240 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [September 17 , 1870 . 
much, diminished now that the Legislature requires a certifi¬ 
cate of competency from all who would enter the profession of 
pharmacy. For may it not be reasonably inferred that a man 
who is considered fit to undertake the greater responsibility 
of dispensing may be entrusted with the lesser office of dis¬ 
tinguishing between one drug and another, or of storing them 
safely ? 
But here, as experience everywhere else abundantly shows, 
our action must be guided, not by the standard of a logical 
theory only, but also by the necessities of the case. 
The public, through the Legislature, has given us a corpo¬ 
rate existence, and has endowed us with a monopoly not for 
our own aggrandizement, nor that we may hold a semipro¬ 
fessional status ; these may be results, but the public safety 
was the reason, and the Legislature will jealously watch that 
we use our best efforts to attain that end. 
Now the public safety is as much a matter of solicitude to 
us as to the Legislature, but there exists a difference of opinion 
as to whether that is best assured by the imposition of minute 
regulations added to proved competency, or whether after 
having provided competent men, all details are not better left 
to their individual discretion. The public generally believes 
in poison bills and regulations, pharmacists, as a rule, do not; 
they think that a qualified man is not only worthy of, and 
entitled to confidence, but that his competence is the best 
safeguard for the public against the risk of accidental poison¬ 
ing. Unfortunately, even the highest ability united to long 
experience is not an absolute guarantee against accident or 
mistake, and instances have occurred within the recollection 
of us all where, through some unaccountable mischance, cau¬ 
tion and ability, successfully applied for many years, have sud¬ 
denly failed, and fatal accidents have happened, which some 
simple mechanical contrivance or local arrangement might 
probably have rendered almost impossible. 
It is this fatal liability that forms the real argument in 
favour of a code of compulsory regulations, and the argument 
receives additional weight when it is remembered that there 
are few pharmacists who are not assisted by young men whose 
education is incomplete and in various stages of progress. 
In reply it may be said, if in the case of a medical man 
who is not better acquainted with drugs and their prepara¬ 
tions than a pharmacist, and is assisted in the same way by 
younger men and students, no interference is considered ne¬ 
cessary, why should it be required from him P But it must 
be borne in mind that medicine is an old profession, and has 
long held the confidence of the public, while pharmacy, as a 
recognized profession, dates from yesterday. Moreover, we 
are in a transition state, and cannot use the educational argu¬ 
ment so forcibly as we shall be able to do in a few years’ time, 
wben the standard of qualification will be more equal. 
For these reasons, among others, I may perhaps be allowed 
to say that it is desirable that for our own and for the public 
safety, some means should be devised to prevent, if possible, 
these accidents which happen in our unguarded moments, rare 
in their occurrence, but which without some physical bar will 
happen in spite of the extremest caution, and which are so 
lamentable in their character and effects that they warrant 
us in adopting every means in our power to prevent them. 
The area of the proposed regulations then is limited to ac¬ 
cidents of this kind, and it is further limited by the fact that 
the guarantee required is already given by a large proportion 
of chemists. 
Were poison regulations adopted, they would do no more 
than make universal a practice which is now general. Would 
this be worth doing ? I am inclined to think it would be. 
Would it be worth doing by compulsory legislation ? Cer¬ 
tainly not. The best men in the Society, the men who are 
most competent and most careful, the men who do most to 
ensure the public safety and preserve their own reputation, 
would deprecate, anything like police interference as being 
personally offensive and destructive of anything approaching 
to a high-toned feeling of responsibility. 
In lieu of anything like compulsory regulations, I would 
suggest, and commend the idea to the consideration of my 
fellow-pharmacists, that a code of reasonable rules should be 
drawn up after ample consideration and issued by the Coun¬ 
cil, with the sanction of a general meeting, with an urgent 
recommendation for their adoption . Few in number, simple 
and inexpensive in character, and interfering as little as pos¬ 
sible with generally existing arrangements, they might be 
made thoroughly efficacious, and be a real safeguard. Issued 
by the present Council, they would be free from the objection 
raised last July, that they could be framed in the interests of 
the London members only; and the London members could 
not refuse to adopt regulations not different from or more 
stringent than those recommended by the last Council, in 
which they were represented by a majority, while country 
members would stultify themselves by objecting to rules 
framed by a Council pre-eminently provincial. 
Since the somewhat stormy discussion in July, the subject 
has been in abeyance, and it was a question with me before 
writing this letter whether it were judicious to reopen it, but 
as indications are not wanting that the Legislature still looks 
to us for a solution of the difficulty, I have ventured, I trust 
without unreasonable bias, to suggest a course which, if pur¬ 
sued, would, I think, meet the views of all parties and lead 
to a satisfactory result. By its adoption the public would 
obtain the additional guarantee against pure accidents for 
which it asks, and the pharmacist would not be subjected to 
intrusive interference from without. 
United action alone can procure its success, or that of any 
course which shall be alike satisfactory to the Legislature and 
honourable to ourselves. 
“Via Media Salus.” 
Pharmaceutical Titles. 
Sir,—In glancing over the correspondence inserted in the 
Journal these last few weeks, I am rather struck with the 
desire of one or two parties to parade their intellectual status 
before the eyes of their confreres . It is a remarkable fact 
that the more sound doctrine a man has instilled into his 
mind, the more he is persuaded by that knowledge to humi¬ 
liate himself before men. A great man has said, “Wisdom 
is the standard of the soul, therefore get wisdom but our 
friends the “Aspirant to the Major” and “ T. C.” seem to 
think that the only reward for their great attainments is to be 
realized in the appendage of F.R.C.P.G.B. to their names. 
I, for one, would grant them what they ask without a mo¬ 
ment’s reflection; else (as with some people) they may be 
unable to bear the slight, and consequently withdraw their 
energies from the field of “ Major operations,” leaving us to 
exclaim, “They have fallen, and great has been the fall 
thereof.” Before closing my letter I would ask our friends 
to show a little brotherly love towards the persons of retiring 
demeanour who “go in” for the very modified curriculum, 
and who do not wish to place themselves side by side with 
“ Major fellows,” except as gentlemen; also, I would just 
note the great justice in granting a “ grand flaming diploma” 
of M.P.S. to persons solely on the ground of their having 
been in business prior to the late Pharmacy Act, whereas all 
those who have been at some expense (though not to be com¬ 
pared to the Major) to pass the Modified have not even a 
decent scrap of paper to show, but only the threadbare con¬ 
solation ol a yearly subscription. My advice to all whom it 
may concern is the motto of “ Aspirant ,”—agitate until the 
rights of every one connected with the business are fully ac¬ 
knowledged by the Council, whether Major, Minor, Modified, 
or non-modifiedj men. 
I remain, 
Barnsley, August 30th, 1870. Omega. 
Liebig's Malted "Extract Biscuits .—We have received from 
Messrs. Millard and Sons specimens of two varieties of these 
biscuits. 
It. Thomas (Merthyr).—The price of the French Codex is 
9 fr. 60 c., and the London agent is Mr. Bailliere, Regent 
Street. 
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, W. Envelopes to be endorsed for “ Fharm . 
Journ." 
The General Index to the first Fifteen volumes of this 
J ournal may be obtained of the Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury 
Square, price 2s. 8 d., post free ; bound in cloth, lettered, 3s. 8a., 
post free. 
The General Index to the Yds. XYI.-XYIIL, Old Series, 
and Yols. I.-IX., Second Series, may also be obtained of the- 
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