930 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[May 24, 1873. 
getting apprentices, and very often difficulty in getting- 
assistants. These examinations have acted as a bugbear; 
and many who are qualified by these examinations are en¬ 
deavouring to enter the higher branches of the medical 
profession. If you give a young man in the country a 
distaste for the sale and dealing in of those things, which 
he must necessarily deal in to get a living, you are doing 
a great injury to that young man unless you secure to 
him a pharmacy pure and simple. He ought to have the 
sale of drugs entirely confided to his care ; and unless you 
do this, the time is coming quickly when a great many of 
the country chemists will have to close their shops. Ap¬ 
prentices will not offer, young men will not do the work 
that is necessary to be done in a great number of country 
businesses. I see there is another subject contemplated, 
and that is, the admission of females as members of the 
Society. Perhaps it woidd be better for me to reserve 
any remarks upon that until it is brought before the 
meeting. I do not intend to move that this Report be 
not adopted, because I am sure that resolution would not 
be carried; but I am quite sure there are things left out 
of this Report which ought to engage the very serious 
consideration of the ensuing Council. 
Mr. Mellin (Wimbledon) : I quite concur in several 
remarks which Mr. Pickering has made, and I have 
myself found the same difficulty in getting both apprentices 
and assistants, because young men will not now go into the 
trade on account of the difficulties they have to go through. 
I think it is a great inconvenience and great expense to 
young men coming up to town to pass the examinations. 
Another remark Mr. Pickering has made is, that he thinks 
druggists ought to keep entirely to their trade. I quite 
agree with that, but in some cases they cannot help it, 
because the trade is very mixed. My business is entirely 
a dispensing business, and I do not do anything else ; but 
in Hull I know they do a large trade in oil cake, and 
other things. There are a great many complaints in the 
country of druggists dealing in things that they ought not. 
People say, why should we not sell citrate of magnesia? 
you sell tea, coffee, paints, pickles, and so on. I did so 
when I was an assistant, and likewise sold blacking, and 
such things. I should be very glad indeed if we could 
keep the trade more select; but then we should have to 
reduce the number of chemists. In that way perhaps 
they might get an increase in prices. 
Mr. Richardson (Leicester) : I have very great plea¬ 
sure in supporting the Report ; and there is a suggestion 
which has often struck me, which I should like to see 
earned out as regards the publication of the Journal. I 
shall not enter into the elaborate question which has already 
occupied the time of the meeting, but on this question 
I feel very much. I think the country members want 
a little more than they at present get. It has often struck 
me that an abstract of the lectures might be published in 
the Joumal. When I was a student in this Institution, 
there was no greater treat than coming to listen to these 
lectures, and copying them out, and writing them when I 
got home. I should feel the same pleasure in reading 
those lectures now, and I conceive it would be a very 
great advantage to young men in the provinces. I quite 
thought when our Journal was published weekly, we 
should have it very much better conducted than what we 
have. We do not get a sufficient amount of leading 
articles ; I do not think the facts written about have 
been dealt with with sufficient vigour by the Editor of this 
Paper. When Jacob Bell edited the Journal, there was an 
immense amount of vigour. It appears to me as if they 
were ashamed of writing about the druggists, as we are 
generally called, and the articles that appear not only in the 
Lancet, but in the Globe, against the chemists ought to be 
repelled. As to one thing which Mr. Pickering mentioned, 
namely, the investment of the money both for the General 
and Benevolent Fund, I think he is quite wrong. I know 
the difficulty the Council have to contend with in the 
investment of money. In my private capacity I have 
several trusteeships, and I know there is no greater 
difficulty than to steer clear of the law in investing money. 
A gentleman who is here is going to make a speech, a great 
financial person, Mr. Giles, and he will give you a better 
idea of how to invest in railways or securities, and all 
these sorts of things than I can do. I question very much 
whether the Council would be justified in investing any 
money except upon Government securities. I think that 
they are quite right in maintaining the investments in 
Government securities. 
Mr. Reid (Aberdeen): I had no intention when I came 
to this meeting of saying one word; I am here pretty 
much by chance, but I sympathize almost entirely with 
what Mr. Pickering has said; and therefore I think it is 
right that I should offer a few remarks, as we seldom have 
the opportunity of being here, and I think the gentlemen 
who represent the country districts ought to take the op¬ 
portunity when they are here of letting their views. be 
known in. London. I do feel a considerable amount of 
misapprehension necessarily exists as regards the wants of 
the chemists and druggists in the country, especially in 
the very remote districts in Scotland from whence I come. 
It is not to be supposed that gentlemen who have been 
born, bred, and educated in London can know very pre¬ 
cisely the state of the case as regards a business there. I 
do not, however, intend to enter into a general discussion 
of the subjects which have been raised here, but to con¬ 
fine myself rather to one item that is in this balance sheet, 
namely, a grant to a provincial Association of £10. Now 
Sir, I admit most completely that the question of pro¬ 
vincial education is one which is surrounded by many 
difficulties. I quite agree that it is exceedingly difficult 
for the present Council, or any Council, to frame a code 
of regulations which would suit the very varied circum¬ 
stances of our trade throughout the country. But I do 
think that if there is one thing which ought to press more 
upon the attention of our Council than another, it is that 
question of provincial education. I am sure that the 
country members here will sympathize with me when I 
say that we find ourselves drifting into a course, and we 
do not see where we are to land. In the place where I 
come from, and dozens of other places, attempts have 
been made, and a good deal of money has been spent in 
efforts which have been to a certain extent successful. 
We did it all ourselves, but did not fail to apply to the 
Council here for a grant of money. We like money in 
Aberdeen as well as in most places, and possibly many of 
us cannot afford to spend our money. Understanding that 
educational grants were given from this Council, we made 
an application; we had spent a considerable amount pre¬ 
viously in erecting premises and buying apparatus, had 
engaged parties to lecture, and had got the whole thing in 
work, and what we wanted to have we put, it seems to 
me, in a simple sort of way. I come from a place which 
is a place of recognized importance, where gentlemen in 
the trade are known to be gentlemen, and who can be 
trusted with money. We applied for a grant or loan, I 
think, of £25. We made this application, and after a 
delay of several months (I do not know how it happens, 
but a delay of several months generally does happen be¬ 
fore we get an answer) we got a document which con¬ 
tained ever so many questions, and ever so many things 
to answer; and we were asked to take, in point of fact, 
simply a loan for three years of £10. That is what in 
point of fact it was. We were asked to take <£'10 in that 
way. That is all very well. I quite admit that this 
Society must be careful how they spend money,—theie 
can be no question about that. But is it a thing likely 
long to be tolerated by country members who are pro¬ 
viding the funds, that we should have hundreds and thou¬ 
sands spent in London by way of supplementing this edu¬ 
cational establishment, and that we should be starved 
literally all over the country ? There surely is a way of 
doing something to show that you are willing to assist 
country members in doing what you can to educate their 
young men. It is impossible that the thing can go on 
like that, The real fact of the matter is that I believe, 
