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THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[May 11, 1872. 
Early Closing. 
Sir,—It may assist the early closing movement, when I 
mention that for years I have had the window and door 
shutters put up at 8 r.M., and I hope others wall now follow 
my example, and that we shall soon see the absurd plan of 
keeping up one shutter and keeping another shutter down, 
like coloured bottles, “ things of the past.” 
William T. Cooper. 
26, Oxford Street, London. 
The Profession op Pharmacy. 
Sir,—In a recent letter appearing in your pages from the 
pen of Mr. Rimmington, the term “ Profession ” with a note 
of interrogation after it occurs, implying, I presume, the 
waiter’s doubt as to the correctness of the term. As several 
of your correspondents have latterly made considerable use 
of the word when writing of our calling, it may not perhaps 
be considered out of place to inquire how far we are warranted 
in the use of the word. My own impression is that in 
writing or speaking of our business as the “pi’ofession of 
pharmacy,” we allow zeal to outrun discretion. Strictly 
speaking, and according to general usage, “profession” 
means a calling or vocation by which a livelihood is obtained 
through the medium of a special branch of science, law, or 
literature, in contradistinction to “ trade,” which implies a 
trafficking in goods for the sake of profit. Now without 
doubt our daily occupation must be classed under the latter 
term ; we are mere dealers or traffickers in goods. We may 
possess a well-fitted laboratory for the preparation of phar¬ 
macopoeia compounds, or for scientific investigation, and our 
shelves may be well-filled with pharmaceutical preparations ; 
but our counters and cases are stocked with perfumery, soaps, 
toilet requisites of every conceivable description, pickles and 
sauces, grocers’ sundries, tobacco and cigars, seeds, etc.; our 
cellars with oils and colours, and odds and ends of nearly 
every trade under the sun. Does the sale of these accessories 
with drugs suffice to rank us with professional men ? 
That there exist pharmacies where the drug trade almost 
pure and simple is carried on I know, and I admit that the pro¬ 
prietors of such, and even of others, by reason of superior 
scientific attainments, may almost lay claim to professional 
rank; but in the majority of establishments, the sale of phar¬ 
maceutical preparations forms only a small portion of the 
returns, and so trading has to be tacked on to what might 
otherwise constitute the elements of a profession. 
We all look forward to the time when the interests of 
pharmacy will be confided to the care of a more highly edu¬ 
cated class of men; when medical men will confine them¬ 
selves strictly to their own special branches of science, leaving 
dispensing to those who devote their time and money to its 
study and work; and when even stricter examinations will 
tend to reduce the number of aspirants to its ranks. Then, 
and not till then, will the dispensing and preparation of 
drugs alone be sufficiently lucrative to induce the followers 
of pharmacy to tear from its stem the parasitic growths 
which at present encumber it, and so render it worthy of the 
appellation “ Profession of pharmacy.” 
M. J. Ellwood. 
Leominster , April 30 th, 1872. 
Who Shall Dispense P 
Sir,—I am obliged to you for inserting my letter in last 
week’s Journal, but in common with many other would- 
be writers, I find that the letter does not express so explicitly 
as I would wish the idea I desire to impress on the members 
of the trade. 
With ycur permission I will submit the following propo¬ 
sitions :— 
Thanks to the efforts of the late Jacob Bell and others, 
chemists, as a body, hold a far better position than formerly 
Eor the future a severe educational test will be applied to 
all entering the trade. This education must involve a great 
outlay both of time and money. The present state of things 
leaves so small a proportion of dispensing in the hands of 
chemists, that few persons of good position will care to bring 
up their sons to the calling, and the evident tendency of the 
trade is to restrict the chemists’ business to dispensing. 
Being now by law recognized as an educated body—being 
by law compelled to assume great responsibilities, I contend 
that it is a duty to ourselves and to those who may come 
after us, to make the calling worthy of the education and 
responsibility. This can only be done by making the chemist 
(call him pharmacist if you like) the only recognized dis¬ 
penser of medicine. 
