932 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[May IS, 1872, 
wants and the necessities of the country members. 
With very much that has fallen from you, Sir, I agree, 
but not altogether. You gave us in your own -words the 
first paragraph of the charter of incorporation which 
was granted to the Pharmaceutical Society, and you 
stated it was granted for the purpose of promoting 
chemistry and pharmacy, and also for promoting a uni¬ 
versal system of education of the members of the trade 
which practised that calling. I regret exceedingly to 
find that after the lapse of about thirty years no general 
system of education has been inaugurated by the Council 
of the Pharmaceutical Society. I do not come here to 
speak one disrespectful word of any of the members of 
the present or past Councils. We owe to them a 
great deal of gratitude for the time which they have de¬ 
voted to the interests of the trade. I come not here to 
find fault with the Institution in which we are now 
assembled. The country members are quite as proud of 
it as their town brethren. But at the same time I cannot 
shut my eyes to the fact that as an educating institution 
it affords to our country apprentices and assistants but 
very little help. I do not altogether agree with the re¬ 
mark which has been made with regard to the education 
and with regard to the assistance which the apprentices 
should receive from their employers. I think it is ex¬ 
ceedingly desirable that provincial schools of pharmacy 
should be established in a number of large towns, and 
that these schools, to make them permanent, should be 
assisted by grants of money from the funds of the 
Pharmaceutical Society. There is now a considerable 
surplus income, and I do not think it desirable that that 
surplus year by year should be invested in Consols when 
the great mass of the apprentices and assistants in the 
country need that money to be expended in promoting 
their advancement and education. It has been a source 
of regret to me that the resolutions adopted by the 
Council of the Pharmaceutical Society upon that subject 
have been attended with so little result. I attribute 
that smallness of result to the resolutions themselves, to 
grant small sums of money for the purchase of specimens 
of chemicals, of specimens of materia medica, or for the 
purpose of forming a library, which are all very well in 
themselves, but that is little or nothing towards what we 
require in the country. We do not presume to found 
schools of pharmacy on so broad and extensive a basis as 
this one in Bloomsbury Square, but the school of phar¬ 
macy which we are anxious to establish is one where 
lectures on chemistry, materia medica and botany shall 
be given, so that our apprentices and our assistants may 
have nothing at all to do but to come up to this institu¬ 
tion and pass their examinations without being put to 
the expense of attending for six months the laboratories 
and lectures here. We cannot doubt the fact that the 
great majority of those who are apprenticed to the 
trade in the country are sons of people not altogether in 
humble circumstances, but of very moderate means. 
There are many apprentices in the country whose friends 
could not afford to send them up to London for six 
months to attend a course of lectures here. How are 
these youths to be educated P They come up and they 
pay a premium. The premium which they pay to the 
great majority of country chemists does not "provide 
them with board and lodging. The greater portion of 
every day must be devoted to labour in connection with ; 
their own business. They get an abundant practical 
knowledge during their apprenticeship„quite as good and 
practical a knowledge as they can in any establishment 
in London. What they require in the country is 
scientific training, and that scientific training will be 
best given by lecturers who are well up in the subjects 
upon which they are called to lecture. I do not mean 
to say that we may not be able to establish a school of phar¬ 
macy in the country ; but I have great doubt indeed in my 
own mind as to whether it can be supported permanently 
without grants of money from the parent Society in 
London. I should wish to see these schools of phar¬ 
macy on a firm and satisfactory basis, affiliated with the- 
1 parent Society in London; and I should also wish that 
the Council, before they made grants, should be satisfied 
that the money is going to be expended in a satisfactory 
manner. I trust that during the coming year the 
Council of the Society will give this subject their mos; 
serious attention. Two years ago the subject was very 
ably brought before the members at the annual meetirg 
by Mr. Schacht, and I regret to find that we are as fir 
as ever from having that subject carried out. There- 
does not seem to me, judging from the report which 
I have read, to be really any scheme adopted for- 
assisting provincial education; because to lend a few 
apparatus for fourteen days is perfectly useless to 
us. I do not mean to say but that there may¬ 
be some expensive apparatus for an experiment or 
two which might be of service; but that is not edu¬ 
cating. The country members of the trade are quite- 
prepared to furnish their own school of pharmacy wi:h 
apparatus; they are quite prepared to provide their owm 
library, to take their fair share of the expenses of this- 
school of pharmacy. But they consider they are en¬ 
titled to a fair share of the income of the parent Society 
to which they have so long contributed, and from which, 
hitherto they have received comparatively little in re¬ 
turn. We do not wish to undervalue the Journal which 
we receive every week, because it is very creditable to- 
the Society; but at the same time it does not afford us^ 
that assistance which we require. Neither does it fur¬ 
nish us with the means of educating our apprentices- 
or assistants in a satisfactory manner. After a man has 
devoted ten or twelve hours a day to business, it can 
scarcely be expected that he will devote two or three 
hours of an evening, which is the only time he has for 
social comfort in his own family, to instruct youths in 
the scientific portion of their business; he may afford 
to them time for reading, and we do that in Hull. I am 
glad to say that the great majority of the trade now 
close their places of business at eight o’clock. I ha ve¬ 
al ways done so since I have been in business. I stood 
behind a counter from seven o’clock in the morning- 
until half-past eleven o’clock at night for two years and. 
a half; and when I tell you that at the end of that time- 
with a heavy coat on I did not weigh seven stone, I 
need not say more to show the injurious effect which; 
those long hours had upon myself. For twelve months 
after I left, I was uttei'ly incapable of doing anything 
in the shape of work; and I should be very sorry if I 
thought any young man of mine ever passed through 
such an ordeal as I did myself. I rejoice to tell the- 
gentlemen here present that early closing has found a 
ready response in Hull; and whilst some members of the- 
trade have not thus far seen their own interest to dis¬ 
continue it, I trust that they will, and that the claims- 
which their wives and children have upon them will be 
found greater than the claims of their pockets. There 
is another subject in the Report which I rather regret. 
A great deal has been said about the Benevolent Fund.. 
Those who hear me—and there are members of my owe 
trade here who know me well—will feel sure that I am 
the last man who would wish to say one word in dis¬ 
paragement of that fund. At the same time I quite- 
agree that it is time the Benevolent Fund and the funds- 
of the Society were placed in different investments. If' 
any of us have any money—and it is a trade where very 
few can make money—we are very anxious to get as- 
near o per cent, for it as we can. We are glad to have- 
a little to help us to a crust of bread and a drink of 
water in our old age, and it is necessary to have our- 
money so invested as to bring us in as large an income as- 
possible. I think there have been times when the 
Benevolent Fund might have been invested so as to* 
bring four and a half per cent. Do our large insurance- 
offices invest their funds in Consols P Only until they 
get a better investment. I think the funds of the- 
Society would be far better invested in another way- 
