ACCIDENTAL POISONING. 
35S 
capable of passing the Minor Examination when they have completed their 
term of apprenticeship, I would advise all such to follow up steadily by diligent 
study the advantage they enjoy, and pass the Major Examination as early as 
may be, which might generally be accomplished in from twelve to eighteen 
months at most, especially if the candidate could afford to take a month or so 
at the Square, or elsewhere, for continuous study. I am not suggesting this 
course to those who can afford the time and money for a nine months’ course 
at the Society’s Laboratory, but to those who, like myself, have their spurs to 
win without any help from Dame Fortune. 
Let all who are duly qualified see to it, that they do not “seZ/ their labour for 
a salary,” unless it be a respectable salary. The habits of application and con¬ 
tinuous study, and, let us hope, the knowledge of chemistry and botany they may 
have gained, will fit them for something better than druggists’ assistants, if 
they have but pluck and determination. ■ 
Those who have not passed the Examinations I would urge to do so by all 
means, feeling sure that it rests with each one to add his quota of influence to 
help onward and upward the great body of men whose interests you have at 
heart; bub let employers not forget the extra outlay consequent on an assistant 
having qualified, and let them pay accordingly. 
Thus, having no assistants (but juniors) who had not passed the Examina¬ 
tions, by a natural process we should soon have none but Pharnnaceutical 
chemists. 
The question you have touched on, “ What use will be made of their time?” 
(when they get it), I think hardly worth discussion. If there be the slightest 
probability of chemists’ assistants spending all their spare time in “ music and 
dancing,^'' I can but attribute it to the little hope they have of ameliorating 
their, at present, hard lot; not that it should be wondered at if an assistant, 
released at nine o’clock at night, should seek some innocent recreation and re¬ 
laxation. 
In conclusion, I would ask. Why cannot evening lectures be given at 
Bloomsbury Square on Chemistry and Pharmacy, and Botany and Materia 
Medica, for the benefit of those for whom 8.30 a.m. is simply an impossible 
hour to attend. 
I am. Sir, yours, 
A Major Associate. 
ACCIDENTAL POISONING. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—No one can feel more deeply than myself that intelligent care is the 
best safeguard against accident, in the sale or dispensing of medicines ; but 
none can deny that in all probability many accidents would have been pre¬ 
vented by a more judicious arrangement of the shop. I have by degrees 
picked up many practical hints on this subject from the ‘Pharmaceutical 
Journal,’ and beg to tender my thanks to the authors. I am by no means 
satisfied yet with what I have done, but with a sincere desire to assist others 
by my experience, I offer an outline of the leading features of my plan as it 
standis at present. What is approved and practicable may be adopted ; let the 
rest be forgotten. 
I have a front and back shop, and am therefore able to keep nearly all tinc¬ 
tures, etc., in the latter, where I have two counters, each against an opposite 
wall, with an open space between ; above each counter are shelves for bottles, 
pots, etc. Those above the dispensing counter contain all the more common 
