APPEENTICE V. DUSTER. 
291 
It lias a very plausible appearance to say that one man, knowing the compo¬ 
sition of oxalic acid, its reactions, etc., on supplying an ounce to a customer, 
possesses no advantage over another who, on supplying the same article, knows 
nothing at all about it; but let them be ten years in business, and if they are in 
other respects equal, it will not be difficult to say which of them, at the end of 
that time, will possess the greater share of the public confidence. Education 
and scientific attainments are not valueless, and added to good business abili¬ 
ties, will in an equal race give the possessor a very decided advantage. 
If I could speak with the influence possessed by some, I would say let us not 
appropriate to ourselves unsuitable names, nor strive after a position which, in 
the present state of things, is unattainable, nor call ourselves professional men 
when we are not such, but at once go in and win that true position marked out 
for us, and which we have hitherto, as a body, most culpably neglected. It is 
a wide and it is a profitable field, and it is at present occupied in great part 
either by those who are incompetent, or by those who have in a manner been 
forced upon it by our inefficiency. It lies between the mere trade and the pure 
profession, and it affords ample opportunity for the employment of very high 
intellectual and scientific attainments. Much is being done to enable us to 
occupy this, our true position, but the task is diflicult to combine a just conside¬ 
ration for existing interests with the requirements of advancing knowledge ; but 
beyond all these considerations, Avhich I leave to abler men, lies the fact of our 
youth; there is a field which ■\rill repay effort, there is a material to hand which 
may be moulded at wfill. Let us see that our apprentices have a fair education 
to start with, and then take them in hand and teach them to dust bottles^ ay, 
and to do it well, too, as part of their duty,— 
“ Who sweeps a room as for thy law, 
Makes that and tlie action fine,” 
—to prepare medicines, to compound prescriptions, and then lead them on to that 
wide field of scientific knowledge which lies open before them, and invites them. 
Let apprentices see the duty and necessity of qualifying themselves, and let 
masters encourage them to do so, and the great obstacle to elevation will be re¬ 
moved ; time will accomplish the rest, and at length bring round that better 
state of things for which many sigh, and for which all should work. 
A. II. C. 
APPEENTICE y. DUSTEE. 
Allow me to call your attention to an abuse which adds considerably to the 
ranks of incompetent assistants, and fills its victims wdth a disgust of our vo¬ 
cation, not calculated to better their own interests or those of pharmacy. 
There are shopkeepers, I hope few in number, who not only deal in drugs, 
but also show a decided tendency to do a trade in apprentices,—unblushingly 
pocketing premiums, and in return initiating youths into the art and mystery 
of performing the work of porters. 
Although no advocate for the abolition of the duster, I am decidedly 
against the period of apprenticeship being almost wholly spent in taking down, 
shutters, sweeping out shop, or grinding down oil-colours, which duties, with 
others equally as intellectual, it was my fortune to be particularly well in¬ 
structed in. 
As an attempt at a remedy, to parents and guardians, who are too often 
ignorant of the exigencies of the case, and invariably overrate the advantages 
to be derived from the business,—I would advise the necessity of discrimi¬ 
nating between a desirable and an undesirable opportunity of offering up a 
sacrifice to pharmacy. 
