November 18,1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
401 
SHALL THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY; 
CEASE TO BE AN EDUCATING BODY? 
BY G. F. SCHACHT. 
This question has many times been suggested by 
men who seldom allude to such themes for the sake 
of mere rhetoric, hut, possibly because the time was 
scarcely ripe for its full discussion, it has hitherto 
failed to arrest the general attention of pharmacists. 
It received, however, something like a formal re- ! 
introduction at the hands of Mr. Mackay in his 
recent address to the students; and I venture to 
express a few opinions upon the matter, in order to 
continue the discussion, for I fancy I detect certain 
indications that point to the necessity of some speedy 
modifications in the practical working of our So¬ 
ciety, if not to such organic changes as appear, at 
first sight, to be involved hi the position introduced 
by Mr. Mackay. 
There appears to exist in the majority of minds 
the feeling that educational and examining duties 
ought not to coexist in the same body. The justifi¬ 
cation for this feeling is, probably, the fear that in 
his capacity of examiner, an individual is unduly 
tempted to show favour to those with whom he has 
been associated as teacher. The objection un¬ 
doubtedly has weight, and, appealing as it does 
to a principle that touches the whole value of exa¬ 
minations, one is compelled to admit that the 
association of these two sets of duties in the 
same person or body of persons is not wise. Now, 
the law absolutely requires that the Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Society should examine; and though it is 
true the very individuals appointed to examine 
have nothing directly to do with teaching the can¬ 
didates, yet the Council that appoints the Exa¬ 
miners appoints and pays the professional teachers 
also, and maintains a school within the walls hi 
which the examining duties are carried on. 
I must at once guard myself from being supposed 
to impute the smallest suspicion that favour has 
ever been shown to any candidate from this or any 
other iniluence. I simply discuss the subject in the 
abstract, and point out that the Society does fulfil 
the two sets of duties in Bloomsbury Square, and 
that there exists a feeling that this is not right. 
On the other hand, it would be scarcely an exag¬ 
geration to assert that the basis of the Society’s ex¬ 
istence during its entire history, has been the one 
fact that it aimed to educate the pharmacists of this 
country to a higher professional standard; and the 
content with which its members have seen its large 
resources lavished upon the school at Bloomsbury 
Square, may be taken as a proof how fully they have 
recognized scientific education to be an absolute 
duty, and have approved the effort—partial though 
it was—towards its accomplishment. There is no 
doubt many of the founders and life members that 
have gone to their rest cherished the hope that their 
labour and money would help to the gradual exalta¬ 
tion of all chemists and druggists into a thoroughly 
educated body; and I feel persuaded the majority of 
those still living are attached to our Association 
chiefly by the constraining influence of a similar 
aspiration. 
The Government, then, requires us to examine , 
and the members expect us to educate, and both 
demand that each set of duties shall be performed 
with perfect independence the one of the other. 
Third Series, No. 73. 
The problem is, to devise a plan by which the 
double needs of the case can be satisfied. With 
deference, and in the hope that the proposition w ill 
be amply discussed, I suggest the following:— 
I propose that the Society cease to appoint and 
employ any professional teachers, and cease to main¬ 
tain any school-buildings or laboratories of instruc¬ 
tion, except in the now unavoidable capacity of 
owners of property; and, in the place of its present 
partial system of education, I propose that it adopt 
a comprehensive one, framed upon the method 
employed by the Government in the Science and 
Art Department. 
The details of this method are fully set forth in 
the ‘ Directory,’ published by the Department an¬ 
nually ; but its principles are probably familiar to 
most readers of this Journal, who will, therefore, 
know as well as I do, that they are simple and per¬ 
fectly easy of application to our case. 
The Society, supposing the proposition were' 
adopted, would hold once a year, simultaneously 
over the whole country, an examination in che¬ 
mistry, botany and materia medica. The questions 
would be arranged by a staff of professors (not 
teachers in any school of pharmacy) appointed by 
the Council, and the answers, having been prepared 
under the prescribed regulations, would be returned 
for estimation. The examiners would, in the first 
case, divide the candidates into two sections, the 
accepted and the rejected; the latter must try 
again. The former would be again divided into 
three classes, the boni, the optimi and the senior 
optimi. Each of the boni might be considered to 
have earned for las teacher a certain fixed premium, 
each of the optimi a larger premium, and each of 
the senior optimi, in addition to this premium for 
his teacher, a prize or certificate of honour for him¬ 
self. 
This is a broad sketch of the Government method 
as applied to pharmacy. It is unnecessary at present 
to enter farther into details, but I may just say that 
I have been familiar with the Government scheme 
in its full working for some time, and know of no 
difficulty likely to arise in its application. 
On the other hand, its adoption seems to me to 
offer a solution for most of the difficulties that at 
present surround the case. The Society would con¬ 
tinue to exercise its examining functions as before, 
but would cease to identify itself with any educa¬ 
tional staff or establishment. At the same time, it 
would promote the scientific education of the whole 
body of which it is the professed head, by a compre¬ 
hensive scheme eminently practical and as emi¬ 
nently just. The scheme itself would serve to bind 
together, by the potent tie of an equal common in¬ 
terest, every individual in the trade, and thus vastly 
strengthen the hands of our executive in their 
efforts for further good ; and by bringing all schools, 
whether metropolitan or provincial, into one common 
arena, there to be estimated and supported solely 
according to the results they can accomplish, not 
only would that admitted difficulty, “ provincial 
education,” disappear as a distinct and separate 
question, but local and individual enterprise tlrrougli- 
out the whole country would receive an impetus that 
could not fail to result in a largely increased amount 
of good healthy educational work. 
