858 
[April 20, 1S72. 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
I am not even sure that Mr. Atkins and myself take 
exactly the same views as to the ultimate shape into which 
the apprenticeship chaos should rest-lve, but I cordially agree 
with him in thinking that pharmaceutists on the one hand, 
and parents and guardians on the other, need to be educated 
up to an intelligent understanding of the new relations which 
masters and apprentices must assume to each other, and to 
the ceremony of initiation into the art and mystery of 
Pharmacy. 
I must incur the reproach of repeating my own advice, 
more coherently expressed upon former occasions (for the 
apprentice difficulty was a subject of anxiety to me as long 
ago as when I used to discuss it with the late Jacob Bell), 
and again insist that a pharmaceutical apprentice must in 
future be dealt with by both parties to the bond as a pupil 
whose term of instruction is designed solely for his own 
advantage, and whose services cannot be reckoned as available 
to any useful extent for his master’s profit. Scientific in¬ 
struction is now absolutely and compulsorily necessary—it 
must be obtained from the proper sources, viz., from com¬ 
petent professors. Practical and technical experience is also 
requisite, and the theoretical teaching must therefore be 
supplemented by the pupil having the run of a pharmacy* 
where he may become expert in the operations which it will 
be his duty to perform in his subsequent career as assistant 
and master. But it is absurd to expect (and hard facts have 
demonstrated the absurdity) that the master of any phar¬ 
macy, with sufficient business to afford these means of in¬ 
struction, is going to worry himself, or sacrifice an important 
amount of valuable time in the personal superintendence of 
an apprentice for a totally inadequate consideration. With 
genuine sympathy for Pybus and real anxiety about the 
system which he illustrates, I have quite determined not to 
undertake him upon these terms, and I believe my judicious 
friend, Mr. Atkins, has arrived at the same conclusion. 
Richard W. Giles. 
Clifton, April, 1872. 
Sir,—The ill-used and ill-educated apprentice !—Such is 
now the cry in the Journal. No one lias hitherto said a 
word on behalf of the frequently ill-used master. 
Most of your correspondents appear to think that the 
ignorance of the apprentice is owing entirely to the neglect 
or incompetency of the master. In many cases no doubt the 
accusation might be justly made. But, in my opinion, the 
following three causes have also their influences:— 
1. The deficiency of the education of the youth previous 
to his apprenticeship. 
2. The placing a youth in a shop where a trade is part 
druggist, part grocer, part wine-merchant, and part general 
dealer. 
3. The general disinclination of the youth to apply him¬ 
self, after his business hours are over, to any kind of study 
whatever. 
In discussing these causes, I shall also say a few words in 
defence of the country druggist. 
The first cause admits of easy remedy. Compel every 
youth to pass his Preliminary examination before being 
apprenticed; and, like the Apothecaries’ Society, let his 
indentures be recognized at his future examinations. The 
curriculum of the “ Preliminary ” will also bear a gradual 
elevation. 
This resolves itself more into a private and financial matter 
than one coming within the scope of any society’s inter¬ 
ference. I apprehend that the reason why youths are placed 
as apprentices to learn various trades is, that they may have 
such a training as will enable them to get a living for them¬ 
selves. Many people living in the country in the class of 
society from which tradesmen are usually drawn, are not in 
a position to pay heavy premiums in order that youths may 
be placed in pharmacies as pupils. But as there are different 
classes in society, so also in the drug trade are there found 
many classes of businesses and of tradesmen differing widely 
from each other; and if a youth cannot commence his 
business life at Savory and Moore’s, or Bell’s, there is no 
reason why he should not commence in a humbler sphere. 
* It may be necessary to state that the term c< Pharmacy ” 
is understood to comprehend a laboratory and shop, in the 
latter of which dispensing as well as retail business is per¬ 
formed. 
