33 G 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 22, 1870, 
special technical school which would give instruction in 
sound elementary knowledge of chemistry, botany and 
materia medica. 
Mr. Abraham (Liverpool), in reply to a question, said 
that for the last twenty years the Liverpool Chemists’ 
Association had provided classes and lectures free to the 
apprentices, hut the number of pupils had been and still 
remained extremely small. But ho quite expected that 
the stringent changes already effected in the state of the 
law permitting the practice of pharmacy would compel 
a very much larger number to seek scientific instruction. 
I he means provided in Liverpool had been ample,—good 
instruction in the classes and free lectures of the best 
character, yet they had been poorly attended ; the ap¬ 
prentices and assistants to whom the opportunities had 
been offered either did not know their necessity, or they 
were unable or unwilling to take advantage of them. 
The lecturer on chemistry was Mr. Edward Davies, the 
secretary of the local committee of that Conference. He 
(Mr. Abraham) was anxious that the rudiments of che¬ 
mistry should bo taught in secondary schools for boys, 
so that they might have the groundwork of the science 
before commencing their special technical training. That 
such a system was practicable had been convincingly 
shown in a large and excellent school in Liverpool, 
where about eighty boys had at once passed the Govern¬ 
ment examination in chemistry. 
Mr. H. Matthews, F.C.S. (London), said that as a 
former pupil of the City of London School, ho could not 
refi ain. from naming its early and earnest labours in 
promoting science-teaching. A sufficient number of 
years had now elapsed to judge of the fruit of such a 
system, and they found accordingly that amongst the 
old pupils of the City of London School the following 
well-known chemists could be ranked, viz., Messrs! 
Perkin, Bloxam, Spiller,. Heaton, Divers, etc., whilst 
other departments of science included amongst their 
active workers the former students of the same school. 
It as unquestionable that the future tastes and pursuits 
of the man depended upon the bent given to them 
during boyhood. 
Mr. E. Bremriboe, Secretary and Registrar of the 
Pharmaceutical Society, said that most of the failures of 
students to pass the Minor Examination arose from de¬ 
ficient elementary education. He thought that masters 
should require every youth to pass the Preliminary Ex¬ 
amination before he commenced his apprenticeship. 
Mr. Mack at (Edinburgh) cited his own apprentice¬ 
ship to show the extreme difficulty that formerly existed 
tor study. When he was an apprentice he used to steal 
fiom his meal times one hour for the study of pharmacy 
and another for materia medica. The system of ap¬ 
prenticeship in Scotland differed from that of England. 
Ihe apprentice did not reside in the house, and his 
parents paid no premium; but, on the other hand, the 
employ ei paid a small salary, which might be progres¬ 
sive or not. About twenty years since, the chemists of 
Edinburgh mutually agreed that thev would make it a 
condition of every apprentice’s indenture that his friends 
should pay the fees for his attendance upon classes in 
chemistry, and materia medica, the master covenantin' 1- 
at the same time to allow sufficient time. He and some 
othev chemists in Edinburgh still adhered to this system. 
In Scotland mow chemistry was being taught in most 
schools. It is also extended to ladies’ schools. Physio- 
logy and chemistry were taught in the High School of 
Edinburgh, and a regular lecturer was appointed. There 
was, therefore, no excuse for lads going into the esta¬ 
blishment of a chemist and druggist without passing the 
Preliminary Examination. The Pharmacy Act gave the 
pharmacists much power, and they ought not to take an 
apprentice without he could produce evidence that he 
had passed the Preliminary Examination of the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society—an examination not over-severe or 
over-strict. 
Mr. H. C. Baildon (Edinburgh) confirmed the state¬ 
ments of the previous speaker, and concurred in his 
opinions. 
Mr. A. T. Horton (Liverpool) referred to the limited 
attendance on the classes of the Liverpool Chemists r 
Association as described by Mr. Abraham, and suggested 
that it might partly bo accounted for by the fact that 
there were in the town many other classes for instruction 
in chemistry. 
Mr. H. B. Brady (Newcastle-on-Tyne) wished to 
make a few remarks on preliminary education. Firstly, 
with reference to botany. It had been his intention, till 
quite a recent period, to have made a communication to 
that meeeting on the means of teaching botany, supple¬ 
mentary in some measure to Mr. Schacht’s paper of last 
year. . Mr. Matthews had spoken of the importance of 
the bias given to the mind at an early age. This was 
eminently true of botany; and whilst they knew that at 
Professor Henslow’s village schools, where the scientific- 
teaching absorbed but an hour or two per week, girls of 
from ten to thirteen years of age acquired an excellent 
knowledge of English botany, it was monstrous to sup¬ 
pose that it presented any difficulties for pharmaceu¬ 
tical students. But method of teaching was a most im¬ 
portant point. Let botany bo regarded in the first 
place as a subject for observation rather than one of 
mere book definitions. The Sunday afternoon walk 
would yield material for study; but if not, the student 
had a fair claim on his master for the medium of time 
necessary for the purpose, and he could not believe it 
would ever be refused. Professor Oliver’s ‘ Elementary 
Lessons in Botany ’ w’ould stand in the place of a teach¬ 
er. As to the general question, and the modes of faci¬ 
litating provincial education, ho had last year given 
some account of what had been done at Newcastle, viz. 
the establishment of a chair of practical pharmacy in the 
University of Durham (the medical faculty of which has 
its head-quarters in Newcastle), and the institution of a 
distinct programme for students in pharmacy. Many 
present at that meeting had thrown doubt and distrust 
on the association of pharmaceutical with medical stu¬ 
dents, and it was gratifying to be able to report on the 
authority of Mr. Freire-Marreco, the reader in chemis- 
try, that so far as could be observed the arrangement 
worked in every way satisfactorily. He maintained that 
if the experiment should go on as satisfactorily as it had 
begun, it. would, in their case at least, be a distinct waste 
of teaching power to separate the two classes of stu¬ 
dents. It was interesting to find that an arrangement 
almost exactly identical, even to the amount of fees de¬ 
manded, was already in vogue at Chicago. "Whilst they 
were calling upon medical men to refer to them in mat¬ 
ters touching chemistry, materia medica and the like, he- 
(Mr. Brady) thought it absurd to fix a lower standard of 
education and shorter courses of lectures for pharmaceu¬ 
tical students than medical students themselves enjoyed. 
.Mr. Sutton (Norwich) lamented the want of opportu¬ 
nities afforded for instruction in some districts. Nor- 
wic-h, for. instance, did not yet possess the means of 
scientific instruction which Liverpool had. The remedy 
for the difficulty mentioned by Mr. Alpass was in the 
hands of the pharmacists themselves. He would not 
take an apprentice under sixteen years of age, and un¬ 
less the youth was well educated. * 
Mr. Ekin (Bath) said he was surprised that no 
mention had been made of the Government scheme of 
education, which, he thought, would go far to get us out 
of our difficulties. The second-grade schools which 
were shortly to be established all over the kingdom 
would give just the education that was required. The 
scheme was to give a boy a thorough knowledge of his 
own language, to enable him to read Latin easily, and to 
give him a sound elementary knowledge of chemistry, 
botany and physics. If only the Pharmaceutical So¬ 
ciety would require in addition to the subjects now in¬ 
sisted upon at the Preliminary Examination a thorough 
elementary knowledge of chemistry, botany and physics,. 
