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THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [November 26, 1370. 
which they have conducted their businesses. The privi¬ 
lege of serving an apprenticeship to such men is great, 
and will be appreciated by all sensible young men. 
Business habits cannot be acquired in the lecture-room, 
but by the careful, observant study of the business 
transactions of honourable men. An important point 
seems to be, how much and what kind of personal scien¬ 
tific instruction the apprentice can reasonably expect 
to receive at the hands of his master. He must depend 
mainly on his own efforts ; he pays a premium to be 
introduced into a special field of observation, the amount 
of premium generally depending on the extent of that 
field, while the advantages ho derives depend on his own 
powers of observation and the use ho makes of them. 
It is essential to his success that he shall have acquired 
previously, or that he acquire at an early stage of his 
apprenticeship, some knowledge of the sciences bearing 
upon pharmacy. Should his master bo competent and 
willing to undertake the direction of his studies in these 
subjects, so much the more money value should be 
attached to the indenture, but this should bo clearly 
understood by the contracting parties. It must not be 
assumed that a body of men accustomed to conduct busi¬ 
nesses in which scientific knowledge has been often well- 
nigh superfluous shall, upon the passing of a Pharmacy 
Act, be able suddenly to transform themselves into pro¬ 
fessors of chemistry and botany. Should the medical 
profession confine itself more strictly to the practice of 
its legitimate duties, the rising generation of pharma¬ 
cists may, and doubtless will, have more general need of 
scientific knowledge ; and, having availed themselves of 
the facilities now afforded for its acquirement, will, in 
their turn, be competent to instruct their apprentices in 
these higher branches of pharmaceutical education, but 
he thought that in ordinary apprenticeships the masters’ 
responsibility does not extend so far. On the other 
hand, accurate scientific knowledge of no trifling nature 
is absolutely demanded by the Pharmacy Act, and the 
apprentice has a perfect right to inquire what op¬ 
portunities will be afforded him for meeting these 
requirements. In London and large provincial cen¬ 
tres, where courses of lectures are provided with a 
library and museum open for study, much difficulty 
need not be apprehended; but there still remains a 
large number of apprentice-taking businesses scattered 
throughout the smaller towns of the country where such 
opportunities do not exist; and in such situations a 
young man who had previously become possessed of a 
sound elementary education in science would have many 
advantages over his fellows located in large cities,— 
more leisure and more opportunities for following up 
some of his studies. It is probable that the improved 
school system about to be introduced by Government 
will afford such an education, otherwise it might be 
given in some such special technical school as he had 
suggested; failing these, it will always be desirable 
that the apprentice, on completing his term, shall obtain 
employment where the efforts of local association have 
provided the necessary means of scientific education. 
There is, he feared, in the present day much danger of 
regarding the passing of examinations as the main ob¬ 
ject of study, and an inclination to do just so much and 
no more than would ensure that end. It is this spirit 
which encourages the pernicious system of cramming. 
The chief aim of elementary scientific education must 
be to create a taste for and a love of the subject. In 
conclusion, he quoted some remarks bearing on this by 
the late Dr. Channing:—“The mark of a good teacher 
is not only that he produces great efforts in his pupils, 
but that he dismisses them from his care, conscious of 
having only laid the foundation of knowledge, and 
anxious and resolved to improve themselves. One of the 
sure signs of the low state of instruction among us, is, 
that the young on leaving school feel as if the work of 
intellectual culture were done, and give up steady vigo¬ 
rous effort for higher truth and wider knowledge. The 
universe is charged with the office of education; it is 
not confined to a few books anxiously selected by pa¬ 
rental care. Innumerable voices come from all they see, 
meet, feel. Nature, society, experience are volumes 
opened everywhere, and perpetually before their eyes. 
They take lessons from every object within the sphere of 
their senses; from the sun and stars; from the flowers 
of spring and from the fruits of autumn; from every 
associate from the pursuits, trades, professions, in which 
they move; all these, and more than these, are appointed 
to teach, awaken, and develope the mind. 
Mr. Waterhouse (Ashton) agreed in the main with 
what had been said, but he thought if apprentices had 
received a good English education, there would be no- 
great difficulty about technical matters, with the help of 
Associations like their own. 
Mr. Siebold remarked on the much larger proportion 
of successful candidates in the examinations than for¬ 
merly, and attributed this partly to the help of local 
associations. 
Mi*. Wilkinson said that all the 11 apprentices who 
had presented themselves at the last “ Preliminary” in 
Manchester had passed, still there was a very large pro¬ 
portion of those who had examinations to pass who could 
not or did not avail themselves of the lectures and classes: 
now going on. 
Mr. Woolley, alluding to the proposed assistance 
from the Pharmaceutical Society, thought such help, 
should be at first directed to those who had entered the 
business previous to the passing of the Pharmacy Act. 
The Chairman, Mr. Siebold, Mr. Bostock, and' 
others, spoke with approval of the class for mutual im¬ 
provement which had just been formed amongst the 
associates, the Chairman promising that the Council 
would give it all possible assistance and encouragement. 
SHEFFIELD PHARMACEUTICAL AND 
CHEMICAL ASSOCIATION. 
The Second General Monthly Meeting of the present 
Session was held in the rooms of the Association, on 
Wednesday, November 9th; the President, Mr. Wilson, 
in the chair. A lecture was delivered by Mr. F. T. 
Griffiths, Esq., M.D.,upon “The Nightshades,”—it was. 
of a most interesting and instructive character’, com¬ 
prising an enumeration of the natures, properties, and 
histories of the varied classes belonging thereto. The 
following is a brief abstract. 
The Solanacca, or Nightshade family, constitute one of’ 
the richest and most interesting group of plants, and 
their history is also very complex. If amongst them are 
some worthy of honourable mention, there are many, on 
the contrary, which come short of glory. Nightshades 
and felonworts do not all possess lenitive properties 7 
there are in the group many other plants, and, perhaps, 
the best known are those which represent nothing less 
than a collection of violent poisons. The general phy¬ 
siognomy of these unwholesome plants fully justifies the 
unflattering names given to them from the time of 
Linnams, who termed them all livid, even to that of mo¬ 
dern botanists, who stigmatized them as suspicious, ve¬ 
nomous or hideous. Poisonous principles are entirely 
absent in some species, or, if present, are so in such small 
proportions as to exercise but feeble influence over the 
animal economy; whenever they are secreted in an ap¬ 
preciable quantity, we may affirm that they are similar, 
and that they belong to that class of poisons which are 
specially noxious and stupefying. The special details of 
this family of plants afford sufficient materials for the 
purpose of classification, and botanists have been able to- 
establish the characteristics rigorously based upon the 
nature of the fruit, sometimes bacciform, id cst , more or 
less succulent, as that of the tomato or the potato, and 
sometimes capsular, that is dry, like those Of tobacco and 
of the stramoniums. Thus they have been grouped into 
