THE POSITION AND PllOSFECTS OF PHARMACY. 
255 
comprised in apprenticeship, and that he entered the business with an 
avssiired position at the mature age of 21. O fortunate adolescens I to be so 
fuvoured of the gods and men. It would thns appear that while other young 
men were obtaining a practical knowledge of the business, the author of 
“Pharmaceutical Ethics ” was studying the arts and sciences under eminent 
professors at Eing’s College ; and, that he made good use of his time, his 
many excellent contributions to this Journal will attest. But this “ style ” 
would never do for the rank and file, who must labour to live. Mr. Ince 
stands a high-priest of pharmacy after the order of “ Melchisedek.” Turn it 
as wm may, the business of a compounder of medicine is one requiring con¬ 
tinuous labour; it cannot be made a purely intellectual avocation, and any 
attempt to do so must end in disappointment. 
While stating the absolute position of the present practitioners of phar¬ 
macy, I am far from saying but that it might be greatly improved if some of 
the impedimenta that now encompass us were either mitigated or removed. 
I will specially allude to two of the most prominent;—1. The non-exaction, 
by the State, of a certificate of competency from the professors of pharmacy. 
2. The practice of surgeon-apothecaries vending their own medicines. In 
discussing the first proposition, let me observe that the creation of a monopoly 
is not what we desire. We don’t want our shops licensed and protected, like 
public-houses; but we wish to establish the principle, that those who carry 
on business in these shops should have given satisfactory evidence that they 
could distinguish between oxalic acid and Epsom salts, or between quinine 
and salicine, and explain the physical properties, medical uses, and doses of 
any drug, chemical, or compound in use; that this, besides being a great 
public benefit, would be of infinite service to those carrying on the business, 
as it would in time get rid of the incompetent, low-minded, and generally 
cunning men, who, by means of their unscrupulous competition, render it 
difficult for a conscientious man to get a living. Were all professors of phar¬ 
macy educated men, a code, “ lerjes non scriptce ''' would arise, and, by means 
of etiquette, influence pharmaceutists in their demeanour one to another and 
to the public. I trust the present generation may be permitted to see the 
light shine, if only the faint ray of early dawn ; as then the hearts of many of 
our veterans, who have been long watching and waiting, will be gladdened 
at the thought of a good time coming for others, if not for themselves. 
I will now allude to the purveyance of medicine by medical practitioners. 
Of course the abstract right of medical men to provide medicine for their 
patients cannot be disputed, but I unhesitatingly assert the practice to be in 
towns unnecessary, inconvenient, and wasteful, and at variance with the 
established usage of nearly the whole civilized world; indeed, in the United 
Xingdom, Scotland and Ireland pronounce against the system, and in many 
large towns in England the custom has of late years been for the medical man 
to prescribe,—Liverpool to wit; at all the principal watering-places the same 
course is pursued; and wffiy on eartli should three-fourths of the medicine 
consumed in London issue from the private shops of surgeons rather than 
from the’public shops of chemists ? The answer is plain,—because the general 
practitioners will it to be so ; and until these gentlemen see it their interest 
to abandon pharmacy, the present incongruous system will continue, any 
cause shown to the contrary notwithstanding. Although we all know that 
the combination of medical practitioner and apothecary or pharmaceutist, 
arose in the effort of the cheap apothecary to supplant the dear physician, 
yet few, I should think, would do more than apologize for such an alliance. 
The very licence of the Apothecaries’ Company is a non sepdtur; it sets forth 
that the licentiate has been examined on the principles and practice of medi¬ 
cine, and has a licence to practise the art of an apothecary; L e. has been 
