THE PHAEMACEUTICAL JOUENAL. 
SECOND SEEIES, 
VOL. YIII.—No. V.—NOVEMBER, 1866 . 
\ 
ExiRLY CLOSING. 
Of all tbe subjects introduced in Mr. Ince’s excellent paper on Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Ethics, not one, perhaps, attracted more immediate attention than his re¬ 
marks on the relations subsisting between teachers and apprentices, masters 
and assistants. It was clearly his duty to impress on both parties the mutuality 
of their contracts, a mutuality extending far beyond what may be called 
the “ letter of the bond,” embracing their moral duties to each other, over and 
above their legal obligations. That the same spirit should animate the whole 
tenor of his remarks was, of course, to be expected from the very title of 
his paper, and that it did will readily be granted by all who have perused, as 
well as all who heard it. But there is generally some question uppermost 
in the public mind, which brings one part of a discourse into greater promi¬ 
nence than the rest. At this time the qualification or education of future 
pharmaceutists, the opportunities to be given to apprentices for study, 
and assistants either for study or relaxation, as they may wisely apportion 
them, happen to be engrossing much attention ; therefore, various speakers 
were led to offer opinions on these points on the instant, although, we trust, 
the many valuable remarks offered by Mr. Ince on other principles of phar¬ 
maceutical morality, were impressed on them no less deeply, and will bear 
fruit no less certainly. 
We are free to confess, that the mutualities between masters and appren¬ 
tices have often been very imperfectly x^erformed, perhaps on both sides, but 
the latter may be expected to take their tone from the former. Many 
masters, in taking apprentices, have looked too much to the ^Dremium paid 
by, and the manual lalDOur to be performed by them ; too little to the pre¬ 
liminary education necessary for entering on a scientific business, and scarcely 
at all to the special instruction which it is their duty as teachers to inculcate. 
But, we trust, matters are improving on these points, as surely they must, 
unless chemists, who should be the most professional of tradesmen, are con¬ 
tent to lag behind in the general progress of society. We believe, most 
apprentices are now better instructed in “ the arts and mysteries ” than they 
were twenty years ago, although they may be employed (not unprotitably to 
themselves) in dusting bottles and keeping the every-day apjparatus of the 
shoj) in decent order. The growing conviction that a time is approaching 
when a man will be compelled to prove his qualification before entering on 
the important practice of pharmacy, drives ajoprentices, in greater proportion 
year by year, to register under the Pharmacy Act, and necessarily to submit 
VOL. VIII. T 
