March 18,1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
741 
DISPENSING.* 
BY W. J. HALLIDAY. 
There are in Lancashire many large ancl impor¬ 
tant towns where little or no dispensing is done by 
the druggist, the medical practitioners dispensing 
their own medicines, and also such prescriptions of 
consulting physicians or surgeons as may come into 
their hands. The latter practice is very objection¬ 
able, and it is- time the Pharmaceutical Council 
should use its influence to alter the system. Under 
these circumstances, how is an apprentice to learn 
dispensing ? After he has fulfilled liis term, and ob¬ 
tained a situation as assistant, he finds he has to 
commence learning what he should have had the op¬ 
portunity of being taught during his apprenticeship. 
Mr. Ince’s remarks, made nearly twenty years 
ago, are applicable to the present time:—“The 
young beginner was apprenticed to a chemist be¬ 
cause his parents thought it such a nice clean busi¬ 
ness ; contrarywise, the tyro found himself imme¬ 
diately smothered up to his eyes in white, red and 
blue paint, not unlike the clown at Astley’s, happy 
to present himself to society not too redolent of var¬ 
nish, and, having escaped the oil-can on the one 
side and the blaeklead on the other, allow a compre¬ 
hensive apron to cover all deficiencies for seven long 
years. He then comes to London.’’ 
At the Pharmaceutical Conference held at Liver¬ 
pool last year, the President stated “ that the educa¬ 
tion of the present day was too superficial, the 
simple fact being that pupils neglected to leam 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 ex¬ 
tent of the evil. He 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.” 
Take an example of such an assistant in a new 
situation, where a prescription is given into his 
hands to dispense by an impatient customer. Say— 
Mellis aj 
Potass. Chlor. 5j 
Acid. Hydroclil. Dil. jij 
Inf. Rosae ad §viij. 
The probability is he will overlook the infusion, 
and commence operations by weighing and measur¬ 
ing the other ingredients, and then, inquiring for the 
concentrated infusion, when told it is the custom to 
prepare fresh infusions, he is somewhat nonplussed; 
and if the customer is waiting, and of an irascible 
turn of mind, he will not find it a very agreeable 
duty to have to explain the cause of delay. And 
now for the infusion. If he has had no experience 
in preparing it, he will probably throw in the petals 
without separation; ancl when the medicine is pre¬ 
pared, in what style will he write and affix the 
label ? for often much depends on the external neat¬ 
ness of a bottle of medicine. 
I remember a case in point. A lady had a pre¬ 
scription dispensed, not at her regular chemist’s, but 
at a first-class London house. In a short time she 
returned with the bottle, saying she had been accus- 
tomedto having her medicines delivered with clean 
labels. 
* Read at a meeting of the Manchester Chemists and 
Druggists’ Association, March 3, 1871. 
Third Series, No. 38 . 
Take another example, a young man who has 
had five years’ experience in a house where dispen¬ 
sing is part of the ordinary daily business. He 
would read through the prescription carefully and 
intelligently, notice the infusion, tell the customer 
at once how long it would require for preparation. 
After making the infusion, he would copy the pre¬ 
scription, write the label, etc., and have all in trim 
for finishing off when the infusion was ready. The 
former instance is not unusual; and I believe phar¬ 
macists, as a rule, prefer assistants from parts of 
the country where at least a moderate share of dis¬ 
pensing is done. 
In the towns referred to, the druggists make better 
way in the world and secure the reward of their 
labour earlier than those whose business is princi¬ 
pally dispensing; their returns are much larger, and 
the variety and extent of stock kept would astonish 
a West-End chemist who has had no experience in 
country trade. 
Since the passing of the Pharmacy Act, it is 
imperative that every young man must pass two 
examinations before commencing business. It has 
been proposed that the Preliminary should be passed 
before the youth is articled, which is a very good 
suggestion. In the second, or Minor examination, 
there is a pharmacy bench, where each candidate is 
examined practically in dispensing ; and to pass 
he should be well up in that department, which is 
of the utmost importance for the future welfare of 
pharmacists. I would, therefore, suggest to this 
Society the advantage of having a dispensing-coun¬ 
ter, where associates might obtain a knowledge of 
dispensing. There need be little expense about the 
medicines or apparatus required. A knowledge of 
Continental pharmacy might be obtained in this 
manner. 
I will very briefly call your attention to a few in¬ 
stances of dispensing, commencing with mixtures. 
A slight difference in colour is often immediately 
noticed by the patient, and requires an explanation. 
To prevent this, it is very needful to have everything 
scrupulously clean about a dispensing-counter. A 
good flow of water is generally more useful than a 
fluffy towel in cleaning a measure or mortar, and it 
is my rule, where practicable, to rinse a bottle before 
dispensing a mixture. It is well known that gallic 
acid and water should be a colourless mixture, but 
by carelessness in the use of scales, measure or 
mortar not properly cleaned, it may become coloured; 
and one containing iron may be spoiled if any tinc¬ 
ture containing tannin comes into contact. 
Where practicable, perfect solution of soluble salts 
should be made, for even in the simplest form of 
mixture containing potass, bicarb., syr. aurantii et 
aqiue, I have seen the bottle wrapped up for deli¬ 
very with the potash undissolved and the syrup 
unmixed. 
The other day, I dispensed a mixture containing 
Potass. Bromid. 5yj 
Tinct. Aurant. *iij. 
When the medicine required to be repeated, half of 
the bromide remained in the bottle. 
In mixtures containing potassse bicarb, and acid, 
citric, or other effervescing salts, the effervescence 
should be effected first before the tinctures or syrups 
are added, and in as little water as possible to form 
the solution ; if so, the saturation is completed more 
rapidly than by adding all the water, besides pre- 
