October 14,1371.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
301 
PROVINCIAL EDUCATION. 
BY EDWARD SMITH, E.C.S. 
It. is with very great diffidence, and with some 
misgivings, that I venture to approach the subject of 
provincial education. The question is one of no 
little difficulty, involving a multiplicity of interests, 
and a great variety of circumstances ; moreover, the 
subject is under tlie consideration of men who have 
far larger experience—practical experience—in the 
matter than I can lay claim to. Nevertheless, I feel 
emboldened to contribute my quota to the general 
fund of suggestions, inasmuch as up to the present 
time, no really practical and comprehensive scheme 
has, to my mind, been even foreshadowed. 
It is desirable, and I think imperative, at the out¬ 
set to clear the ground of many of the extraneous 
considerations which may be imported into the dis¬ 
cussion by at once dividing our subject into its three 
natural sections, 
1st. Whom ought we to educate ? 
2nd. Of what should our teaching consist ? 
3rd. By whom should this teaching be carried 
out? 
1st. Whom ought we to educate ? 
The answer must be: apprentices who have passed 
their Preliminary examination. It cannot be con¬ 
sidered either just or expedient that any portion of 
the education to be provided by pharmacists should 
consist of classical or mathematical subjects. We 
cannot undertake to relieve parents of their respon¬ 
sibility to provide a suitable education for their sons 
intended to practise pharmacy; therefore I conceive 
it to be a sine qua non that we must have regard in 
our professional teaching solely to the requirements 
of those youths who have passed their Preliminary, 
relying upon this examination to test the fulfilment 
of the parental obligations; and thus it is very de¬ 
sirable in order to secure the most intelligent youths, 
that the stringency of the Preliminary should not be 
relaxed, but maintained fully up to a good standard 
of general education. Neither can we have regard 
to the education of assistants. He who has already 
passed the Preliminary, and served his apprentice¬ 
ship, must be considered to have passed be}mnd the 
scope of subsidized education. He is, or should be, 
in a position to pass his Minor, and provide for his 
future teaching. 
2nd. Of what should our teaching consist ? If we 
take up the position just enunciated, it is clear that 
our teaching must consist of elementary chemistry, 
pharmacy and botany, so arranged as to illustrate, 
as much as possible, the usual everyday work of 
apprentices—practical groundwork, with just a suffi¬ 
cient tinge of theory to make the study interesting, 
and to excite the mind of an intelligent youth. The 
form and manner of doing this work must, to a great 
extent, be left to local associations. As a rule, they 
will best appreciate the conditions most favourable 
to any particular town. 
3rd. By whom should this teaching be carried 
out? Primarily by local associations. The Phar¬ 
maceutical Society, by reason of its fixed London 
habitat, cannot possibly do very much directly, in 
the way of teaching apprentices, but indirectly it 
may be of immense service in encouraging and pro¬ 
moting, in many ways, the efforts of local associa- 
Third Series, No. 68. 
tions; and, to some extent, the Council of the Society 
has, by grants of money, encouraged the provinces, but 
this has generally been done in a very spasmodic and 
indefinite way, with very little regard to the quality or 
quantity of work achieved by local associations. ’ In¬ 
discriminate grants are worse than no grants at all. 
The provinces have a right to expect help from the 
parent Society, and the Council of the Society ma} 7- 
fairly require provincials to prove they are doing- 
some good work before making a grant; in fact, the 
duty of the parent Society is obviously to “ help 
those who help themselves; ” to subsidize provincial 
associations strictly in ratio to the amount of work 
done, and thus to promote a healthy and honourable 
rivalry amongst them. 
Having thus briefly gone over the main ground, 
and cleared our path, I will now proceed to tabulate 
the plan which seems to me best calculated to achieve 
the object we have in view. In the first place, I 
would propose that a number of centres, say twelve 
to twenty, of examination be instituted in different 
parts of the kingdom, at which annual examinations 
—conducted by an examiner deputed b}g and at the 
expense of the Council of the Pharmaceutical So¬ 
ciety—should be held. 
2nd. That local associations be formally affiliated 
to the parent Society, on payment of a nominal 
annual fee. 
3rd. That no candidate be eligible for examina¬ 
tion unless he has passed his Preliminary, and sub¬ 
scribed for at least two consecutive years to an 
affiliated association. Assistants having served their 
apprenticeship not eligible. 
4th. That the parent Society grant 40s. (say) -to- 
any local association for each one of its candidates, 
considered by the examiner to be worthy of a prize, 
and 10s. (say) for every candidate honourably men¬ 
tioned : the prizes to consist of suitable books, and 
to be given at the cost of the local association. 
5th. An eligible candidate may compete at any 
centre of examination, but at not more than one iu 
the same 3 r ear. 
The plan thus crudely sketched may require some 
further explanation. The centres of examination 
may be—London, Salisbury, Exeter and Plymouth 
alternately; Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and 
Liverpool alternately; Lancaster, Carlisle, Glasgow, 
Edinburgh, Newcastle, York and Leeds alternately; 
Lincoln, Cambridge and Norwich. 
The number of centres may be increased, de¬ 
creased, or varied at pleasure. By holding exa¬ 
minations at these centres annually, the associations 
in the smaller as well as in the larger towns would 
be brought into more immediate contact with the; 
parent Society, and every apprentice—even those in. 
small towns without any local associations, and there¬ 
fore now practically isolated—would have his interest 
sufficiently aroused by the chance of a prize, as to 
induce him to join some association, more particu¬ 
larly if the latter could arrange for the ready circu¬ 
lation of volumes from their library, and offer some 
little advantage to country apprentices residing be¬ 
yond the limits of ready access to the local classes; 
(say) in a moderate reduction in the regular sub¬ 
scription. 
It must be understood that the character of the 
proposed local examinations would be elementary 
and practical, such as an intelligent apprentice might 
fairly hope to master, and otherwise not to interfere 
-with the usual Minor and Major examinations at 
