-April 6, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
807 
Cjje UjrarmittMtiral lourmtl. 
SATURDAY, ARRIL 6, 1S72. 
Communicationsfor 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- 
iRlDGE, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square , JV.C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, London, W. Envelopes indorsed u Bharm. Journ .” 
EARLY CLOSING IN THE METROPOLIS. 
In their praiseworthy efforts to shorten the hours 
•of business, and thus allow Assistants and Appren¬ 
tices greater opportunities for study and recreation, 
the Provinces are known to he far in advance of 
London. We understand, however, that a move¬ 
ment is on foot among metropolitan pharmacists for 
•carrying out this desirable object, and that already 
nearly twenty well-known houses have begun to put 
iip their shutters an hour earlier than formerly. We 
would fain see the chemists of the whole postal dis¬ 
trict following the example, and would also venture 
to suggest a more rigid observance of the bank holi¬ 
days. Though we were gratified to see many phar¬ 
macies entirely closed on Easter Monday, the attempt 
■at a suspension of business was by no means univer¬ 
sal, and we anticipate a more successful result on 
future occasions. In the interests of the public as 
well as the trade, we regard tills movement as a step 
in the right direction, and one which reflects great 
•credit on all concerned. 
In referring to this subject, we are glad to state 
that the movement for shortening the hours of busi¬ 
ness among the pharmaceutists at the East-end of 
London, which w r e mentioned some tune since* as 
having been initiated at Bow, appears to be progres¬ 
sing. We have received a copy of an announcement 
issued by Mr. Fox, Pharmaceutical Chemist, Bethnal 
•Green Road, to the effect that his establishment will 
be closed at eleven o’clock on Saturdays, and nine 
on other evenings of the week. On Sunday business 
is to be confined between nine and eleven in the 
morning, but proper arrangements are to be made 
for the supply of medicines urgently required during 
the day. 
PHARMACY IN THE VESTRY. 
The attention of pharmacists is ever and anon 
imperatively drawn to the responsibility they incur 
in pursuing their calling. The ignorance, actual 
carelessness, or “ want of thought ” of a dispenser of 
medicines may place him in a felon’s dock; and, if he 
be a servant, the reflex action of the English law 
* See ante, p. 370. 
may prove the employer’s ruin also. But errors 
are not always confined to the ignorant or careless; 
the most experienced dispenser will occasionally 
check himself in the act of committing an egregious 
blunder. It may be he has got the wrong bottle or 
the wrong weight, and the mistake is only made evi¬ 
dent by the physical characters, or the large bulk of 
the substance; still, humanuni est errare, and if the 
mistake be not made evident, a fatality perhaps 
occurs. The hurry of business is sometimes pleaded 
as the excuse, or the attention being distracted by a 
loquacious patient, or, it may be, the overwork to 
which the poor remuneration proverbial to the 
pharmacist’s calling compels him to submit. For 
the public seem ever to expect pharmacists to be 
their patient drudges; just as when Romeo wanted 
the poison on the holiday, and although “ the beg¬ 
gar’s shop ” was shut, the apothecary was inside. 
What may be required from a pharmacist, as well 
as the truth with which this plea of overwork might 
sometimes be urged, has been pointedly brought under 
our notice by an advertisement which appeared in 
the Lancet a few weeks back. The guardians of tlio 
Holborn Union advertised for a dispenser, and in¬ 
tending candidates were supplied, on application, 
with particulars as to the duties, etc., pertaining to 
the office. We are enabled to furnish our readers 
with the following summary:— 
“ To attend daily from 9 o’clock a.m. to 11 o’clock 
“a.m., at the Farringdon Road workhouse, to dis- 
“ pense all medicines required by the medical officer ; 
“to attend daily from 1 o’clock p.m. to 4 o’clock p.m., 
“ at the City Road workhouse, for the like purpose ; 
“ to attend daily from 5 o’clock p.m. to 9 o’clock p.m., 
“ at the Gray’s Inn Road workhouse, for the like 
“purpose. On Sundays to attend at the different 
“ workhouses to dispense medicine as per arrange- 
“ ment with the medical officers.” 
The daily service required (omitting Sundays) is 
nine hours, besides the time occupied in running from 
pillar to post, which perhaps would take two hours 
more. These duties are supposed to be sufficiently 
remunerated at 35s. per week. We might have 
doubted from what class the official was to be selected 
were w r e not told that applicants are to be either 
registered under the Pharmacy Act, 1808, or licen¬ 
tiates of the Apothecaries’ Company. Probably the 
successful candidate will have to dispense lor two 
hundred patients daily; but then they are only 
paupers. It is true that inquests are held upon work- 
house inmates at times; nevertheless, the vestrymen 
having secured a qualified dispenser, will feel com¬ 
fortable, although their employe works many more 
hours a week than an ordinary carpenter that re¬ 
ceives a greater remuneration. 
The recent proposition by Mr. Stansfeld to grant 
similar powers with regard to the establislnnent of 
workhouse dispensaries throughout the country, to 
those possessed by the metropolitan authorities, might 
