February 24,1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
6S9 
%\t pjitnnitcciitinil Journal. 
- ♦-- 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1872. 
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 . IV. C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, London, JV. Envelopes indorsed u Bharm. Journ.” 
PHARMACEUTICAL APPRENTICES. 
The case reported at p. 695 of this Journal illus¬ 
trates the evils attending a practice that still obtains 
to some extent amongst pharmaceutists, but which is 
as pernicious in its effects as that of taking appren¬ 
tices who have not proved their fitness by passing 
the Preliminary examination. At no time, and in 
no business, would it he fair for an employer to ignore 
the fact that the relations between himself and his 
apprentice are such that, while he may justly ex¬ 
pect from the apprentice good and faithful service, 
the service to which he is entitled is rather of the 
nature of skilled labour, than the mere drudgery of 
a porter or errand-boy’s work. 
With the pharmaceutist, however, this is more 
■emphatically the case. The calling for which he 
lias—usually in consideration of a premium paid— 
engaged to train and qualify his apprentice is one re¬ 
quiring something more than the mere manipulative 
skill which suffices in many businesses. The teach¬ 
ing of a knowledge of shop details should, therefore, 
he accompanied, step by step, by opportunities for 
acquiring that scientific information without which 
no pharmaceutical apprentice now, more than ever, 
■ can look forward to a prosperous career. 
We have no desire to say anything that would 
tend to foster a carping, critical and dissatisfied 
feeling among apprentices ; such a course would be 
• eminently injudicious. But to ignore the fact that 
such a feeling sometimes exists—and that not with¬ 
out cause—would he equally so. Doubtless there is 
much work that has to he done in druggists’ shops 
■especially in country districts, that would not do 
much, except in an indirect manner, towards fitting 
the future pharmaceutist for his special labours, 
and yet it is such as the employer might fairly expect 
to he cheerfully performed hy him. But the just 
■ claims of the apprentice should never be so lost 
sight of in the need for grinding paints, making up 
horse halls, cleaning windows, opening shop, etc., as 
to allow it to he forgotten that the law now pre¬ 
scribes that a test should he passed before the youth 
will he allowed to conduct a business of his own; 
and few employers, we think, will regret gaining the 
apprentice’s confidence, hy letting him see that he is 
being so taught his business as to secure the passing 
• of the Minor examination at least. 
There is reason to believe, however, that frequently 
apprentices are taken unaccompanied by the pre¬ 
miums that are necessary to remunerate the phar¬ 
macist for the special skill and care required for 
such training as we have referred to. But such a 
practice is unwise, especially now that pharmaceu¬ 
tists are claiming—and successfully claiming—to be 
looked upon by the public as a different class to 
ordinary tradesmen, and it is scarcely politic to 
allow it to be thought that even the junior branches 
; are unentitled to similar consideration. 
CINCHONA AND IPECACUANHA IN INDIA. 
In the discussion which followed the reading of 
Mr. Collins’s paper on “ Economic Botany” before 
the Society of Arts last week, Dr. Bhandis, Iii- 
; spector-General of Forests to the Government of 
India, said that the cinchona plantations were now 
become almost forests. Before long they would be 
able to be coppiced every six or eight years, just as 
oak coppices were treated in Germany, Scotland 
j and elsewhere every fifteenth or eighteenth year, 
and this would probably be the simplest and most 
profitable mode of getting the bark. The introduc¬ 
tion of ipecacuanha into India was also alluded to. 
Dr. Masters expressed an opinion that there must 
be dozens, if not scores of plants indigenous to that 
country, having the same medical properties as 
ipecacuanha, which could be much more easily 
utilized. 
MEDICAL STUDENTS AND MATERIA MEDICA. 
Professor Huxley’s views with regard to medical 
men studying materia medica* were referred to on 
Wednesday week at the meeting of the Society of 
Arts by the Chairman, Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, 
F.R.S. That gentleman said that, though a great 
admirer of Mr. Huxley in most things, he thought 
he was wrong on this point. That a medical man 
should not have some knowledge of his tools seemed 
absurd; and with regard to steel, he might say as an 
illustration, that he had known one of the most 
eminent surgeons of the day (Sir William Fer- 
gusson) to examine a knife in the operating theatre, 
and not being satisfied with its quality, break it 
before the maker’s eyes, as a warning that inferior 
quality would not pass muster. He thought it 
to be of essential importance that a medical man 
should be able to distinguish between certain white 
powders, such as calomel and antimonial powder 
and white arsenic, or between sulphate of zinc, 
oxalic acid and sulphate of magnesia. 
The King of Bavaria has conferred on Dr. L. A. 
Buchner, Professor of Pharmacy at the University 
of Munich, the cross of the first class of the royal 
order of merit of St. Michael. 
* See Yol. I. p. 8. 
