October 22, 1870.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
337 
—and "by an elementary he by no means meant a 
superficial knowledge,—they would get just the class 
of pharmaceutical students they wanted. He did not 
behove in the science-teachers holding certificates Rom 
the Science and Art Department, who were for tho 
most pai't men of deficient education, and who would 
entirely fail to command the respect of boys of the class 
from which pharmacists were taken; and he need 
hardly say that if boys had no respect for their teachers, 
they would get but little benefit from their teaching. 
If needs be, and until these second-grade schools, as 
they were called, were fairly established, technical 
schools, as recommended by his friend Mr. Benger, 
would fill up the void ; but he thought they need not be 
under much concern about ways and means; only let 
the Pharmaceutical Society create the demand by their 
requirements at the Preliminary Examination, and the 
supply would quickly arrange itself. 
Mr. Savage (Brighton) suggested that in publishing 
the names of those who passed the Minor Examination, 
the names of the institutions where their education had 
been obtained might be added. 
Mr. Payne (Wallingford) wished to call the attention 
of the meeting to the position of pupils in small towns, 
where there were insufficient numbers to employ combi¬ 
nation. 
Mr. R. Sumner (Liverpool) said that it had always 
Teen an opprobrium to their local Chemists’ Association, 
that it received so little support from Associates. He 
felt strongly upon the extensive and growing refusal of 
the larger establishments to receive apprentices,—a re¬ 
fusal which some of them even blazoned abroad, adopt¬ 
ing as a motto, “No apprentices taken, and no arsenic 
kept on tho premises.” He held that this was an evil 
which required correction. 
Mr. Dymond (Birmingham) said that they need not be 
too anxious about young men availing themselves of the 
means of instruction. Tho legal position would now 
eompel them to do this. For the subjects required by the 
Preliminary Examination, Government Science Classes 
might be looked to as valuable auxiliaries, and they saw 
how extensively such subjects as chemistry were being 
introduced into middle-class schools. Doubtless, much 
remained to be done, for whilst there were about 8€00 
•chemists and druggists in Great Britain, he only found 
24-5 students recorded in the returns on provincial edu¬ 
cation as attending classes in-chemistry. He thought 
that they should appeal to the Government to aid such 
science-teaching. 
Mr. Martindale (London) feared that the distribution 
ef aid Rom the Pharmaceutical Society would produce 
local jealousies, and that the smaller towns would be 
neglected. He agreed with Mr. Ekin that the elements 
of chemistry and botany should be introduced into the 
Preliminary Examination. The School of Pharmacy at 
Bloomsbury Square had now spread over the country a 
large number of well-trained pharmacists, to whom we 
might look as competent teachers of Materia Medica. 
Mr. Atherton (Nottingham) gave the experience of 
the Local Chemists’ Association to which he belonged, 
and said that all the assistants and apprentices of the 
town had joined it. In the organization of lectures, it 
was most desirable that they should be delivered by 
those who knew the exact requirements of the students 
ef pharmacy, since a want of this knowledge on the 
part of medical or other lecturers had sometimes defeated 
the object of the course. 
Mr. M. Murphy (Liverpool) continued the discussion. 
The President agreed with Mr. Alpass as to the im¬ 
portance of primary education, and regretted that the 
education of the present day was getting too superficial, 
the simple fact being that pupils neglected to learn how 
to spell. In the Crimean war many dispensers were 
thrown out because of their inability to spell even one- 
syllable words. Few persons who had not given special 
attention to this subject would credit the extent of the 
evil. Ho had examined a class of five boys, supposed to 
be prepared for the Preliminary Examination, and, upon 
dictating a sentence of words of one syllable, none of the 
boys made less than three mistakes in the spelling. It 
had long been a rule with him to give time for instruc¬ 
tion to his assistants and apprentices. He wished to take 
that opportunity of commending to tho notice of all their 
young men the admirable little work by Professor Oli¬ 
ver, entitled ‘ Lessons in Elementary Botany.’ Tho use 
of this text-book would afford a very delightful intro¬ 
duction to the science. 
Mr. R. Reynolds (Leeds) could not allow the discus¬ 
sion to end without alluding to the facts disclosed by tho 
printed return on provincial education, of which the 
proof-sheets were before tho meeting. It appeared to 
him a hopeful circumstance that, in several towns, there 
was already provision for teaching some of the subjects 
required in the technical training of pharmacists. It 
was to the aid and extension of these existing means that 
they should look. He must specially allude to the expe¬ 
riment which had been made by the Univorsity of Dur¬ 
ham, in connection with the College of Medicine at Ncw- 
castle-on-Tyne, where sixteen students had paid a fee of 
six guineas each for perpetual tickets to a full curriculum 
of pharmaceutical education. In the discussion of this 
subject last year, several members, including himself, 
had expressed doubts whether the affiliation of schools 
of pharmacy with those of medicine would be to the inter¬ 
est of the former. It was now placed on record by their 
friends in Newcastle, as the result of a year’s trial, that 
no inconvenience had been found, and that they were 
pefectly satisfied with tho arrangement. If this con¬ 
tinued to be the case in the future, it would much sim¬ 
plify their task, since there were eight or nine other 
towns having schools of medicine, to which the system 
could be extended. He (Mr. Reynolds) hoped that they 
would not overlook the necessity for thoroughness in any 
system to which they gave their sanction. Now that a 
certain standard of professional training was required by 
law, students must be prepared to be thorough; and those 
providing the classes must not let their duties to be per¬ 
formed a dilettante spirit. It must be a serious part of tha 
work of the day, and not merely depend on spare time. 
The Conference adjourned at 12.30 p.m. 
anir fate IramMnjp. 
WoRSHir Street Police Court, October VU-h. 
BEFORE MR. NEWTON. 
Miss Alice Maud Kemp was charged with having at¬ 
tempted to commit suicide by taking laudanum. A 
police-constable said, that on Saturday night, having 
been called to a house in Stoke Newington and told that 
a young lady had taken poison, he went upstairs and 
found the prisoner in a state of semi-insensibility. He 
was informed that she had taken something from a 
bottle, and a small phial was shown him which smelt of 
laudanum. A medical man attended, and she gradually 
recovered. She told witness that she had procured the 
laudanum from Mr. Cooper, of Amherst Road, and had 
bought an ounce and a half. 
A solicitor here said he appeared on behalf of Mr. 
Cooper. 
Mr. Newton said that no doubt Mr. Cooper would be 
called on to answer what had been stated against him, 
but at present he was not before the Court. He had 
better attend on a future day. 
The prisoner was remanded for a week.— Standard. 
