November 11,1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
389 
Cf)c pjarmateutiral Journal. 
- * -- 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1S71. 
Communications for this Journal, and boohs 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 sent to Elias Brem- 
RIDGE, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square. W . C . 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, London, JF. Envelopes indorsed u Bharm. Journ.” 
APPRENTICESHIP AND THE PRELIMINARY 
EXAMINATION. 
In tlie discussion concerning tlie obligations of 
tlie Pharmaceutical Society in respect to provincial 
-education, which is now being carried on with fresh 
vigour in our columns, one point has been urged 
that is worthy of the serious consideration of all 
pharmaceutists who contemplate taking apprentices, 
namely, that on receiving apprentices they should 
make it an indispensable condition that the pupils 
should have previously passed the Preliminary 
Examination. 
At the meeting of the British Pharmaceutical 
•Conference at Liverpool in 1870, the Registrar of 
the Pharmaceutical Society stated as the result of 
his experience that most of the failures to pass the 
Minor Examination arose from deficient elementary 
■education, and he recommended that masters should 
require every youth to pass the Preliminary Exa¬ 
mination before he commenced his apprenticeship. 
This view was concurred in by most of the speakers; 
and as the occasion was one on which the subject 
of the facilities for pharmaceutical education in the 
provinces was brought forward for discussion at the 
special invitation of the Council of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society, we think the opinions then ex¬ 
pressed should have great influence. The propo¬ 
sition has been advocated at various times in the 
columns of tliis Journal, and it was also the basis of 
a paper on the apprenticeship question read at the 
Edinburgh Conference by Mr. S. R. Atkins, as 
pointed out by that gentleman in his letter tliis 
week. 
It is evident that pharmaceutists have no special 
obligations towards securing the education of those 
with whom they have not yet entered into business 
relations. There is a tendency in some of our cor¬ 
respondents to hold the body to some extent re¬ 
sponsible for the large proportion of failures at the 
Preliminary Examinations; and reflections are made 
upon certain towns that are supposed to have failed 
in them duties. But this is only true to a limited 
extent,—to the extent of the proportion of candidates 
who have entered the business before passing their 
examination. The fact that thirty-seven per cent, of 
candidates failed to pass a test that might justly be 
demanded from a lad who had received a fair edu¬ 
cation may be, and undoubtedly is, an indication of 
the great absence of sound teaching in this country 
but we do not see that it involves any reflections 
upon pharmaceutists except as members of the com¬ 
monwealth. 
Were this policy generally followed by employers 
throughout the country, not only would the work to 
be done in providing means for education be greatly 
limited, but the supply of men who, supposing them 
to have had ordinary opportunities, have proved 
their unwillingness or incapacity to learn, would be 
stopped at its source, and a more successful result 
secured. Although it is pleasant to remember the 
unselfish and disinterested nature of all the educa¬ 
tional efforts of the Pharmaceutical Society since its 
foundation, it will not be out of place to remind em¬ 
ployers that apprentices secured under the con¬ 
ditions suggested are more likely to turn out valu¬ 
able servants than those from whom no such ex¬ 
amination is demanded. 
We take this opportunity of stating that there is 
no desire on the part of the Council of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society, in the case of the Preliminary Ex¬ 
amination, to re-examine a'candidate who has already 
proved his qualifications. Certificates of having passed 
the Local Examination of the Universities of Ox¬ 
ford, Cambridge or Durham, the examination of the 
College of Preceptors, or that of any legally consti¬ 
tuted examining body previously approved by the 
Council, provided Latin and arithmetic be included 
in the subjects, are accepted in lieu of tliis examina¬ 
tion. 
A fortnight since we called attention to a notice 
of motion by Mr. Gay, at the meeting of the Council 
of the Royal College of Surgeons. Tliis week we are 
informed by a correspondent that, at a recent Prelimi¬ 
nary Examination of medical students in Glasgow, 
only twenty-eight passed out of fifty-six; and, more¬ 
over, that only eight of the whole number went up 
then for the first time. We mention these facts, not 
as matters for congratulation, but as showing that 
the Pharmaceutical Society is not singular in its 
experience. 
SIR ROBERT CHRISTISON, BART. 
Rarely has a better merited compliment been 
bestowed than that of the baronetcy just conferred 
upon tliis distinguished pharmaceutist and phy¬ 
sician. Our readers are so familiar with the peculiar 
services rendered to toxicology and materia medioa 
by Sir Robert Christison that we may absolve our¬ 
selves Rom any detailed reference to them here. 
But as a citizen, and above all as an academic 
functionary, Sir Robert has claims to respect and 
gratitude which ought to be known beyond the 
immediate locality in which they were earned. 
