches were not absolutely necessary to a 
man who had merely to carry on the ordinary business 
of a chemist and druggist. A voluntary examination 
they might, however, make as stringent as they pleased. 
This question of education could be settled very easily 
by every master minding his own apprentice. There 
was nothing in the Minor, and scarcely anything in the 
Major examination, but what private study would enable 
a young man to pass. But if they made examinations 
more stringent, they would just prevent young men from 
coming forward. 
Mr. Gilmouk (Lindsay and Gilmour), pointed out the 
necessity for a good Preliminary education for boys 
coming into the trade, so many having failed to pass the 
Preliminary education, and so many others having 
passed it only by the skin of their teeth, as he said; and 
also the necessity of every assistant making an honest 
effort for himself. It was proposed to start education 
centres, but where these centres would be placed were the 
very places that least require them. The examinations 
had long been spoken of as the end of a young man's 
education, but these examinations should show the young 
man what he was ignorant of. He was suspicious of 
this whole question of education as brought forward by 
men in and out of the Society, because he did not think 
that those who had as yet attempted to settle the matter 
were in a position to legislate for the great mass of the 
trade. To aim at a common platform for all in the trade 
would only end in disappointment. The main thing 
they should aim at was to establish a higher moral tone 
among the young men. He thought the present exami¬ 
nations were quite sufficient for the requirements of the 
present day, and that all they required was the establish¬ 
ment of proper museums, proper libraries, and proper 
consulting rooms in as many places as possible, without 
interfering with the independence or the proper privileges 
and duties of the young men. As to “ cramming,” he 
did not think it existed to nearly the extent that was 
thought, at least in Scotland. The examinations showed 
that it did not exist. He suggested to put an end to this 
absurd cry about cramming, that the examiners should 
publish the questions monthly. He concluded his re¬ 
marks by again pressing the necessity of a highi r moral 
tone amongst the young men. 
Mr. W. Leitch : I beg to state that I coincide gene- 
ally with the remarks of previous speakers, and homo¬ 
logate most of Mr. Mackay’s statements; but I am de¬ 
cidedly of opinion that no great change in the mode or 
means of education is either probable or desirable. I 
believe that twenty years hence it will be found as now 
that chemists will receive their primary education, in. 
the country districts, and be naturally drawn as assist¬ 
ants to the great centres where they may have better 
opportunities of perfecting themselves in their art.. . At 
the same time, allow me to remark that, in my opinion, 
you are very apt to overlook one of the main elements 
of the case. You speak only of education, but I ask 
where are you to obtain the pupils F It is well known 
that even now there is an absolute dearth of apprentices-, 
and assistants. This may be due partly to the stringent 
provisions of the recent Act; but I insist that it is mainly 
due to the fact that there is no adequate object held 
out for the student of pharmacy to attain. It is absurd 
to suppose that young men of good education and posi¬ 
tion will be found to enter on a career involving such 
high and varied attainments, and offering so small am 
ultimate object, so few chances of advancement, and so- 
little opportunity of cultivating the social amenities of 
life. It is only the favoured few who are fortunate 
enough to succeed to good dispensing businesses.; and 
the remuneration of assistants generally is so manifestly 
inadequate to their position, and to the long time and 
considerable outlay necessary for their due qualification, 
that many otherwise able young men have already left 
the profession, and numerous others are deterred from 
commencing so inauspicious a career. To remedy this 
state of matters, I boldly affirm that the hours of labour 
must be considerably abridged, that the remuneration of 
qualified men must be trebled or quadrupled, and more 
encouragement given to scientific studies. Now to do 
this, masters must of necessity receive what they are 
already entitled to, viz., a very large increase in the 
present scale of charges ; and considering that they have 
now an almost perfect monopoly in dispensing,. there 
should be no difficulty in at least doubling all their dis¬ 
pensing charges. When this is done, and a due object 
and position held out for the attainment of any assistant, 
you will find the right class of youths come forward to- 
the profession; and when once within the ranks, it is for 
the Society to decide where four or five centres should be 
established, where assistants may be helped by lecture- 
tickets at recognized schools of pharmacy, so as to enable 
them to pass the Major examination with at least as much 
ease and credit as others not superior to them may do 
the medical curriculum. I may conclude by saying that, 
unless some such advance as I have advocated be made, 
the number of those choosing pharmacy as a profession 
will go on decreasing, as other occupations of greater 
relative monetary value are of easier attainment and 
equally honourable. I feel that I have not been dis¬ 
cussing the point from a purely educational view, but 
certainly from one we cannot afford to overlook. 
Mr. Young (Macfarlane and Co.) said that at this 
late hour he would not trespass, important as was the 
subject under discussion. He had given some attention 
to the various schemes which had been proposed, and he 
felt bound to say that the one which Mr. Mackay had 
that night brought under their notice was the one which 
commended itself most to his mind. He recognized the 
importance of the Bloomsbury school as a great central 
institution, and it would be matter of regret to him that 
any change should lessen its value. Change, however, 
of some kind was before them, and he thought no safer 
mode of transition could be effected than that contained 
in Mr. Mackay’s proposal. It would give a standing to- 
