May 4, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
887 
ipjrarmamifttitl Jauntal. 
SATURDAY\ MAY 4, 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 , W.C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, London , W. Envelopes indorsed u Fharm. Journ.” 
THE RELATION OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL 
SOCIETY TO EDUCATION. 
The action of tlie Pharmaceutical Society in 
regard to Education is a subject which has 
recently cropped up from time to time, in these pages, 
and, in the form either of an address, an essay, a let¬ 
ter, or the report of a provincial association, various 
'Opinions have been expressed respecting it. But 
generally the reference to this subject has been either 
purely incidental, or so far superficial that only cer¬ 
tain of its aspects have been dealt with. 
Even the recent idea that the Society should 
provide educational facilities for students in the 
provinces does not appear to have excited sufficient 
■enthusiasm to produce any response to our sugges¬ 
tion that it should be discussed in these pages; and 
though “provincial education” has since assumed 
a prominence to some extent commensurate with its 
importance, the expression of opinion on this sub¬ 
ject has been almost entirely one-sided. Possibly 
the majority of our members are satisfied with the 
present position of the Society in this matter; 
it is one which has cost much labour, time, and 
money to mature, and, therefore, it should not be 
lightly set aside. 
On the other hand, there is evidence that many 
•do not understand what the existing relation of the 
Society to Education really is. Some who have 
spoken or written on the question evidently labour 
arnder considerable misapprehension on this point. 
Thus we have, in the first place, one who is a 
pioneer in the matter treating the Society’s School 
as being simply metropolitan, while another promi¬ 
nent thinker gives the Council credit for promoting 
the education of provincial men only to the extent to 
■which it has subsidized local effort by small grants. 
And a third eloquent leader in Pharmaceutical po¬ 
licy evidently regards the School in Bloomsbury as 
benefiting only London and its suburbs. Now, as a 
matter of fact, four out of five students in the 
Society’s laboratory are young men who come from 
the country specially to study there, with the object 
of passing the Society’s examinations, and they re¬ 
turn to the country as soon as that object is accom¬ 
plished. This has, indeed, always been the case. 
When, therefore, presidents and members of pro¬ 
vincial associations base their arguments for grants 
in aid of local schools upon the erroneous assump¬ 
tion that the funds expended by the Council on 
education do not benefit the provinces, they place 
themselves in opposition to fact, and miss the really 
cogent argument they might urge in support of their 
views. The School of Pharmacy, in Bloomsbury 
Square, is in reality far more provincial than me¬ 
tropolitan ; if the provinces have chiefly contributed 
to its support, the provinces have received the chief 
benefit. In this respect it resembles most other 
metropolitan institutions, or, in fact, London itself, 
which, unlike most other towns, has not been placed 
in its proud position solely by the energy of its mer¬ 
chants and traders—is not ever striving to outstrip a 
rival, for it has none,—is, indeed, scarcely a town 
at all, containing as it does several towns, two 
cities, and some half-dozen boroughs, but is rather 
a provincial centre. So the Society’s School is the 
School of Pharmacy of Great Britain, located in 
the most convenient centre; while in respect of 
organization, funds and students, it is what the 
counties generally, and not merely Middlesex and 
Surrey, have made it. 
In short, the members of the Pharmaceutical 
Society have successful^ established one central 
school of which all are proud. We might, more¬ 
over, add that London, the centre at which all 
English candidates for examination attend, offers 
extra-collegiate facilities for pharmaceutical study 
at least equal to those of any town in the kingdom. 
But we refrain from multiplying such arguments, 
as our object is not to plead for the present school, 
but to state its true position in regard to metro¬ 
politan and provincial members of the Society. It is 
a question whether the advantages it offers are fully 
appreciated by all; but certainly they are not made 
use of as they should be, even by those who cannot 
plead the excuse that it is inaccessible ; and though 
it may be matter for argument whether a second or 
third school of similar character should be founded 
elsewhere, it is much more a question of urgency 
to consider whether in view of the great difficulties 
of creating such establishments — comprising not 
only a lecture-room, laboratory, store-rooms, and 
other offices, but also a museum, library and pro¬ 
fessorial staff—it might not be desirable to endea¬ 
vour to get more work out of the existing schco’, 
for its appliances are ample, for very much larger 
classes than have yet attended the Institution. 
In saying this much, however, it must not be sup¬ 
posed that the importance of what is generally meant 
by the term “ provincial education ’ is undervalued, 
or that the need for further educational facilities in 
the provinces is in the least doubted. Apart from 
other evidence, the action lately taken by several 
provincial associations fully proves the existence of 
a want in tliis respect, as well as the imperative 
