G02 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[January 27,1872. 
2. The further ordeal of two examinations in the 
sciences allied to pharmacy and their application to it 
(examinations which cannot be passed without spe¬ 
cial training, for which, out of London, there is 
scarcely any provision, and for which, either in 
London or out, scarcely any opportunities are af¬ 
forded). 
3. Longer hours of duty than other trades exact; 
without full relief when the nominal hours of busi¬ 
ness are over; without the weekly rest and freedom 
of the blessed Sunday. 
4. The smallest prospect of success which any 
parallel enterprise holds out. 
Is it wonderful that tills banner fails to attract 
recruits ? 
It used to be a popular belief, which I take to be a 
popular error, that the business of a chemist was a 
genteel trade. It ought to be, and should, with no 
uncertain sound, claim to be recognized as the trade 
of an educated gentleman; but I am bound to say, 
that I have often been “riled” by the insolence (I 
regret that no other word adequately expresses my 
meaning) of the public and of pretentious members 
of the medical profession, if they fancy they have 
the slightest case against the infallibility of a che¬ 
mist. As I have never invited and never submitted 
to any such assumption, it is not to be supposed 
that mine is a solitary expenence. 
The more salient reasons for curtailing the hours 
of business have been thus briefly alluded to. Others 
may be named which, though less important, intro¬ 
duce some difficulties into our business arrange¬ 
ments. 
Punctuality and regularity are essential elements 
of a well-conducted business. I know of nothing 
which has disturbed these qualities so much in my 
own experience as the lateness of evening hours. 
If young men have not been released until nine 
o’clock, I feel it impossible to enforce rules for being 
in early at night. If they are late at night, they 
will be unpunctual in the morning and everything 
is disarranged. At one time this was the greatest 
trouble that my business occasioned me; for there 
was no middle course between strict observance of 
rules and serious irregularities. Since then, hours 
have been curtailed, and I hope that punctuality has 
been re-established. 
Late hours also cause difficulties with porters ; 
they cannot be expected to take the same view of 
the specialities of the trade as the more educated 
assistant, who looks forward to the time when he 
must exact the same service from others, and they 
are discontented if they are kept on duty an hour 
later than their neighbours. A steady porter is 
often of as much importance in a laboratory as a 
good assistant, and whatever unsettles him is at 
least an annoyance. 
I conclude, then, that we have good reasons for 
desiring to shorten the hours of business to such an 
extent as any of us contemplate. I am of opinion 
that twelve hours’ honest work is as much as any 
one ought to be called upon to do for a day’s hire. 
No doubt we all of us, as masters, have worked for 
longer periods, and masters will continue to do so to 
the end of time; but this is outside the question. 
So, too, will assistants find it necessary to work for 
their own instruction and improvement after the 
hours of business are over, and they must be pre¬ 
pared to accept with cheerfulness perhaps a larger 
portion of after-hours duty, besides them Sunday 
turns as heretofore. But in the constant harness of 
the shop, I do trust that we shall have the manhood 
and independence to secure, for them and for our¬ 
selves, a respite from unnecessarily prolonged toil. 
If our shops are open through the ordinary busi¬ 
ness hours adopted by our neighbours of other trades, 
it seems to me that we afford the public all the ac¬ 
commodation that can reasonably be required of us ; 
and I strongly recommend tins rule for adoption, i. e. 
the assimilation of our hours of business to those of 
the most respectable firms in our several localities. 
We leave the public no ground for complaint, be¬ 
cause we provide in addition for their exceptional 
requirements; but we, on our side, have a right to 
expect that their ordinary business with us shall be 
confined within the same limits as their total busi¬ 
ness with other trades, these limits having been fixed 
by custom based upon general convenience. And 
we have the power to enforce it'! 
If the public are not content with twelve hours’ 
service, accompanied by the guarantee that all their 
calls of emergency will be cheerfully responded to 
through the hours when the night or the Sabbath 
gives rest to man and beast, if so be that he is not a 
chemist or a chemist’s assistant, I think it is useless 
to trouble ourselves about what will content them. 
The public has been lately spoken of in words which 
I think originally hailed from Bristol, as “ always 
poor.” It is only another phase of the same idea to 
say that it is always exacting, and we must not ex¬ 
pect to satisfy its cravings by concession, for all 
concessions, habitually rendered, are looked upon 
with indifference. 
It would be strange if this paper, hasty as it is, 
should conclude without any allusion to the startling 
claims recently preferred for reduction of the hours 
of labour among mechanics. I notice them to dis¬ 
claim suggestion from that movement. Our case 
stands upon its merits, not upon a jealous imitation 
of other classes’ successes or excesses, whichever 
they may prove. I would only add, that if we have 
to address the public on this subject, I hope that we 
shall do ourselves justice by calling their attention 
to the fact, not necessary to dwell upon now, that 
our midnight attendances to their calls of real emer¬ 
gency have been gratuitous. Such disinterested 
service is surely entitled to reciprocal consideration. 
Clifton. 
CRYSTALLIZED ACONITINE.* 
BY M. DUQUESNEL. 
Nearly forty years have passed since the discovery 
of aconitine by Hesse in 1833, and, although it has 
since been the subject of several investigations by 
Geiger, Berthemot, Stahlschmidt, Morson and 
Planta, and more recently by Hottot and Liegois, 
Fliickiger and Groves, our knowledge of it is still 
very unsatisfactory. The fact that, although a 
powerful poison, it is represented by substances 
extremely variable in their properties, and that the 
pharmaceutical preparations from the roots and 
leaves of the aconite plant, which owe their efficacy 
to the amount of this principle present in them, are 
sometimes very active and sometimes quite inert, 
has caused it to be looked upon in some quarters 
__ * De l’Aconitine Cristallise et des Preparations d’Aconit. 
Etude Chimique et Pharmacologique. Par H. Duquesnel, 
Pkarmacien de Premiere Classe. Paris : Bailliere et Fils. 
