988 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[June r, 1873. 
*** No notice can be taJcen of anonymous communica¬ 
tions. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenti¬ 
cated by the name and address of the writer; not necessarily 
for 'publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. 
The Minor Examination Bye-lam. 
Sir,—I had hoped that the bye-law controversy would 
have expired with the Special General Meeting. Any 
desire on my part to re-open the discussion terminated 
when the meeting gave its sanction to the bye-law. I 
must, however, claim from you—and I feel that I am fully 
entitled to what I ask—another opportunity of saying a 
few more words on this most vexed question, since you 
have done me the honour of applying your editorial and 
“ quasi” legal calipers to my reasoning and opinions in 
respect to the particular bye-law in question. 
It is not needful—although much may be said on this 
phase of the subject—to enter fully into the general ques¬ 
tion of the advisability of making a compulsory and fixed 
term of practical experience, and a fixed interval of three 
years, before candidates are allowed to submit themselves 
to the ordeal of examination. 
The question strictly is, Is the new interpretation of the 
statutes a legal or illegal interpretation ? 
The absolute and obligatory duties of the examiners to 
examine all persons who present themselves for examina¬ 
tion, are clearly expressed in the following clause, to which 
I have so often reverted (6th section of the Pharmacy Act 
of 1868) :—The “ Examiners for the purposes of this Act” 
“ are hereby empowered and required to examine all such 
persons as shall tender themselves for examination under 
the provisions of this Act.” 
There are no discretionary or conditional powers here 
enunciated. The Society is bound in this section by the 
clearest legal phrase; and I still maintain that a fixing of 
conditions antecedent to the examination is beyond the 
legal scope of any part of this or any other section of the 
statutes. 
The examiners have only to do with the practical and 
technical knowledge to be displayed and educed to their 
satisfaction by means of examination. This latter word 
being used in the ordinary sense. 
The further provision of the 6th clause has not, as you 
suppose, escaped my attention. Tbe words by which you 
contend the antecedent conditions of three years’ services, 
or three years’ practical experience, as well as a three years’ 
interval between the Preliminary and Minor examinations, 
may be enforced—for all the three conditions are included 
in the bye-law—are as follows : “ The examination afore¬ 
said shall be such as is provided under the Pharmacy Act 
(1852) for the purposes of a qualification to be registered as 
assistant under that Act, or as the same may be varied from 
time to time by any bye-law to be made in accordance with 
the Pharmacy Act as amended by this Act” (1868). 
By this provision the Society is empowered to vary the 
examination by the addition of “ such other subjects as may 
be determined by any bye-law.” These latter words are 
quoted from the 8th clause of the Act of 1852, and are re¬ 
ferred to in that portion of the Act of 1868 (6th clause) to 
which you direct my particular attention. 
Upon this very definite provision, by which new subjects 
may be introduced, you build up, without license, some¬ 
thing clea/rly outside the provisions of the statute. 
The only power granted by this provision is that in re¬ 
ference to new subjects upon which candidates may be 
examined, and there is not the remotest reference to any 
conditions to be exacted from candidates, antecedent to the 
examination. This opinion is not simply my own but it is 
the carefully considered opinion of more than one profes¬ 
sional gentleman of high standing in the law. 
The next important point about whi h you suppose I 
labour under a misconception, and to which I must again 
refer, is the legal difference and distinction between the 
bye-law as first proposed, and objected to by Mr. Flux 
(section x., clause 16), and the one sanctioned by Mr. Flux 
and accepted by the Special General Meeting. 
The only difference I am a,s yet able to discover between 
the two formulae is, that the one accepted being more 
onerous, exacting, and more difficult to conform to, is in 
consequence more illegal than the one signalized as con¬ 
trary to “the intention of the Act,” on the following plea, 
“that the examinations should be freely open to all the 
world.” 
