882 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[May 4, 1872. 
In tlie second year lie takes pharmacognosy, che¬ 
mistry,— analytical, organic and inorganic, — and 
pharmaceutical legislation, together with laboratory 
work. At the end of the second year he undergoes 
his second examination; if successful, he receives 
his pharmacist’s diploma, which entitles him to un¬ 
dertake the independent direction either of the esta¬ 
blishment in which he has served, or of an}^ other, 
or he can establish a new business if he gets the 
Government concession. 
There is an annual visitation of pharmacists’ 
shops. In university towns the commission for 
that purpose consists of the Dean of the medical 
faculty, the professors of botany and chemistry, and 
the two presidents of the Gremium. The result of 
the examination is noted in a protocol, which is 
signed by the examiners, and countersigned by the 
proprietor of the shop, and always forwarded to the 
Government. In smaller provincial towns the ex¬ 
amination is macje by the Government medical officer 
alone. The fee for such an examination is six ducats, 
or £2. ID. for university towns, and three ducats for 
smaller ones. If the result be unsatisfactory, 
a second examination takes place after a short inter¬ 
val, and for this another fee has to be paid by the 
unfortunate proprietor. Pharmacists in Austria think 
it very hard that they should have to pay for an 
'examination made solely in the interests of the 
public 
In Vienna there are fifty-nine pharmaceutical 
establishments to 000,000 inhabitants. It is curious 
to notice the different customs that prevail as re¬ 
gards dispensing. In England, as a rule, great care 
is taken to put an external application into a blue 
bottle, and label it with a coloured label. In 
Austria there is no difference made between exter¬ 
nal and internal medicines, either in the shape of 
the bottle or the colour of the label. Even if the 
bottle contains a poison, it is not permitted, by at¬ 
taching a poison label, to inform the patient that the 
lotion prescribed by the physician contains a poison ; 
neither is it permitted to translate a prescription for 
a patient. In fact, in Austria it is thought that we 
liave made a mistake in printing the British Phar¬ 
macopoeia in English, and some English pharmacists 
are of the same opinion. 
Assistants have usually two half-days a week for 
recreation, and apprentices two hours or so every 
day for study. 
I shall now pass on to the formation of the Aus¬ 
trian General Pharmaceutical Society. It was some¬ 
where between 1830 and 1840 that the chemists of 
Austria first began to form themselves into a so¬ 
ciety, but in 1848, the year of the revolution, the 
society then existing at Vienna was closed by 
order of the Government. Great efforts continued 
do be made to get a concession for a general society 
of the pharmacists of Austria, and it may be said 
that it was not until 1860 that the Minister of the 
Interior acknowledged the statutes of the Austrian 
General Pharmaceutical Society. It lias now been 
in existence eleven years, and numbers between 500 
and 600 members from different parts of Austria. 
Its museum contains a large collection of materia 
medica, drugs, chemicals, minerals, etc. Its collec¬ 
tion of cinchona barks is specially valuable; that of 
woods, more especially of the Conifene from Ame¬ 
rica, of which there are about 200 specimens, very 
interesting; and its herbaria of plants extremely 
useful to the young students. These are all so ad¬ 
mirably arranged, so neatly and accurately labelled, 
with printed catalogues of reference, that it re¬ 
flects the greatest credit on this society. I may 
add also that all this has been accomplished as 
a labour of love by pharmacists who have retired 
from business. A laboratory also has just been 
completed, in which instruction is given to students; 
it is not intended for pharmacists alone, but also 
for meeting the wants of the public by the analysis 
of water, urine, soils, etc. 
In the rooms of the Society lectures on chemistry, 
botany, and materia medica are delivered to appren- 
: tices three times a week. The Society holds annual 
meetings ; every third year it meets in Vienna, and 
in the intervening years in one or other of the chief 
cities, such as Prague, Brunn, etc. The member- 
sliip of this body being voluntary, and its annual 
general meetings being held in different cities, it 
approximates more nearly to our Pharmaceutical 
Conference than to our Pharmaceutical Society. 
There are separate Pharmaceutical Societies in 
Prague, Gratz, Lemberg, etc., but little attention 
is paid by them to scientific subjects; they deal 
chiefly with the social and business interests of the 
members, and do not, like the Vienna Societjy 
provide lectures for apprentices. 
Through the kindness of Mr. Hills I was favoured 
with an introduction to Mr. Waldheim, to whose 
courtesy I am much indebted. He is President 
of the Gremium, and Vice-President of the Austrian 
Pharmaceutical Society; and while he holds these 
positions neither the interests of pharmacists or of 
pharmacy are likely to suffer. It is hoped that an 
important alteration in the Apotliekerordnung 
will be secured. At present, questions affecting 
pharmacy are determined mainly by medical 
men and chemists; and the alteration looked 
for in the new Apothekerordnung is that on all 
matters affecting the interests of pharmacy, phar¬ 
macists themselves may be largely represented and 
have more influence. In fact, great efforts are being 
made by the body to shake themselves free, and to 
show themselves worthy of freedom. 
From Vienna I went down the Danube to Pesth, 
in Hungary. Tins city has a population of about 
200,000, and 14 pharmacies; while Ofen, or Buda, 
on the opposite side of the river, has ten pharmacies 
to 58,000 inhabitants. Hungarian pharmacy, I am 
informed, is much behind that of Germany; at 
present the Austrian Pharmacopoeia is used, but a 
hope was expressed to me by a Hungarian phar¬ 
macist, that they would soon have a pharmacopoeia 
for Hungary; and considering, that of the mixed 
population of the Austrian Empire, Hungary num¬ 
bers about ten millions, and also that Hungarian 
counsels have prevailed with the Austrian Govern¬ 
ment, it is quite possible that they may succeed in 
their wishes. 
After Pesth I went to Salzburg, with its 20,000 
inhabitants and four pharmacies, but this is not 
a place of sufficient importance to require any 
notice. 
With Salzburg my inquiry terminated, and I re¬ 
turned through South Germany, the pharmacy of 
which I left to a more convenient season. Having 
time for reflection on my homeward route, I asked 
myself what were the impressions left on my mind 
by this inquiry into the condition of pharmacy in 
North Germany and Austria; whence this great 
excellence in the German Pharmacist. In education, 