I know that this proposition involves a great deal, that it 
will take time and occupy far abler heads than mine to work 
out the problem, but I want to set the idea before the mem¬ 
bers of the trade (I would avoid the term profession yet 
awhile). From conversations I have had with different 
members of the medical profession, I feel confident they will 
willingly assist us; but we must bear in mind that when, 
they cease to be dispensers, we must cease to be prescribers. 
Henry Lawrence. 
Kensington, W. 
Preliminary Examination. 
Sir,—I think you would have a decided improvement in the- 
answers of candidates sitting for the above examination, if a 
little more time was allowed, say an hour and a half to each 
subject, making a total of four and a half hours for the whole. 
If the twenty questions given by the Board of Examiners be 
answered in three hours, it is only an average of nine minutes 
to each, and allowing twenty minutes for the composition 
question, it makes even that average considerably less. 
Then again, I think that some little consideration ought to 
be made in the case of candidates who were apprentices 
previous to July, 1867, or many youths must forfeit that 
which would have been the result of a large premium, or in 
other words, have their prospects blighted for life. It is- 
almost impossible for a youth to so ground himself in English 
grammar (after having left school for several years) as to 
answer such questions as the following:—“ Into how many 
classes are adverbs of time divided ? Give several examples 
of each.” "Will it not be well for preliminary candidates to 
state on the form of application, if they were in the pro¬ 
fession before the pa-rsing of the Act or not ? 
One who Failed on April 8th. 
A. Strachan .—Your letter has been handed to the Secre¬ 
tary. 
31. J. JEllwood .—* How Crops Grow,’ published by Mac¬ 
millan. 
C. Andreios .—A retailer of beer, spirits and wine can sell 
under his licence rectified spirits of wine, but he cannot, under 
any circumstances, sell methylated spirit on the same pre¬ 
mises ; nor would the revenue authorities grant a licence to 
sell methylated spirit to a retailer of beer, spirits and wine 
on the premises on which these goods are sold. 
G. C. —(1) Phosphate of lime with colouring matter. (2) 
Yes. (3) The deposit cannot be utilized, as it is less soluble 
in the acid than when first made. 
O. J. Rivett .—Chloride of sodium does not burn. The 
colour of the flame is due to the vaporization of a small por¬ 
tion of the chloride. 
The following journals have been received:—The ‘British 
Medical Journal,’ May 4 ; the * Medical Times and Gazette/ 
May 4; the ‘Lancet,’ May 4; the ‘Medical Press and 
Circular, May 7; ‘Nature,’ May 4; the ‘ Chemical News,’ 
May 4; ‘English Mechanic,’ May 3; ‘Gardeners’ 
Chronicle,’ May 4; the ‘Grocer,’ May 4; the ‘Journal of 
the Society of Arts,’ May 4; ‘Grocery News,’ May 4; 
‘ Transactions of the Odontological Society,’ for April; ‘ The 
Chemists’ and Druggists’ Advocate,’ for April 20; ‘ Le- 
Moniteur Scientifique-Quesneville ’ for April; ‘Vierteljah- 
resschrift fur praktische Pharmacie ’ for April; ‘ British 
Journal of Dental Science ’ for May; ‘ Florist and Pomo- 
logist’for May; ‘Neues Jahrbuch fur Pharmacie,’ Sept., 
1871, to Feb., 1872; ‘ Zeitschrift des aligemeinen osterreich- 
ischen Apotheker-Vereines’ for May 1; the ‘Practitioner’ for 
May; ‘Michigan University Journal’ for April; ‘Journal 
of Materia Medica ’ for April; ‘ Food, Water, and Air ’ for 
May. 
Communications, Letters, etc., have been received from 
Mr. H. Pocklington, Mr. A. Jones, Dr. Archbold, F. J. 
Furnivall, G. T., “ Student,” “ Country Major Associate,” 
“ One who has known the Drug Trade,” etc. 