It is thus the miscellaneous druggist becomes to many a 
useful being, as he enables a youth whose principal draw¬ 
back is his parents’ poverty, to follow a trade upon which he 
has set his heart. This class of druggist then, who keeps 
open ki3 shop, not for experimental and fancy pharmacy, but 
for the vulgar purpose of getting a living, is thus supplied 
with a youth to assist him. The pharmaceutical instruction 
may be very limited, but so is the premium. Still there is 
nothing to prevent such a youth, if he possess ordinary 
diligence and good conduct, acquiring good business habits 
and learning how to live. And that youths so instructed 
have afterwards proved themselvess good men of business, 
and good pharmacists also, we have many living examples 
now to prove. For the idle and discontented, the guineas 
premium and elaborate pharmacy would do no better. And 
as the talented pharmacist is not condemned for his pupil- 
dunces, why condemn, unheard, the country dx-uggist for 
his ignorant apprentices ? I deplore the ignorance of 
appi'entices as much as any one, but contend that we have no 
right to condemn in toto this class of tradesmen as being the 
cause of it. The contract of apprenticeship is so frequently 
prompted by motives of economy, the youth’s friends being 
desirous of finding a home for him for five years and a cheap 
mode of learning the trade, aud the master’s object being 
cheap labour, little scientific knowledge may be imparted ? 
but little if any, in many cases, is even expected. The theory 
of high pharmaceutical training is at present incompatible 
with the routine of the generality of country businesses. 
In these luxurious times, the temptations of pleasure 
and dissipation have with many youths greater influence 
than the inducements to obtain knowledge; and the minds, 
of such youths are more absorbed by the speculations of how 
they can enjoy themselves in their spai’C hours, than in any 
endeavours to improve their mental status. Apathy for 
intellectual pursuits is quickly succeeded in many cases by a 
positive distaste for anything like mental labour. The in¬ 
struction given by the master to his apprentices during 
business hours, whether such instruction comprise the duties 
of the shop or the work of the laboratory, will be of little 
avail for scientific purposes, unless supplemented by sys¬ 
tematic aud persevering study after the day’s work is over.. 
But when the overtures of the master to instruct are declined 
by the appi’entices, as is frequently the case, who is to blame ?* 
Apprentices may be dragged through their work, but they 
cannot be compelled to study. 
Thus we have seen that the well-educated schoolmaster- 
pharmacist, as well as the miscellaneous druggist, may turn 
out equally ignorant apprentices, without being in any 
way able to prevent their ignorance. 
in conclusion, I cannot refrain from expressing my l’egret 
at the tone that has been given, in various contributions to- 
the Journal, to such petty and sensational questions as 
drudgery, shop opening and closing, shop sweeping, etc. I 
speak advisedly when I say that such remarks have in many 
cases an injurious tendency upon the minds of certain 
apprentices, particularly those of unaccommodating disposi¬ 
tions and indolent habits. They are, upon the slightest 
grievance, apt to fancy themselves martyrs, brood over their 
supposed injuries, and as one scabbed sheep makes many, 
discontent is frequently contagious. 
Let a little more of the milk of human kindness bo shown 
in these discussions, and instead of division, let a necessity 
for fusion be encouraged throughout the trade. To be power¬ 
ful, instead of uncharitable reflections, we each require the 
moral support and assistance of the other, though our 
incomes and habits may differ as greatly as one star does 
from another in brightness. 
A Country Pharmaceutical Chemist. 
Apprentices: A Plea for Weak Brethren. 
Sir,—The Pharmacy Act has had the effect of leaven ox* 
ferment on the body pharmaceutical, and is causing to bo 
eliminated from it many morbid elements; and the gaseous 
and effete matters, which rise to the surface evei’y now and 
then, in the form of controvei’sies and discussions on questions 
of law and policy, are of considerable value, inasmuch as they 
tend to settle such questions on something like a solid basis. 
At pi’esent there is a lively effervescence on the apprentice 
question going on in the columns of the Journal, which indi¬ 
cates the meritorious interest felt for the apprentice of the 
future; but as some of the writers appear to draw the line. 