The result of this new bye-law will be that the examina¬ 
tions will no longer “ be freely open to all the world.” It 
will no longer be free to a person, however competent he 
may be, if by the quickness of his understanding and the 
severity of has application, he has obtained his knowledge 
in less time than three years, and not according to the 
special mode indicated in the bye-law. 
And another consequence operating as a fetter, rather 
than something free, will be, that however anxious a person 
may be to pass his Minor or Major examinations within a 
less interval than that of three years after passing the 
Preliminary examination, and however important it may 
be to him to pass either the one or the other examination 
within a less interval, he will be compelled to wait until 
the three years have terminated and until he is twenty-one 
years of age. 
There is nothing free in these conditions, and notwith¬ 
standing my sincere desire to discover proof that I am an 
innocent victim of misconceived opinions, and that I ought 
to be in accord with the majority of my esteemed colleagues 
in this matter, I am reluctantly obliged still to adhere to 
my previously-expressed opinions. 
I am, dear Sir, 
Yours faithfully, 
Robt. Hampson. 
205, St. John Street Road, E.C., 
June 2>rd, 1873. 
Mr. J. Askew. —Our remarks, to which you refer, were 
entirely impersonal, and were written in reply to the inquiry 
of a correspondent. We cannot, therefore, recognize the 
existence of any reason for reclamation on personal grounds. 
“Burry Port.” —Cooke’s ‘Manual of Structural Botany’ 
(Hardwick) or Oliver’s ‘ Lessons in Elementary Botany ’ 
(Macmillan). 
Payment of Assistants. —We have received a letter from 
“An Underpaid Assistant” upon the above subject, in 
which he speaks of the payment of masons and carpenters 
as contrasting favourably with that of chemists and drug¬ 
gists’ assistants. In consideration of the increasing strin¬ 
gency of the examinations, he thinks there ought to be a 
general advance in the rate at which assistants are re¬ 
munerated, and a decrease in the number of business hours. 
He believes that “strikes are not the first move, but the 
result of neglected appeals,” and that chemists’ assistants 
will form no exception to the rule. 
Mr. G. H. Wright desires it to be known that it was at 
his request we stated that he was the rejected candidate 
for Council and not Mr. W. Y. Wright. As regards his 
other complaint, we imagined that it was sufficiently well 
known who Mr. G. H. Wright is, and it would not have 
been possible to publish his letter elsewhere than in our 
advertisement columns. 
“ Vive, Vale.” —(1.) Inquire of the Secretary of the 
Apothecaries’ Company. (2.) Yes. 
M. Rennaudl (Torrington).—We are not aware of the 
existence of any laws regulating the practice of pharmacy 
in the countries mentioned. 
Erratum. —In p. 968, col. ii. line 21, for “colorific rays ” 
read “calorific rays.” 
Communications, Letters, etc., have been received from 
Messrs. J. R. Jackson, Fairlie, Stoakes, C. S. Davies, Mac- 
dowall, “One of the Bitten,” “Roy,” W. A. M., B. W. L. 
The following journals have been received:—The ‘ British 
Medical Journal,’ May 31; the ‘Medical Times and 
Gazette,’ May 31; the ‘Lancet,’ May 31; the ‘London 
Medical Record,’ May 28; ‘ Medical Press and Circular,’ 
May 30 ; ‘ Nature,’ May 31; ‘ Chemical News,’ May 31; 
‘ Gardener’s Chronicle,’ May 31; the ‘ Grocer,’ May 31; 
‘ Journal of the Society of Arts,’ May 31 ; ‘American 
Chemist’ for May; ‘Doctor’ for June; ‘Pharmacist,’ 
January to April; ‘British Journal of Dental Science’ for 
June; ‘ L’Union Pharmaceutique’ for May; ‘Florist and 
Pomologist ’ for June ; ‘ Archiv der Pharmacie ’ for April; 
‘ Zeitschrift des allg. osterr. Apotheker-Vereines ’ for May 
and June. 
