December 10, 1870.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
4G1 
PHARMACY IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The following is a resume of the information com¬ 
municated by Mr. Robert Howden, at the Evening 
Meeting of the Society on the 7 th inst.:— 
This information was obtained during a tour in 
which he visited New York, Boston, Albany, Buffalo, 
Chicago, Milwaulde, Iowa, Cincinnati. Washington, 
Richmond, Baltimore and Philadelphia. He pro¬ 
posed, first, to give a description of a chemist’s shop, 
or drug store; then to refer to the pharmacist, his 
clerks or assistants, and their educational resources ; 
and, thirdly, to give some information relating to 
trade customs. 
The Drug Store is generally situated at the 
comer of a street, or as it is termed in America, 
the corner of a block. It has externally a handsome 
and commanding appearance, with large plate-glass 
windows. On looking at the outside from the street, 
it will be noticed that it is well supplied with blinds, 
—roller-blinds within and shop-blinds without 
stretching over the pavement,—and that on these 
blinds are inscribed in large black letters, iced soda- 
water, cool cream soda, polar soda, Saratoga spring 
water, congress water, or Ottawa beer. Large 
boards standing on the pavement under the stall- 
board plate repeat these announcements. On ap¬ 
proaching the window an English chemist searches 
curiously for large specie jars emblazoned with 
heraldic designs, or huge show-bottles filled wdtli 
many gallons of coloured waters. He will look in 
vain for these, as well as for framed glass tablets re¬ 
lating to pharmaceutical membership and to care¬ 
fully-dispensed prescriptions. But he will see on 
the floor of the window, without any inclosure, a 
few toilet bottles, not always in pairs; large bottles 
of popular proprietary medicines in faded showy 
wrappers, with framed show-cards printed in co¬ 
loured type explaining their merits; some French 
essences ; tw r o or three stray smelling-bottles, sup¬ 
ported by many empty eau de Cologne boxes: the 
whole covered with 3 r ellow r gauze to keep off the flies. 
Here it may be observed that the American shop¬ 
keeper, or merchant as he prefers to call himself, 
knows little of the art of displaying goods attractively 
in his shop window ; it is a method of gaining cus¬ 
tom altogether unpractised. The display is within. 
It is there the public are desired to see and ex¬ 
amine, and this custom is promoted by leaving the 
shop window bare of goods, and exposing the inte¬ 
rior of the store as much as possible to the throng of 
passengers. 
On entering our typical drug store, one is struck 
at once by its size and its whiteness. It is much 
larger than chemists’ shops at home, often twelve 
feet high and more than fifty feet deep. The floor 
is of white marble, the counters of the same material 
or painted in imitation of it, and the ceilings not 
whitewashed but delicately coloured in panels. 
Against the walls behind the counters are the fix¬ 
tures and shelves that give the character to the 
store. These begin with drawers like our own, but 
from them rise at intervals of about four feet from 
each other handsomely-carved pilasters, their tops 
united by a continued massive cornice. The walls 
are thus divided into recesses:—The first and all 
alternate recesses contain shelves and bottles, those 
intervening are hung with plate-glass doors making 
Third Series, No. 24. 
glass cases, wherein are shown proprietary medi¬ 
cines in pint and quart bottles. It is not generally 
considered of importance that the shop bottles should 
be very near each other, or that they should be quite 
filled. In w r ell-conducted pharmacies, boldly-labelled 
three-pint bottles may often be seen with but half a 
pint or a pint of tincture in them,—a surprising 
custom with spirits of wine costing only seven shil¬ 
lings a gallon ! In the upper part of these shelved 
alcoves are occasionally to be seen imposing busts ef 
scientific or classical demi-gods larger than life, who 
look down with dignified and calm approval on the 
useful labours below r . 
The first object that attracts attention upon enter¬ 
ing a store is an imposing soda-water apparatus, 
built of coloured marbles and bristling with silver 
taps. The counters beyond, except at the farthest 
end where a space is reserved for dispensing, are 
completely covered with deep glass cases, often 
eighteen inches high. These glass cases contain a 
profusion of miscellaneous goods, hair-bruslies, 
sponges, Paris perfumery, English toilet soaps, 
leather purses, union smelling-bottles with gilt caps, 
cigar cases, wickered bottles, foreign proprietary me¬ 
dicines and specialities of the house. 
The arrangements for dispensing are, with a few 
allow T ances, similar to our own; as are the graduated 
measures, pestles and mortars and palette knives. 
The dispensing scales are of the finest workman¬ 
ship, very superior to ours, being costly and delicate 
balances, sometimes with plated silver beams, in¬ 
closed in square glass cases having a lifting sash, 
and forming a conspicuous object at the dispensing 
counter. 
The American pharmacist is at present a self-edu¬ 
cated man; he is very intelligent, and extremely 
well-informed in all matters relating to his profes¬ 
sion. His assistants, who are called clerks, have 
their ranks recruited not by apprentices, a term 
never used in most of the States, but from the hired 
boys. A lad of the age of sixteen will enter the 
service of a pharmacist. He takes with him no pre¬ 
mium, but immediately receives w r ages, and in return 
sweeps the shop, dusts the bottles, cleans measures, 
mortars and windows, takes out medicines, cuts labels 
and serves soda water. After the second year of 
“ rudiments,” he is encouraged to read the United 
States Dispensatory, corresponding to our Pharma¬ 
copoeia, and other standard works, is placed behind 
the retail counter where he learns the art of “ serv¬ 
ing,” and by degrees, from the chief clerk, the higher 
art of “ dispensing.” If the store is within reach of 
any school of pharmacy, the lad attends the instruc¬ 
tion and lectures there delivered at the cost of his 
employer. 
This, it is contended, is a preferable method of 
making pharmacists to the English one of appren¬ 
ticeships. Over and over again w r as it said, “I 
would never have any one in my employ I could not 
discharge.” Incompetent persons are summarily dis¬ 
missed, the trade relieved from their dead weight, 
and the capable and intelligent candidates only suf¬ 
fered to remain. These candidates, it must never be 
forgotten, have previously had the inestimable ad¬ 
vantage of a good education provided for them by 
the State free of all charge to their parents. Tliis 
system is thoroughly republican; a boy or a man, 
of never so humble an origin, may advance if lie 
will. The road upward is broad, open and direct; 
made easy to travel, and maintained by all statute 
