292 
GENERAL BUSINESS. 
To such masters, let me suggest more consideration for the requirements, 
and a more lively interest in the future prosperity of the young people con¬ 
signed to their guidance. 
As the study of chemistry is not wholly made up of brilliant experiments, 
but has its own dirty work, so I am aware that the pursuit of pharmacy can¬ 
not be regarded as a livelihood adapted to those who fear a little drudgery. 
Let us, then, endeavour to follow a happy medium, which would not be de¬ 
rogatory to our calling as scientific men, but would at the same time allow 
us to claim some merit as men of business. 
Frank Oldfield. 
Florence, October, 18GG. 
GENERAL BUSINESS. 
Sir,—Many gentlemen, especially those in a London West-end locality, have 
the most obscure ideas as to the kind of business transacted by their brethren in 
the country. It has occurred to me that that obscurity may be to some extent 
dispelled by forwarding, as a specimen, a catalogue of a day’s transactions, 
which I accordingly enclose. I imagine that, on the whole, my business is not 
vastly different from an average country connection. I have been in business 
sixteen years, during which period I have copied 323 prescriptions. I was ap¬ 
prenticed in the leading business in one of the smaller county towns, the re¬ 
turns being about £2000 yearly, and comprised nearly all the best business of 
the neighbourhood ; yet there, I believe, w^e did not average more than three or 
four prescriptions weekly, and had the business been confined to drugs I do not 
suppose it would have been worth carrying on. You may not be able to com¬ 
prehend that much of the knowledge insisted on by The Society ’’ is to the 
country druggist commercially all but worthless,—in fact, I am inclined to think 
that, in some towns, more business might be obtained by becoming a good 
fiddler than a good practical chemist; and, in many connections, a young man 
who had passed all the examinations with honours would not know how to serve 
a considerable portion of the customers who might present themselves, whilst, 
on the other hand, the country youth, who might never have heard of alde¬ 
hyde, and in botany did not know the distinction between calyx and corolla, 
would be au fait in all that came before him. 
In writing thus, I am not arguing against education. The country druggist, 
as well as the town pharmacien, must keep pace with the times, and maintain 
his efficiency to perform that which his position requires,—and I maintain does 
so, although his curriculum of knowledge may be different, both in degree and 
kind, to that of his more aristocratic fellow-worker. If a London chemist can 
get his name up in “ the Journal,” and bring out a “ Liquor ” or “ Syrupus ” 
containing all the known minerals, it may bring him the patronage of two or 
three physicians, and be half a living ; but in the country not one person in 
fifty even knows of the existence of ‘‘ the Society,” nor what the term “phar¬ 
maceutical ” may mean ; consequently, in such cases it would pay much better 
to make furniture paste. Unfortunately, we do not readily comprehend that 
that which accords with our own circumstances and position may be quite out 
of place with respect to another who is apparently under much the same condi¬ 
tions as ourselves. Reformers of every grade are whipping the very life out of 
their pet hobbies, each striving to compress within the narrow limits of his own 
time events which, in the natural course of things, should occupy at least a 
century ; hence spring three-fourths of the controversies and jealousies with 
which we plague each other and ourselves. You may rest assured that country 
druggists will avail themselves of scientific knowledge quite as fast as they can 
