*934 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[May 13, 1872. 
ing these grants is one of extreme difficulty. I have 
listened with great interest to the remarks which have 
keen made by the gentlemen who have spoken, and 
I have read from time to time the various proposals 
which have been made, and I confess that I am almost 
in a kind of mist, and do not at the present time see my 
way out of the surrounding darkness ; but I take it that 
this our Annual Meeting is one of the very best pos¬ 
sible opportunities for opening up a path, the using 
of which may not only be easy, but afford pleasure 
and satisfaction to the next Council. I therefore take 
it that no positive action of any kind in connection with 
this subject can be taken here to-day. But we have 
gentlemen present who, no doubt, will do what they 
• can, to assist those who are about to take up the 
affairs of the Society for another year. A great deal 
has been said about founding provincial schools. The 
claims of this Society, I need not for one moment advance 
in a meeting such as the present. But, turning to the 
.Journal of May 4th, 1872,1 find that in Leeds it is stated 
that there are in business there 112 gentlemen. Of these 
112 in Leeds, there are connected with the Society 27; 
of associates not in business and registered appren¬ 
tices, 11. We have had a sound, and not an uncer¬ 
tain one, from the enterprising town of Sheffield, and 
there I find the total number in business 100 ; con¬ 
nected with the Society, 27 ; associates not in business 
.and registered apprentices, 9. I go again to Hull, the 
olaims of which have been so ably stated by Mr. 
Pickering, and I find there the total number in busi¬ 
ness 102 ; connected with the Society 19; associates 
not in business and registered apprentices, 4. 
Mr. Pickering : I think there is a mistake there. We 
Rave only 90 in the trade. 
Mr. Mackay : As this was never contradicted, I took 
it for granted it was admitted as correct; but I will 
read it as 90.* Now this is a state of matters which I 
think should not be. I hope the time has passed when 
it will be possible for such a table to be again printed. 
But in connection with this statement, I cannot but feel 
that while the young men may have been to blame, and 
are to blame, there is an amount of blame attachable 
to the masters, to which I not only take this op¬ 
portunity of drawing attention, but which I would 
ask them to look fairly in the face. After the 
passing of the Pharmacy Act of 1852, we had a 
visit from the late respected and venerated Jacob 
Bell, in Edinburgh. In 1853, at a meeting there 
I made a motion to the effect that, now that the 
Pharmacy Act was passed, small as the privileges were 
which it gave, masters—chemists and druggists—in 
taking apprentices should put in a clause in the inden¬ 
tures binding each youth to attend a course of lectures 
on materia medica and chemistry. That was seconded 
and carried. Observe; at that time there was no such 
thing as Preliminary examination. Mr. Bell made a 
second motion to the effect that practical chemistry and 
botany should be added wherever it could be done. 
Those two motions wei’e passed; and they have been to 
a certain extent acted upon. For myself, I have always 
acted upon it ; and, in addition, since the Preliminary 
examination has come into operation, I am safe in saying 
that I am joined by a good many, not only in Edinburgh^ 
but out of it, who, when a parent or guardian makes an 
inquiry as to a vacancy in an establishment, the very 
first thing said is—if there is a vacancy—A. B. will be 
taken, but not until he has passed the Preliminary ex¬ 
amination of the Society. Then the next point is—that 
being agreed—if your son, after a month’s trial pleases, 
and likes the business, a clause shall be inserted in the in¬ 
dentures by which C. D., as a master, binds himself to 
* There arc 97 names given in Nelly’s Post Office Directory 
of Chemists and Druggists; besides these there are four 
pharmaceutical chemists whose names are not included there¬ 
in, and one associate in business.—E d. Phakm. Jo dux. 
give time to the pupil, A. B., to attend a course of materia 
medica, chemistry, and botany, you finding the money, 
C.D., as I have said, giving the time. The effect of such 
an arrangement is, that during the apprenticeship, a full 
course of these three scientific departments is made avail¬ 
able ; and if the youth during the five years’ apprentice¬ 
ship takes advantage of the collection of specimens to 
which he ought to be admitted, and occupies his spare 
time in reading, the great probability is that, at the 
end of his apprenticeship, with perhaps a course of 
three months’ practical chemistry, or even one months’ 
close study, he may with some degree of credit pass his 
Minor examination. I say again, in drawing the atten¬ 
tion of gentlemen now present to this, that if they would 
follow out such plan, I believe the rejections which we see 
with so much regret would not be so numerous. I am 
quite aware I am advocating a system as to which it may 
be said,—That is all very well for you in Edinburgh and 
Glasgow, London, Liverpool, or Brighton and other 
large towns, but such a course could not be carried out 
in the small villages. It is that very fact which prevents 
me from seeing my way as an individual in regard to the 
proposed grants for education in the country. I repeat 
that is the very reason why I fail to see any manner in 
which we can justly draft to certain large towns a con¬ 
siderable sum of money for the purpose of founding pro¬ 
vincial schools of pharmacy. I know it may be said— 
why should you refuse to establish provincial schools of 
pharmacy all over the country ? Why should you allow 
pupils in London to get for one guinea what it costs us 
in the country three or four guineas to obtain F What 
is the reply ? I myself would not object to see our 
present professors cease to get their £300 a year from the 
funds of this Society. Some gentlemen will be horrified 
at hearing me say that. But I have the conviction, and 
as an honest man I speak it. Turning to the annual ac¬ 
count now on the table, I find that for years we have paid 
£600 a year to two lecturers, and the fees set off against 
the £600 come to £189, leaving a sum of £411, wffiich 
you hand over to these gentlemen. I say the labourer 
is well worthy of his hire, and I should not wish for a 
single moment to see the professors paid less. My desire 
is to see them get more. But the question comes, in 
what way P I say, as a Pharmaceutical Society, we should 
certainly have the power to appoint our own professors, 
and I have no hesitation in saying that the Council of 
this Society should appoint Professor Redwood and give 
him the use of the lecture room and apparatus in our pre¬ 
sent house,and so I say with regard to Professor Bentley. 
But do not let these salaries he paid at the expense of 
parties in country towns who never will be able to take 
advantage of the lectures. Let the student come here 
and pay a legitimate price for the lectures. I venture 
to say from what I know of the character of the 
lectures given in this hall, that there is no young man who 
would grudge a minimum sum, say of three guineas. If 
that be the case, taking the numbers attending at 73 
and 60, as I find them to be during the present session; 
and it is not at all beyond our imagination to suppose 
that these 73 and 60 may be increased by 20 or 30 in 
both cases ; if, therefore, you have three guineas instead 
of one guinea for each ticket, your professors wmuld then 
be paid more than £300 a year, and right welcome, would 
they be to it. It will, therefore, be apparent that I am 
opposed to the idea of giving large sum.3 of money to 
provincial centres for the purpose of founding or endowing 
professorial or educational chairs. I would even go to 
the laboratory, and say if you appoint Professor Attfield, 
and give him the use of the laboratory upstairs he would, 
by charging his own fees, make a larger income than he 
at present derives, while the funds of the Society would 
also be benefited. I say it is the duty of the Society to 
do what it can to assist not only large provincial centres, 
but small provincial centres. But then I come to the 
difficulty—how is that to be accomplished ? Although 
it has been cast aside by Mr. Pickering, I think if this 
