190 
BRITISH PIIARMACEUTICAB CONFERENCE. 
paper waf? directed to the fact that pharmacy was styled a trade. It was quite right 
that they should manfully face that rather disagreeable—as he was disposed to regard it 
—point in the subject. Now one of the characteristics of the present day was, that 
while the practice of pharmacy was consistent with the idea that those professing it 
were men of liberal education and scientific attainments, it did by no means follow that 
the man exhibiting himself to the world as a pharmaceutist possessed those necessary 
qualifications. At the same time they did feel ashamed to write themselves “chemists 
and druggists but nevertheless it was, he supposed, a thing to which they would be 
obliged to submit, till that good tiine came when compulsory education would be in force, 
and when a man intending to become a pharmaceutist would be required to go through 
a certain curriculum before he could bear the impress of professional character. At pre¬ 
sent matters were as Mr. Ince had so well and clearly pointed out. The pharmaceutist 
called himself a chemist and druggist, and so could every huckster and grocer. One bad 
feature of pharmacy was the number of small shops established on ridiculously small capi¬ 
tal. A great many who started in business opened simply with the fixtures and a few com¬ 
mon drugs—without any provision for a laboratory, and consequently their efforts were 
chiefly directed to competition and under-selling one another. This class of men, as a 
rule, took no pride in the quality of the articles they dispensed, and therefore they were 
nothing more or less than hucksters or chapmen in drugs—not pharmaceutists. He 
was anxioirs to see the time when it would be made a necessity that every pharmaceu¬ 
tical establishment should have its own laboratory—that every proprietor should be pro¬ 
vided wdth the appliances for manufacturing a great many of his own articles. That, 
he thought, would be one means by which they might rapidly emerge from the condition 
of mere tradesmen—not but that they would remain tradesmen to the end of time ; for 
they could not dissociate an open establishment with trade ; but he did trust that the 
time would come, and that speedily, when the pharmaceutist, if a tradesman in reality, 
w'ould not be what he might call a mere tradesman, and when he would by his scientific 
attainments claim to be classed among the ranks of professional men. It had occurred 
to him that it would be well for the paper of Mr, Ince to bb followed by a resolution. 
He should be disposed to accept a resolution to the effect that the Conference considered 
legislation was required. The question of proprietory preparations was one of con¬ 
siderable difficulty, and depending for a true interpretation entirely upon special circum¬ 
stances, and upon their owm good feeling and personal sense of what was right and just. 
He condemned the practice of dispensing for medical men as being an unholy alliance, 
—an alliance which was in every way calculated to perpetuate the jealousy formerly 
existing between the two professions, which was one of the greatest promoters of late 
hours, and which was not profitable. He was therefore glad to find that the rela¬ 
tionships which had hitherto existed were being severed. Speaking upon the subject of 
apprentices, he said it was a very unfortunate fact that the best houses, and therefore 
the best qualified to teach youths and bring them out as technically educated men of 
business, would not receive apprentices. That was one thing adverse to the introduction 
of good youths into the business. He recommended that, in order to prevent the ad¬ 
mission of incompetent youths,to the profession, it should be made an indispensable 
condition that every person taking an apprentice should have a laboratory ; for it was 
a most essential thing that a young man should have a practical knowledge of the 
qualities and properties of drugs before he was put to dispense them. A probationary 
period in a laboratory would be highly instructive to an apprentice ; it was not instructive 
for him to have to dust bottles, and he thought such work should not be expected of him. 
(Oh! oh !) The speaker then referred to the great interest which the late Jacob Bell took 
in the question of apprentices, and said how glad he would have been, had he lived, to 
hear the ideas that day expressed upon the ethics of pharmacy. He believed that the 
present increasing scarcity—if he might use a contradictory phrase—of assistants, though 
not at present felt, would ultimately result in a considerable inconvenience. Touching 
the subject of a universal tariff, he was strongly of the opinion that it was impossible 
to adopt one prescribed scale of prices throughout the kingdom ; but he was free to 
think that arrangements might be made in certain localities. He thought, too, that if 
an article was of sutficiently good quality to be reliable, there was no reason why it 
should be rejected, or why it should not be sold for persons demanding lower prices. It 
was very important, however, that the leading houses should take their stand upon fair 
and remunerative prices, not only for their own sakes, but for the sake of others. 
