December 7,1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
447 
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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1872 . 
Communications for this Journal, and boohs for review,etc., 
should be addressed to the Editor, 17, Bloomsbury Square. 
Instructions from Members and Associates respecting the 
transmission of the Journal should be sent to Elias Brem- 
ridge, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square , W.C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, London, TP. Envelopes indorsed u Fharm. Journ." 
THE AMENDED REGULATIONS OF THE BOARD OF 
EXAMINERS. 
We are glad to put before our readers to day, in tlie 
report of the Council Meeting of the 4th inst., the 
altered form of regulations agreed on by the Council, 
whose duty it is, conjointly with the Board of Ex¬ 
aminers, to frame or alter such regulations as may 
be required from tune to time, to be observed in the 
examinations held under authority of the Pharmacy 
Acts. 
We are the more pleased to be able to do this thus 
early, because much unnecessary alarm appears to 
have been raised in some quarters by the rumour 
that some alteration was about to be made. This 
was perhaps but natural, as eveiybody knew that 
in the early days of compulsory examination the 
greatest possible leniency had been exercised, on the 
understanding that as time wore on, the examinations 
would advance gradually to their proper standard. 
It was hoped also that students would progress in a 
corresponding ratio. Every change therefore in the 
examinations must necessarily be upward, and there 
is always a dread of change under such circum¬ 
stances. But having looked through the new order, 
we confess that we see very little to alarm our young 
friends. The only addition to the “ Preliminary ” 
is, “ a thorough knowledge of the British and Metrical 
System of Weights and Measures .” 
Passing to the Minor, there is apparently more 
change ; and] at this we are not surprised, because 
that is of all examinations the most important, when 
considered in reference to the relationship in which 
the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society, as an 
educative body, stand towards the public. The Pre¬ 
liminary, though not referring to anything specially 
pharmaceutical, is of the utmost consequence, as 
securing an adequate foundation on which, and by 
the help of which, to build up a sound technical edu¬ 
cation. The Board of Examiners already accept the 
certificates of other examining bodies, and according 
to our thinking if all students were compelled to 
bring such certificates—provided always that the 
•Council approved none but high-class examining 
Bodies—it would be better for the great object of the 
Society in introducing lads of superior education to 
the trade. We hold any chemist culpable who 
signs indentures with an apprentice before he has 
passed the Preliminary examination. The “ Major ” 
is an honour to which every pharmacist who desires 
to take high rank among his fellows,—and as a fair 
inference to be more highly esteemed by the public,— 
must in future direct his course. But when a man 
has passed the “ Minor,” he goes to the world 
certified by the Board of' Examiners that he is 
a fit and proper person to be entrusted with 
one of the most responsible duties which one 
man can perform for another. It is here that 
the Dispensing Chemist ceases to be a mere trades¬ 
man, buying and selling for gain only to himself; 
he has to exercise professional skill and knowledge 
on behalf of suffering humanity, and on his posses¬ 
sion of competent skill and knowledge often hangs 
the life of his employer. To say then that such a 
person shall be able to detect errors and unusual 
doses and have a general knowledge of Posology, is 
saying no more than is absolutely necessary. The 
expression is a little enlarged from the old regula¬ 
tion verbally; but it really seems to us that when an 
examiner had the power to put a candidate to the 
proof as to “ unusual doses,” he must be virtually 
testing him in usual doses. The knowledge re¬ 
quired under the head of “ Pharmacy ” seems an 
improvement; it is more important even that a man 
should know how simple substances are compounded, 
and why they are compounded in a certain manner 
to obtain a proper result, than that he should be 
able to run off the ingredients of a compound on 
his finger-ends from mere recollection of what he 
read in the Pharmacopoeia. In the matter of 
Chemistry, it seems to have been deemed 
necessary to advance somewhat further than 
in the other subjects of examination, but not fur¬ 
ther than is desirable now that men may if so 
minded, stop short after this examination. We 
incline to the hope that the slight advance in chemi¬ 
cal knowledge required at this stage may tempt men 
onward to further study, and consequently the higher 
examination, which, by the way, seems under the new 
system somewhat curtailed. 
Taking the whole alterations, we think the framers 
of these regulations were impressed with the necessity 
of making the examinations more practical than they 
have hitherto been; and we are particularly led to 
this conclusion by the proposition to insist on the 
attainment of full age before coming up as candidates 
for the Minor examination, the attainment in fact of 
man’s estate before assuming man’s rights as a 
citizen. This we suppose must be a matter of B}-e- 
law, and when to it is added the certificate of having 
passed three years in the practice of dispensing, a 
great safeguard for the public will have been se¬ 
cured. It is ordained that the new regulations shall 
not come into operation until October, 1874. Six 
years will then have elapsed since the passing of 
the Pharmacy Act of 1868 ; and while, on the one 
hand no apprentice or student who has commenced 
