January 4, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
531 
visitor, iliat “ inasmuch as the increase of phar¬ 
maceutical skill is what will most conduce to the 
service ol the public,” a profounder acquaintance 
with practical chemistry should he required not only 
for the Major but also for the Minor examinations. 
The wholesome and very reasonable provisions that 
candidates must have attained the age of twenty- 
one, and have been, as suggested by Mr. Barnard 
Proctor, practically engaged in pharmacy for three 
years before they can present themselves for the 
Minor examination, obviously lead in the same 
direction. To those who think this is demanding 
too much before admitting a person to be placed 
on the Register, and giving him the right to con¬ 
duct business as a chemist and druggist on his own 
account, we would remark that it is a requirement 
by no means singular; for in a Pharmacy Act for 
New York, passed at the commencement of the year, 
it was provided that even “ practising assistants ” 
should be over eighteen years of age, and have had 
two years’ experience, while in the Philadelphia 
Act, passed a little later, it was provided that no 
person who has not been apprenticed two years and 
attended one full course of lectures on chemistry, 
materia medica and pharmacy, is to dispense pre¬ 
scriptions—except as an aid under the immediate 
supervision of his employer or of a qualified assis¬ 
tant,—and that no proprietor is to leave his store 
in charge of any but a qualified assistant. This 
change will doubtless be distasteful to some of our 
“young friends” who have not contemplated the 
possibility that the standard of the examinations 
will be raised ; but we hope and believe that as they 
grow older they will grow wiser upon this as well as 
other points, and will then confess that it has re¬ 
sulted in their permanent good. 
Another matter of interest with respect to examina¬ 
tions has been the alteration in the regulations 
under which the Bell Memorial Scholarships are 
to be competed for after the award in 1873. With 
a view to make these scholarships an assistance 
to young men desirous of improving themselves 
in knowledge of their business rather than a reward 
for superior attainments, the Senior Scholarship is 
to be abolished, and both scholarships are to be equal 
They are to be open only to “ registered students or 
apprentices ” who have been engaged for not less 
than three years in the pharmacy of a registered 
pharmaceutical chemist or chemist and druggist. 
The examination fees have also furnished subject 
matter for discussion. On the one hand Messrs. 
Vizer and Carteighe have discussed the influence 
they exercise upon the numbers of persons passing 
on to the Major examination, and of those who 
ally themselves with the Pharmaceutical Society; 
while, on the other hand, Mr. Frazer and 
others have urged that the present examination 
fees are too high, and are therefore causing 
many young men to leave the trade. Certainly, the 
prospect of all the efforts on behalf of pharmaceutical 
education culminating in master pharmacists having 
to take down their own shutters is sufficiently 
terrible! 
But we entertain no apprehension of such a result 
being caused by the Board of Examiners increas¬ 
ing its requirements; and as regards those who aban¬ 
don the business rather than face the examinations 
and pay the fees connected with them, it is reason¬ 
able to believe that in the main the effect thus pro¬ 
duced will be for the general benefit eventually, 
although for a while there may be among the num¬ 
ber some few good men. 
The attractions of other forms of business will 
hardly be resisted by the followers of pharmacy, 
unless the conditions under which it is practised 
are rendered much better than they have been and 
kept abreast of improvement in other pursuits. 
There is, perhaps, no way in which the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society can more effectual^ aid in this di¬ 
rection than by making the “ compulsory ” need for 
thorough education more generally appreciated and 
felt. With those who comprehend the problem of 
Pharmaceutical progress, it is natural to find that 
this principle is acted upon in preparing their sons- 
for the business, as in Mr. Frazer’s case, and that 
he should thus in practice offer the most cogent 
argument against the policy he has advocated at 
the Council table and in the pages of this Journal. 
It has also been asked, with some force, on the 
part of assistants, whether it is expected that they 
will incur the expense of qualifying themselves 
and undergoing examination, unless there be some¬ 
thing more tangible to look forward to in the way of 
remuneration than the mere raising of then’ status ? 
To this question we believe the best answer will be 
a satisfactory reply to another one put by ourselves 
last March—“ Shall not every dispenser of a pre¬ 
scription, and every person entrusted with the sale 
of poisons used as medicinal agents, whether mas¬ 
ter or servant, be bound to pass some examination 
before being allowed to do either of these acts?” 
As bearing on this point we may refer to the ques¬ 
tion raised as to whether the practice of pharmacy 
is a trade or a profession, for the purpose of repeating 
Mr. Brady's remark that until the pharmacist— 
like the lawyer or the physician—spends money and 
time upon his technical education as so much capital 
invested in business he will not have established 
his title to professional status or remuneration. 
Place aux tlamee ! If an additional spur be re¬ 
quired by the aspiring pharmacist of the sterner sex, 
it will be found in the necessity for straining every 
nerve to run a level race with these new competitors 
under the championship of Mr. Hampson, who are 
entering upon the practice of Pharmacy. 
In compliance with a request expressed in this 
Journal, the Council decided in January last that 
the library and reading-room should be opened on 
