THE PHAMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
VOL. VIII.—No. IV.—OCTOBER, 1866. 
WHAT HAS EDUCATION DONE? 
A quarter of a century ago the founders of the Pharmaceutical Society esta¬ 
blished, for the first time in this country, a school for completing the education 
of those engaged in the practice of pharmacy. There had not previously been 
any special provision made for the instruction of pharmaceutical students in 
those branches of science most closely connected with the knowledge involved 
in their business pursuits. Men called themselves chemists without possessing a 
knowledge of even the elementary principles of the science of chemistry ; and 
they styled themselves druggists without knowing anything of the natural his¬ 
tory of drugs. These men were mere dealers in articles which passed through 
their hands under names by w^hich they w^ere known in commerce, just as an¬ 
other class of tradesmen dealt in tea, coffee, tobacco, and snuff, without knowing 
the botanical names of the plants yielding them, the processes to wTiich they had 
been subjected, or the active constituents upon which their efficacy depended. 
But, although possessing no scientific knowledge on these points, the grocer knew 
how to distinguish between good and bad tea or tobacco, and, exercising this 
knowledge wdth discretion, there was no ground for complaint, nor any dissatis¬ 
faction expressed with his qualification. So also the chemist and druggist, 
without the aid of science, could supply good drugs, and become, to some ex¬ 
tent, expert in discriminating between good and bad. But the qualities of 
drugs used in the treatment of disease cannot be determined as easily as those 
of grocery, and deficiency in the strength, or alteration in the qualities of 
medicines may be of far greater importance than variations, such as are likely 
to occur, in articles of diet. Moreover, the chemist and druggist has something 
more to do than merely to sell drugs ; he has to prepare from these a variety of 
products, in the production of which chemical and other scientific knowledge 
is often involved. The advancement of medical science has led to the use in 
medicine of many very powerful substances, produced by chemical processes 
from natural products ; and the use as w^ell as the production of these sub¬ 
stances is attended with much danger, if entrusted to persons unacquainted 
with their physiological and chemical effects and properties. Loss of life and 
injury to health have been caused by the ignorant exercise of the art of pre¬ 
paring and administering medicines. At the period already referred to there 
was a well-grounded complaint of the want of systematic education among 
those engaged in the practice of pharmacy, to which deficiency many defects 
and evils attending the sale and administration of medicines and drugs were 
ascribed. This deficiency was felt and admitted by those to w'hom it specially 
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