January*! 3,1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
579 
Cormpttee. 
* 0 * No 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. 
Observations in Practical Pharmacy. 
Sir,—May I be allowed space in your valuable Journal to 
make a few remarks on a paper read at a meeting of the 
Liverpool Chemists’ Association, by Mr. Charles Symes, on 
“ Observations in Practical Pharmacy,” and pi'inted in the 
Pharmaceutical Journal for December 30th, 1871. I 
shall pass by his instructions respecting the manufacture of 
pessaries and suppositories, and proceed to notice the formula 
for a six-ounce mixture, containing:— 
Tinct. Guaiaci §ss 
Pot. Bicarb. Jij 
Sp. Ether. Nit. ji’j 
Aqua? ad syj. M. 
It is there stated that, “Mix these ingredients in whatever 
order you please, the resin will deposit in lumps,” etc. 
I would respectfully suggest that what is impossible to one 
individual, may be, and often is, performed with ease by an¬ 
other, and the above is a case in point. There is not the 
slightest necessity for medical men to substitute powdered 
guaiacum for the tincture in the above or any other formula. 
The mixture can be made in less than two minutes, without 
the resin coming out in lumps, and without a particle of it 
adhering to the bottle, by proceeding in the following manner: 
—1st, fit a cork to the bottle intended to hold the mixture; 
2nd, weigh the potass, bicarb, and put it into the bottle; 3rd, 
add to it *v of distilled water; 4th, measure the tincture and 
spirit together; 5th, pour these into the bottle, taking care 
that it falls clearly into the water, etc. (this is important for 
ensuring a fine division of the resin); 6th, immediately cork 
and shake for a second or two; 7th, fill up with distilled water. 
When first made, the mixture has a dirty drab appearance, 
■changing in two or three hours to a bright green. The pre¬ 
cipitated resin is so finely divided, that after standing seven 
hours, it measured ^iij, and at the end of three days, occupied 
a bulk of 5 ij. The supernatant liquid is a clear brownish- 
vellow colour; there is not the slightest adhesion of resin to 
the gla s, and the precipitated resin is at once diffused through 
the liquid by agitation. 
The Dispensary, Grantham , G. Welboen. 
January 8 th, 1872. 
Early Closing. 
Sir,—I have noticed with much interest the varied sugges¬ 
tions as to early closing and an increased charge made for all 
articles supplied before or after the usual business hours. 
Now, I live in a town where there are four chemists, and for 
the last twenty years have, at various times, attempted (though 
’unsuccessfully) to abridge the long hours of labour and to 
close when some relaxation might be practicable. The trades¬ 
people, in the winter, close at seven; and, some time since, we 
all signed a paper agreeing to close at five one day in the 
week. Blessed relief from toil! Alas, “ like Dead Sea fruits, 
which tempt the eye, but turn to ashes on the lip,” our 
window-shutters are put up, but the door-shutters down, and 
as a country druggist does not object to a little poaching on 
other trades, our friends who have neglected to get in time 
any little article of grocery, can have most of their wants sup¬ 
plied by the same professional gentleman who mixes oils, 
•colours, tea, spices, pickles, and what Mrs. Malaprop calls 
articles of “ bigotry and virtue,” with “ prescriptions accu¬ 
rately dispensed.” I have in vain suggested we were wanting 
in good faith to our brethren; proposed we should decline 
selling all non-medicinal articles; advocated an increased 
charge for everything supplied before or after certain hours. 
“ Rem recte si possis, sed modo quocumque rem,” is the prac¬ 
tical reply. One stands out, with him I am on a friendly 
footing; but on this one point we are two, and, like wretched 
victims under Juggernaut, we immolate ourselves before the 
autocrat of prolonged and unnecessary labour. Now, Sir, 
that we are striving to emerge from the ranks of the ordi¬ 
nary trader, when we dazzle the public with the blazon of 
■** Pharmaceutical Chemist,” as prominently as paint and gold- 
leaf can make it; when we add to our labels the prefix of Mr., 
is it not a little incompatible with our “ dignity,” when our 
less aspiring neighbours are closed, to be catch-pennies, and 
to spend fifteen hours a day money-grubbing, when they think 
twelve sufficient ? I have no doubt my neighbour would agree 
with me that, in the winter months, after eight p.m., the profit 
on the few coppers which are taken will barely pay for the gas. 
