November 12, 1870.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
387 
fijje |)|aniMteuttc<tl Journal. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1870. 
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Journ.” 
ATT) TO PHARMACEUTICAL EDUCATION IN THE 
PROVINCES. 
We have now before us the complete Report* of 
the Committee appointed to inquire into the facilities 
existing for provincial education in pharmacy, and 
tliis subject, one of the greatest importance to the 
future progress of our calling, is treated in a way 
-which indicates that the future and the permanent 
have been steadily kept in view in their treatment 
of a difficulty which is transitional and only of the 
•present. 
The whole question hangs upon two points, the 
extent and kind of education which, for the public 
■good, it is the duty of the Board of Examiners to 
•demand from the students, and the remuneration 
which the pharmacists are enabled to reap as a conse¬ 
quence of their extended education. Another gene¬ 
ration will see the present difficulties pass away 
under the action of the natural law of supply and 
demand, and the wisdom of those who hold the helm 
of our affairs will be seen in their endeavour to per¬ 
mit events to pass on as nearly as possible in them 
natural course, giving their attention to the assist¬ 
ance of those who do the best they can for them¬ 
selves, and diminishing, wherever practicable, the 
sacrifices which individuals have to make for the 
general good. 
With the experience before us of so many small 
societies which have sprung up and died of apathy 
in the second or third year of their existence, it 
would be imprudence on the part of the central body 
to give freely without some guarantee that the 
money was invested and not thrown away. It would 
likewise be a waste of strength to keep schools in 
operation which are not capable of providing their 
•students with instruction in all the subjects required 
by the Board of Examiners. A student ought not 
to feel, on entering a school of pharmacy, that he 
would have to pass on to another for instruction in 
some subject in which the curriculum of the first 
school was deficient. 
But in looking over the tabulated returns, p. 330, 
how few of the local organizations give us any 
assurance of either permanency or efficiency! Of 
the 27 enumerated, only 14 give lectures at all, and 
* See page 389. 
only 3—Edinburgh, Newcastle and Sheffield—give 
the complete curriculum. In Liverpool 20 lectures 
are made to include botanv, materia medica and 
pharmacy. In Manchester practical chemistry and 
pharmacy are wanting. In Leeds materia medica, 
pharmacy and botany are wanting. In Leicester 
botany is treated in three lectures. To deny assist¬ 
ance to these latter towns, because their curriculum 
is not complete, would be blighting to our most hope¬ 
ful prospects. Of the sixteen organizations which 
give the date of their establishment, ten were esta¬ 
blished in 1868 or 1869, and are only now at that 
period which is usually most trying to the vitality of 
institutions depending for their existence upon 
the labour of a few individuals who reap neither 
riches nor honour in return. A little judiciously- 
bestowed assistance will probably convert several of 
these into permanent and efficient institutions. 
Many other modes of giving to the provinces have 
been suggested besides those recommended b} r the 
Committee; but any mode which did not involve a 
special inquiry into each case would save present 
trouble at the expense of the future. The arrange¬ 
ments now recommended are framed with the view 
to their naturally dying out; as the change in cir¬ 
cumstances, which ten years will bring about, enables 
the teachers in the provinces to have sufficiently 
large classes and sufficiently high fees to remunerate 
them for tlieir services. 
As yet we can scarcely be said to have any data 
upon wliich to form an estimate, either of the num¬ 
ber of students who will desire to avail themselves 
of official aid, or of the fees wliich may be expected 
from them. Allusion is made to the requirements ot 
medical students having resulted in the establish¬ 
ment of medical schools in eight of the principal 
towns of England; but it must be remembered that 
the medical is more numerous than the pharmaceu¬ 
tical body, and that the medical student cannot take 
up liis degrees without having attended lectures at 
recognized schools ; whereas our students, so long as 
they have the required knewloclgo, maj ii up 
where and how they can. The attendance of students 
upon lectures when not compulsory will be deter¬ 
mined by the fees charged and the value of the aid 
derived from them. The experience, at Edinburgh 
and Newcastle shows that, even at the present time, 
something like remunerative fees may be obtained 
where the quality of the curriculum is satisfactory. 
After making all due allowance for the difficulty 
of obtaining either large classes or large fees where 
the attendance is optional, we think the Com¬ 
mittee have underrated what may be reasonably 
expected from provincial institutions; they say 
“ the requirements of the Minor Examination may 
be met by a large section ot young men who v ill 
take situations in towns offering the means ot tech¬ 
nical education.” But there is no reason why pro¬ 
vincial education in pharmacy should not shortly 
