PHAUMACEUTICAL ETHICS. 
193 
or three topies. In the first place, with regard to the duties of assistants, he thought 
he miglit premise that it was an ingredient in the human nature of those who served 
to fancy themselves placed in antagonism to those by whom they were engaged. He 
did not know why it should be so ; but it was nevei'theless a positive fact that in 
almost every household and establishment there seemed to exist a species of antagonism 
on the part of servants towards masters. The reason was, he believed, that the parties 
did not clearly understand each other. Some of the different causes had been very 
clearly pointed out by Mr. Ince in his paper ; but with regard to assistants, he might 
say that he thought they were under a misapprehension as to their position, and 
also the position of their masters. The employer was not his own master,—that 
fact the assistant did not seem at all to understand. His business is perfectly distinct 
in itself, and is conducted under conditions which have been forced upon it by per¬ 
sons patronizing the establishment, the services of which were regulated according to 
the requirements of the public as they were placed before the master. Now, when 
an assistant, or young man, engaged himself to an employer, he positively sells his 
services. It was most important for every assistant to bear in mind that, having 
engaged himself, he has sold his services, and that it was his absolute duty to give a quid 
fro quo faithfully and honestly. He must, at the same time, bear in mind that if his em¬ 
ployer was a hard task-master, that he (the employer) had a much harder task-master in 
a very exacting public in the habits and usages of society. Therefore, whatever arrange¬ 
ment was attempted to be made they must take into consideration all the various cir¬ 
cumstances of the community in which they lived. Now, wliat he would urge upon 
assistants was, that they should bear in mind all these conditions, and not take the 
one-sided view of the case which they commonly did, and which had been so admi¬ 
rably pointed out by Mr. Ince. At the same time, he most sincerely sympathized with 
the apprentices and assistants, who were sometimes placed in very trying circum¬ 
stances, the greater part of them going through their labours pretty much as a horse 
worked a miU. Therefore it was their duty to promote their rational enjoyment, and 
to enliven their energies by every means in their power. The system adopted by him¬ 
self he found to operate very well. From the very nature of his business it was im¬ 
possible his assistants could be allowed to go out in the evening, and therefore he had 
made arrangements by which every young man had an entire day on alternate weeks, 
which appeared to give them much satisfaction, and certainly caused him no incon¬ 
venience. Another point upon which he wished to say a few words was that of the 
mixed nature of the business. It was impossible to go into the whole subject, as it 
would afford matter for a lengthy essay ; but he w'ould just observe that, at the time 
of the passing of the Apothecaries Act, the apothecaries of that day were pretty much 
in the same condition in which they themselves were at the present time. Their 
businesses were mixtures of the barber’s and the apothecary’s, for they sold perfumery, 
hair-brushes, and other things not directly connected with their trade. When the 
apothecary—or the general practitioner, as he was now termed—came to be supported 
by Act of Parliament, it left the chemists and druggists in their present condition. He 
was inclined to think from the multitude of advertisements continually appearing that 
one-half of the chemists of this country did not return more than £200 a year by the 
legitimate exercise of their business. This was, no doubt, a very serious state of things; 
and they ought to bear in mind, in discussing the question, that it was clear that a 
person, however well qualified, could not live by such a business alone. The chemist 
was therefore obliged in many cases—as he knew, and no doubt all of them more or less 
knew—to mtroduce things foreign to his business, till he sold, not only combs, hair¬ 
brushes, perfumery, and things of that sort, but even haberdashery, mouse-traps, and 
nobody knew what. And if the man so dealing in drugs and chemicals, and calling liiua- 
self a chemist and druggist, was a properly-qualified man, he could see no reason wliy he 
should not deal in mouse-traps, or anything else by which he could get a living. That 
was an entirely different thing to a man rushing straight from the grocei’’s, tlie 
huckster’s, or the haberdasher’s shop into the line of pharmacy, and setting himself 
up as a judge of things of which he knew nothing at all. They had a right to com¬ 
plain that these men were allowed to interfere with educated men. He made these 
remarks because he was very desirous of pointing out the difference between the two 
classes. The one was the legitimate ifiiarmaceutist, cliemist, and druggist brought up 
VOL. VIII. O 
