April 29, 1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
879 
Cjarmptore* 
*** JS r o notice can be taken of anonymous communica¬ 
tions. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenti¬ 
cated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily 
for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. 
The Preliminary Examination. 
Sir,—Would you kindly allow me space for a few words in 
reply to the letter of your correspondent B. S., contained in 
your last issue? 
Whilst I think it highly desirable that every encourage¬ 
ment should be given to those who are desirous of possess¬ 
ing the Minor or Major qualifications, yet I think it unfair 
that they should be admitted to this ground by passing along 
the temporary bridge of “the Modified” instead of by the 
proper road from the Preliminary. The Modified Examina¬ 
tion, as I understand, was provided for those young men who 
were thought to have a vested interest in the trade sufficient 
to entitle them to a less stringent examination, and thus far 
I think their case was met; but there were others who would 
gladly have availed themselves of the “ Modified,” and who 
had been even longer in the trade than some of those eligible 
for the “ Modified,” but were kept out by reason of their age, 
not having attained twenty-one years. Those young men, 
after having been six or seven years in the trade, were com¬ 
pelled' (as I know in many cases where they have gone to 
business young) to work up what “they” had never learnt 
at school, viz. their Caesar, etc. I don’t see that it would be 
doing this class of young men justice, who have not had what 
I should almost call the privilege of laying claim to the 
“ Modified,” to allow those who have been thus privileged to 
take step No. 2 before having taken step No. 1. 
But lastly, and chiefly, in your editorial article of last week 
on the Preliminary Examination, you state that the objec¬ 
tion raised by your correspondent B. S. loses all its force from 
the mere fact that two of the passages given are actually 
such as might occur for translation in every-day business. 
I am quite of your opinion, Sir ; and, moreover, I cannot see 
that there would be much gained by being admitted to the 
“Minor” without having passed the “Preliminary” (al¬ 
though the Latin is of a medical character, and consequently 
more familiar to persons in the trade); still I think that 
where the elementary knowledge required in the Preliminary 
is wanting, there would be an inability to render in full 
Latin the prescriptions given in the Minor. 
13, Hereford Hoad, W. Minor Associate. 
Sir,—In perusing your Journal of to-day, my attention 
was drawn to the above subject, on which I may, perhaps, be 
allowed to make these few remarks. Although the examina¬ 
tion questions of the 3rd inst. were more stringent than those 
formerly selected by the Board of Examiners, still there was 
not the stringency in them which should prevent the candi¬ 
date from obtaining the number of marks entitling him to 
registration as an apprentice. I hope that those who did not 
prove successful will persevere with the subjects, in order that 
they may be more successful when they offer themselves again. 
There are some candidates who ought not to be surprised to 
find themselves plucked. I have known those who thought 
to pass this examination by simply studying each alternate 
book of Caesar or the first half of Book I., and acting simi¬ 
larly with the declensions and rules of the Latin grammar, 
etc. But if the candidate wishes to pass without having to 
offer himself a second time, I would strongly recommend 
him to study the subjects throughout. In the 43 per cent, 
of unsuccessful of the 3rd inst. I have no doubt there were 
several who knew very little or nothing whatever of the Latin 
language before they entered their term of apprenticeship. 
It must, of course, then be extremely difficult for them to 
study classics and attend to the routine of their business. In 
order to obviate this difficulty of apprentices, some step 
should be taken by the Society in distributing papers respect¬ 
ing the subjects of this examination to most of or all public 
schools where the Latin language is taught, in order that the 
principals of such schools might make known the subjects to 
those boys who wish’ to enter the business of a chemist and 
druggist. This would obviate a great difficulty of appren¬ 
tices, as they would then be aware of the classical examina¬ 
tion that they had to undergo during their apprenticeship, 
which many 'would pass before leaving school. I have heard 
apprentices who are in the trade say they wished that they 
had known in their school days that such an examination was 
compulsory, as they would have then taken the opportunity 
of passing it before leaving school instead of being troubled 
with it during their apprenticeship, while they might be 
studying other subjects in order to enable them to pass the 
other examinations of the Society. And I have not the least 
doubt that there are numerous apprentices in the trade who 
have not yet passed the Preliminary Examination, but who 
would have been too glad to have passed it before leaving 
school for their term of apprenticeship, had they known it 
before. If the Society would adopt the above or some similar 
plan, I think the Board of Examiners would not only find an 
increase of successful candidates in the Preliminary, but also 
in the Minor and Major Examinations. 
Atherstone, April 22 nd, 1871. George Sant. 
Syrup op Phosphate op Iron. 
Sir,—In looking over recent suggestions as to syr. ferri 
phosph., I notice a letter from Mr. Rose in the Journal of 
the 8th of this month, commenting on a form given by Mr. 
Carteighe in a previous number, and suggesting the addition 
of more sugar. 
Mr. Rose recommends that 12 fl. oz. should contain 8| oz. 
sugar. Now Mr. Carteighe, in his form, adds to the 2 fl. oz. 
acid and water, containing the iron, 10 fl. oz. syrup, which 
contain 8^- sugar (if made according to the Pharmacopoeia); 
therefore I cannot see any improvement in Mr. Rose’s form, 
as it takes the longer of the two to prepare, and gives exactly 
the same result as Air. Carteighe’s. 
Hotting Hill, April 22nd, 1871. E. B. Starkey. 
Sir,—Desiring to make some syr. ferri phosph. in accord¬ 
ance with the formula proposed by Mr. Carteighe, and having 
no phosphoric acid of the required strength, I determined to 
repare a quantity from some glacial phosphoric acid which 
had in sticks. The necessary amount was dissolved in a 
composition evaporating basin, and the solution heated until 
it ceased to give a precipitate with solution of albumen, and 
afforded the necessary reactions with the ammonio-nitrate of 
silver test; it was then evaporated to the sp. gr. P500. Freshly 
precipitated ferrous phosphate treated in the prescribed man¬ 
ner, became dissolved in a few seconds, but (the solution) 
became quite milky on dilution with water, or syrup; an older 
sample of phosphate was only dissolved in part, a white-look¬ 
ing compound remaining insoluble, and on filtration, the clear 
filtrate behaved in a like manner, when similarly treated. If 
any of your correspondents could inform me as to what was 
the probable change the acid had undergone, which is not 
indicated by the ordinary reagents, they would help me out 
of a difficulty. 
London, April 22nd, 1871. Aliquis. 
The Sale of Poisons. 
Sir,—Allow me to inquire, through the medium of your 
Journal, if the trade generally are aware that tinefc. opii is 
frequently retailed from small village shops (not registered) 
as narcotic tincture, opiated tincture, etc., and supplied to 
them by many who call themselves leading chemists ? I know 
instances where pharmaceutical chemists have even done this. 
Is it fair play to those young men who study for months to¬ 
gether to pass the required examination, for them to find 
that a complete novice can sell the same poison under a 
different nomenclature? If this is to continue, what benefit 
has the registered chemist over the shopkeeper as to the sale 
of prohibited drugs ? 
Grantham. April 21st, 1871. A. P. S. 
Jury Service. 
Sir,—As the time is drawing very near when the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society will hold its annual meeting, may I again 
trouble you for space to suggest to our Council the desirable¬ 
ness of recommending to the Privy Council a regulation 
which would tend much more to the safety of the public than 
poison cupboards, keys, etc. i. e. “ That all chemists on the 
Register be exempt from serving on juries.” Indeed Dickens, 
in his trial of Pickwick, puts the reasonableness of the^ sug¬ 
gestion very clearly before the public, where he says “ The 
chemist on being summoned to the trial as a juryman begged 
