692 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[March 1, 1873. 
gist members, 7 54 ; Associates, 941 ; giving a total 
of 3722, or upwards of 29 per cent, of the entire 
number on the Register, or an increase of nine per 
cent, in four years. 
But, as might be expected, the largest relative 
proportions of persons connected with the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society, is to be found in the Register of 
Pharmaceutical Chemists. Thus in 1869 there were 
2443 Pharmaceutical Chemists on the Register, of 
whom 2022 were members and 170 Associates of the 
Society: total, 2192 or nearly 90 per cent. This 
year, of 2367 Pharmaceutical Chemists on the 
Register, 2027 are members of the Society, or nearly 
86 per cent. This apparent decrease is attributable 
to the putting in force of a bye-law which had been 
left in abeyance, as recently described in these 
columns, by which 163 names of persons who have 
passed the Major examination were erased from the 
Calendar. It is satisfactory to know that at least 
one half of these gentlemen have already applied 
for election as Members, a number quite sufficient to 
raise the per centage to as high a point as in 1869. 
Lastly, of Registered Students or Apprentices of 
the Society, there were in 1859, 416: in 1868, 567; 
in 1872, 526 ; and this year there are 764. 
The following table represents the foregoing 
figures:— 
1859. 
1868-9. 
. 
1872. 
1873. 
Members :— 
Pharmaceutical Chemists 
2079 
2022 
2062 
2027 
Of whom were examined 
47 
600 
785 
790 
Chemists and Druggists . 
— 
669 
754 
Associates. 
31G 
413 
940 
941 
Total number of Registered 
Chemists and Druggists 
connected with the So¬ 
ciety 
lO 
CO 
-rH 
Cl 
3671 
3722 
Per centage of persons on 
the Register connected 
with the Society . . . 
20 
29 
Per centage of Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Chemists connected 
with the Society . . . 
Apprentices. 
416 
90 
567 
526 
86 
764 
PR. LYON PLAYFAIR ON PROFESSIONAL 
EDUCATION. 
One of our chief authorities on education, whether 
in its preliminary or professional aspects, is Dr. 
Lyon Playfair. IPe has had experience of the sub¬ 
ject both practically and theoretically—practically 
as an alumnus of Scotch and German Universities 
and as the holder of the chemical chair in his Edin¬ 
burgh alma mater ; theoretically, as one of the chief 
promoters of science as an element in school instruc¬ 
tion, and particularly of technology. As the represen¬ 
tative in Parliament of the combined constituencies 
of St. Andrew’s and Edinburgh Universities, he has 
commanded the attention of the House on eveiy oc¬ 
casion whenprimary andmiddle-class instruction has 
been the topic of debate; and now that Irish Uni- 
versity Reform has been announced as one of the 
main features of the session, he may be expected to 
take a prominent part in its discussion. 
In an address delivered the other day before the 
St. Andrew’s Medical Graduates’ Association he 
lias given some anticipation of the line he means to 
adopt in university education in general, and pro¬ 
fessional education in particular. The great diffi¬ 
culty, he maintains, in the culture of professional 
men is to secure an efficient preliminary course, 
which shall complete itself before the commence¬ 
ment of strictly professional studies. The day is 
done when Latin, Greek, and Mathematics can pre¬ 
tend to engross all the student’s tune up to his 
twentieth year. These subjects will never lose their 
value as parts of a liberal education; but it is idle 
to claim for them the exclusive or even the principal 
place in the future professional man’s curriculum. 
Why, he asks, cannot the professional aspirant gain 
from the modern languages, from elementary phy¬ 
sics and chemistry, and from natural history all the 
training that the classics and geometry have hitherto 
been held to give ? Dante, Corneille, Goethe, to say 
nothing of our own Shakspeare and Milton, form 
as refining agents in mental culture as Homer or 
Horace ; while observation and induction—the best 
of all logical disciplines—can be better acquired 
from the study of physics and natural history than 
from algebra or the formal syllogism. Such being 
so, why should not the University make these newer 
and not less valuable subjects qualify for the B.A. 
degree; while still retaining the older ones for stu¬ 
dents who care as possibly the future barrister and 
divine may care, to take them up for the same 
degree ? In this way the student whose destination 
is medicine may, in his preliminary course, be pur¬ 
suing a discipline which, while accelerating his sub¬ 
sequent progress in his professional studies, entitles 
him to the University’s imprimatur as a graduate 
in arts ; in other words, to the B.A. degree. 
This suggestion will, doubtless, engage much atten¬ 
tion from University Reformers, as opening up the 
sphere of academic education in general and placing 
our seats of learning more en rapport with the spirit 
of the age. The B.A. degree—the stamp of University 
recognition—will be thrown open by Dr. Lyon 
Playfair’s policy to the future pharmacist, agricul¬ 
tural chemist, or engineer; and the Universities 
themselves, by thus widening their curriculum, will 
not put themselves in competition with institutes 
which are now usurping so much of the education of 
the national youth. His plan, indeed, is essentially 
a conservative one, so far as the influence of the 
Universities is concerned; and its principle is 
already being admitted in practice by the usage of 
even Oxford and Cambridge. These seats of learn¬ 
ing are now giving courses of chemistry and physics 
which, while counting for much in the arts cur¬ 
riculum, at the same time enable the future medical 
student to prosecute his professional studies from a 
coign of vantage denied to him before; and at 
Edinburgh and Glasgow, the dav is not far distant 
when the B.A. degree will be open to candidates 
whose “ little Latin and less Greek ” will be con¬ 
doned in consideration of their proved j)roflciency in 
chemistry, physics, and natural history. 
The next Evening Meeting of the Pharmaceutical 
Society will be held on Wednesday next, March 5th. 
The following papers are announced to be read :— 
“Legal Pharmaceutical Preparations,” by Charles 
Symes, Pli.D.; “ On the Proposed Appendix to the 
British Pharmacopoeia,” by Professor Redwood ; 
“ Tincture of Quinine,” by Mr. T. IT. Hustwick , 
“ Emulsions,” by Mr. Herbert G. Rogerson. 