This is now an age when long hours are becoming obsolete, 
and may be consigned with the rack, thumb-screws and other 
tortures of past generations, to oblivion. I dislike combina- 
nations, but do think if the assistants themselves firmly and 
respectfully remonstrated with their employers, when their 
hours of attendance were unnecessary, a remedy mutually 
beneficial would soon be adopted. While we continue to 
keep our shops open, the public will put off their purchases, 
knowing they can be waited on. The late O’Connell was 
fond of one quotation, “ Hereditary bondsmen, know ye not 
who would be free, themselves must strike the blow ?” The 
word is as applicable to the assistants as it was to the people 
to whom it was spoken. 
George Seaton. 
Chelmsford , January 8th, 1872. 
Sir,—Having read Mr. Stables’ letter on early closing, in 
your last issue, I strongly approve of his opinion, that the 
subject should not be allowed to drop, but should now be 
taken up by the assistants as a body. 
I had thought that the benefits of early closing had been 
recognized everywhere, and by all, although by some certain 
false difficulties have been raised as a bar to its adoption, but 
from the remarks made by a member of an English associa¬ 
tion at a late meeting, it would appear that in that benighted 
land there are still some who in their error conceive its fruits 
to be not good but evil. The assistants and apprentices of 
that district must indeed be sad specimens of humanity, if it 
is necessary to keep them prisoners to the pestle and mortar, 
in order to prevent them squandering and frittering away 
their time. If they cannot be trusted to employ in a right 
manner their own time, I would not say much for the way in 
which they use their masters. But degraded so far I cannot 
believe them to be, and altogether, I think this is one of the 
most unreasonable objections to early closing lever heard of. 
Agitations on this subject have been got up at various times, 
and in divers places, and although in some places they have 
been crowned with success, in the majority, I am sorry to 
say, the evil still exists as rampant as ever. 
What is the cause of these failures? Seemingly it is the 
want of unanimity- amongst masters. It is the experience of 
nearly all such cases, that whilst the majority of masters are 
in favour of early closing, there are one or two who by raising 
objections, succeed in deterring the others from its adoption. 
But should unanimity be necessary ? I consider that such 
objections should not prevent early closing, but that where 
the majority are in favour of it, it should at once be adopted, 
and it would be found that the others would soon follow suit, 
for their own sakes. 
Were assistants but to unite in their demands, and press 
them as they should be pressed, we would ere long have early 
closing an accomplished reality, and not a visionary ideal. 
Let there be an association formed, having branches in ail 
towns where early closing is not already in force; let there 
be a nominal subscription to pay expenses, and let a protest 
and demands be published, and a united and simultaneous 
effort made throughout the kingdom, and I am sure such an 
effort would at once be successful. To London, as the centre 
of all pharmaceutical progress and reform, I would look for 
the formation of such an association; and, not as a sufferer, 
but as one who feels the benefit of early closing, and would 
like to see all enjoying the same, I call upon the assistants 
there to form this association (there would be no difficulty in 
obtaining some influential gentlemen as active promoters), 
and I can assure them they may depend on the enthusiastic 
support in every way of their provincial bi*ethren. Surely, 
if at any time early closing was a necessity, it is now, when 
examinations, calculated to raise the status of the trade in 
every way, are compulsory; examinations for which, careful 
study is required, study which, with the present shameful 
hours of labour, it is almost impossible to attempt. 
If masters could only see their own interests aright, this 
subject would not require to be thus pressed on them. M ith 
shorter hours assistants would give a more cheerful and better 
rendering of their duties, and masters would find themselves 
in possession of a better class of assistants, mentally and 
physically. 
