January 20,1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
5S7 
®j)c Journal 
■-♦- 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1872. 
Communications for this Journal, and books for review,etc., 
should be addressed to ^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, JV. Envelopes indorsed u Pharm. Journ .” 
EARLY CLOSING. 
To man}' - of our readers the subject of early 
■closing, frequently as it lias been broached in these 
columns, would appear always to retain its freshness 
and interest. Every time the discussion is started, it 
produces such a mass of letters in reference to it 
that one wonders how it is so large a number of 
persons, so unanimous as to what is required, and 
many of them capable of writing so—well, we will 
say strongly—upon the subject, have not long since 
succeeded in obtaining their object. On no occasion 
has this been more true than the present. Since the 
qmblication of Mr. Stables’ letter a great many cor¬ 
respondents have favoured us with their opinions. 
AVe, however, think it unadvisable to print them 
nil, not from any want of sympathy with the move¬ 
ment, but because the arguments contained in them 
having already been urged over and over again, little 
is to be gained by their further repetition; more, 
perhaps, may be done towards the settlement of the 
question by a glance at some of the difficulties which 
beset it. 
One principal difficulty exists in the apparent in¬ 
ability of some of our correspondents to examine the 
question from any other point of view than their 
own. The man who forms his own opinion without 
being influenced by those of others, has been well 
compared to one who, in a hilly country, sees as far 
as the top of the next range, and fancies it to be 
infinity. This has led to a severity of expression 
towards a speaker at the late meeting of the Leeds 
Association, which known facts, perhaps, do not 
altogether justify. It should be remembered, there¬ 
fore, that as this is a question in which all are in¬ 
terested, even what is said by the minority should 
be heard with respect and consideration. 
Another difficulty in the way is the lamentable 
want of the power of self-help. Several of our cor¬ 
respondents consider that the initiative lies with the 
•Council of the Pharmaceutical Society. But we 
think this may fairly be disputed. On this point 
we cannot do better than quote the opinion of Lord 
Derby on an analogous subject, as expressed in a 
recent speech He said— 
u I am expressing to you one of the deepest and 
•strongest convictions of my mind when I say that for 
those social improvements which we all desire, and which 
are in everybody’s mouth, we must look to the commu¬ 
nity acting for itself in the first instance, and to Govern¬ 
ments and. legislators only in rare and exceptional cases. 
. . . Take again your trade unions, by which working 
men have obtained, in so many branches of business, 
their demand for higher wages and shorter hours of 
work. They did not ask help from Parliament to 
found those unions, or to carry them on. They acted 
more sensibly ; they did the work themselves.” 
The varying circumstances under which pharmacy 
is carried on in different localities add to the diffi¬ 
culty of the problem. The rule which might be 
adopted in one town or district might, and often 
would be utterly inapplicable to another. This fact 
appears to point out local effort as that most likely 
to ensure success. Some time since we referred to 
a resolution published to their customers by some 
pharmaceutists at Bow; and we are glad to be en¬ 
abled also to state that the Chemists and Druggists of 
Hull, having been memorialized by their assistants 
and apprentices for shorter hours of business, in 
order to afford more time for study, agreed to close 
their places of business on and after January 1,1872, 
at eight o’clock eveiy evening, except Saturday. 
Advertisements were inserted in the local papers 
asking the public support in carrying out the ar¬ 
rangement. In connection with this point a corre¬ 
spondent suggests that great assistance might be 
obtained from the local newspapers if steps were 
taken to secure their interest in the question. 
But it must not be forgotten that the plea which 
justified the Legislature in exempting the pharma¬ 
ceutical chemist from service on juries also entails 
upon those who aspire to follow that calling special 
duties and relations towards the public. Some of 
our correspondents, who apparently have hardly yet 
got into harness, write in rather a juvenile style 
about “ chains,” and “ slaves,” and “ freedom,” and 
compare their hours with those of the mechanic. 
The comparison, however, does not hold good. In 
any arrangements that may be come to, provision 
will have to be made for the performance of those 
duties which the public have a right to expect, 
namely, the supply of necessary medicines at any 
hour. .We should hardly like pharmaceutists to be the 
subjects of such a decree as that printed at p. 585: 
but we think the employer may fairly claim to be as¬ 
sisted in following out the practice on the Continent 
of having one person always on duty. In establish¬ 
ments where late hours are unavoidable, perhaps 
the difficulty might be met by another custom adopted 
on the Continent of taking recreation in the after¬ 
noon, or some other more convenient part of the day. 
We think, therefore, that by courteous and careful 
consideration of all objections, a greater reliance on 
individual and local effort,—and perhaps a little less 
fear of the consequences on the part of the em¬ 
ployers,—together with a real desire to meet the 
varying difficulties as the}’" arise, much may be done 
to remedy the evils complained of. 
