STATE OF PHARMACY IN FRANCE* 
325 
consider pertinent, and from Iiis letter in reply, and also from information 
received through the courtesy of Mr. Daniel Hanbury from Professor Planchon 
of the Ecole de Pharmacie of Montpellier, I am enabled to give the following 
abstract:—There are two kinds of pharmaciens in France, those of the first 
and those of the second class. A pharmaeien of the first class must be a 
Bachelor of Sciences, which is the degree required of students of medicine 
before entering on their special studies: he must pass twelve terms, occupy¬ 
ing a period of three years in a higher school of pharmacy (Ecole superieure 
de Pharmacie), or he has the option of passing four terms in a higher school 
and ten terms in a secondary school of pharmacy (ecole secondaire); he must 
then be articled for three years to a pharmaeien (trois annees de stage dans 
une officine). In France pupils are said to be “ articled ” to professional men 
and pharmaciens, and to be “ apprenticed ” to grocers and other tradesmen. 
A pharmaeien of the second class need not be a Bachelor of Sciences, a 
certificate of the fourth form # sufficing; he must pass one year in a school of 
pharmacy, keeping either four terms in a higher, or six in a secondary school, 
and be articled for six years, or he has the option of being articled for four 
years and keeping eight terms in a higher or twelve in a secondary school. 
No pharmaeien can commence business until he has attained the age of 
twenty-five. 
The examinations for both classes are three ; two oral, a day intervening 
between each, and a third practical. The first examination is in physics, 
chemistry, toxicology, and in the translation of passages in the ‘ Latin Codex.’ 
The second is in botany and materia medica, the candidate being required to 
recognize and describe thirty articles of the materia medica and twenty plants 
selected at random. The third examination is divided into two parts : in the 
first, the candidate has to determine the name, etc., of such materia medica as 
are placed before him, their natural history, chemical properties, sophistica¬ 
tions, and the means of ascertaining the purity of their products; in the 
second, he has to prepare, under the surveillance of the examiners, at the 
least five galenical medicaments and five chemical products,—he has to describe 
their properties and characters, and how he has prepared them ; this exami¬ 
nation occupies four days. 
Again, a pharmaeien of the first class has a right to commence business in 
any town in France, and to change to any point at will; his fees on examina¬ 
tion are about £56. 
The Minister of Public Instruction has the power of granting, and generally 
does grant on demand to pharmaciens of this class the privilege of com¬ 
mencing business at the age of twenty-four. 
A pharmaeien of the second class, on presenting himself for examination, 
must.name the department in which he intends to open an “officine,” and if, 
at any time, he wishes to go into another department, he must again submit 
himself to examination and again pay the fees, and this as often as he changes 
his department: his examination fees are £33. 
No pharmaeien is allowed to sell any poison without the order of a medical 
man or veterinary surgeon, and even then the sale has to be duly entered in 
a book kept for that purpose, which book is annually inspected by a com¬ 
mission appointed to that end. The commission at the same time examines 
the general arrangements of the officine with regard to the safe keeping of 
poisons, and also satisfies itself as to the proper preservation and good con¬ 
dition of the medicaments. 
* In a Lycee there are nine classes or forms, one of which is passed yearly by every pupil 
of ordinary capacity; as the pupils begin at the ninth form, by the time they obtain their 
certificate of the fourth form they must have passed six years in study. 
