April 22, 1371.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
819 
SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1871. 
Communicationsfor this Journal, and bools for review, etc., 
should be addressed to the Editor, 17, Bloomsbury Square. 
Instructions from Members and Associates respecting the 
transmission of the Journal should be scut to Elias Bkem- 
ridge, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square, TF.C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, London, IF. Envelopes indorsed “ Bharm. Journ.” 
DEFECTS IN THE PHARMACY ACT. 
In a recent number of the Journal,* when calling 
the attention of our readers to the issue of the 
Register for 1871, Ave mentioned some of the diffi¬ 
culties attending its compilation, which greatly in¬ 
terfered with its correctness. At the same time, AA r e 
pointed out that serious consequences might folloAv 
from an incorrect entry, caused by the omission of 
the person registered to give notice to the Registrar 
of any change of residence on his part. An addi¬ 
tional source of error is unreported deaths. 
Confirmation of our opinion as to the prevalence 
of this neglect is to be found in the statement made 
by a contemporary that no less than 1138 communi¬ 
cations which were posted recently, addressed accord¬ 
ing to the Register, liaA T e been returned marked 
“gone away,” “deceased,” “not knoAvn,” or with 
some other indorsement, indicating that the entry in 
the Register is incorrect. This is a state of things 
that, however much to be regretted, the Registrar is 
powerless to remedy, AAdthout the active co-operation 
of the registered chemists and druggists throughout 
the country, inasmuch as in many instances no com¬ 
munication is received by him from or respecting a 
registered person after his registration. To secure 
the correctness, and therein the value of the Register, 
any information concerning deaths or removals that 
may come under the notice of members of the trade 
should be communicated immediately to the Regis¬ 
trar ; but hitherto this has rarely been done. 
The authors of the Bill uoav before the State 
Legislature of Illinois, of Avliich Ave have already 
given an abstract, f have foreseen this difficulty, and 
propose to meet it by a clause AA r hich provides that a 
registered pharmacist, upon changing his place of 
business, shall send a notice of it to the Board, and 
that once a year every pharmacist is to notify AA r hether 
lie still practises pharmacy at his registered place of 
business, in default of Avliicli, after one letter of in¬ 
quiry from the Registrar, the name is to be omitted 
from the Register. Each notice is to be accompanied 
by a fee of one dollar, in return for which the Re¬ 
gistrar Avill have to furnish him AA'itli a copy of 
the Register. This clause appears to furnish the 
machinery for securing a greater amount of accu¬ 
racy in the Illinois Register than is at present found 
in our oavu, and probably the adoption of a similar 
rule would be advantageous here. 
THE PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION. 
The Report of the Board of Examiners relating 
to the Preliminary Examination on the 3rd inst., 
Avhich is printed in another column, suggests matter 
for graA T e reflection. The fact that out of two hun¬ 
dred and ninety-four candidates aaIio presented them¬ 
selves for examination, no less than one hundred and 
tAventy-nine, or forty-three per cent., failed to obtain 
the number of marks Avliich Avould entitle them to 
registration as apprentices, seems to imply that either 
the standard of the examination Avas too high, or 
that a large proportion of the candidates Avere defi¬ 
cient in the knowledge Avliich they might fairly have 
been expected to possess. 
A perusal of the questions proposed,—which are 
likeAvise printed,—Avill, Ave think, sufficiently prove 
that the first alternative does not at all explain the 
result. To take them in the order in Avliich they are 
printed. In the Latin section there Avas a choice 
given of five passages for translation, tivo only being 
required; Avliile the questions that followed Avere of 
the most elementary kind. 
With regard to this portion of the examination, 
Ave do not lose sight of the point raised by a corre¬ 
spondent in this week’s Journal, that in conse¬ 
quence of all persons having to undergo the Prelimi¬ 
nary Examination before proceeding to the Minor 
and Major, some avIio have passed the Modified are 
prohibited from seeking to pass the higher examina¬ 
tions. It is true that many men in the drug trade 
have very little time to spare for the study of the 
classics, and Ave knoAV that there is a certain amount 
of sympathy felt for them in some quarters, which 
may possibly lead to steps being taken to meet their 
case. But Ave think this objection loses nearly, if 
not quite all its force, from the fact that two of the 
passages for translation—the number required—are 
actually such as they might be called upon at any¬ 
time, in the ordinary course of their business, to 
render into English. 
The questions in the other sections are not at all 
more difficult than a boy avIio has received a liberal 
education might be expected to answer, and that so 
many have failed to do so is strongly suggestive of 
the necessity of regulations for compulsory education ; 
at any rate, it does very little credit to our present 
system. 
It is worthy of notice that the largest proportion 
of failures occurred where an opposite result might 
fairly liaA r e been expected. Eleven candidates failed 
aaIio Avere younger than sixteen years of age ; ninety- 
three betAveen sixteen and tAventy ; and the re¬ 
mainder beyond that age. 
* Ante, p. G69. 
f Ante, p. 791. 
