REPORT ON MEDICAL EDUCATION, &C. 73 
We are unwillingly forced to conclude, that had the ap- 
prenticeship clause entailed on the incorporation as much 
trouble and as little profit as that which directs them to search 
Apothecaries' shops, we should have seen it fall into desuetude, 
and have been favoured with many very cogent reasons, or at 
least ingenious reasons for its being allowed to do so. We 
cannot pass over this part of the evidence without calling 
the attention of the reader to the doubt and ignorance, 
either real or affected, displayed by the Master of the 
Apothecaries' Company, in respect to matters on which 
no one could possibly suspect that there could be the smallest 
hesitation in the representative of the Society. He speaks 
with hesitation of the number of times in the year the phy- 
sicians examine the drugs of venders of medicine, and in 
answer to the next questions, states positively that the search 
is made twice, and that the seasons are summer and autumn. 
He next discovers that they both take place in June, and so on. 
Now if there was a single point on which the Master of the 
Apothecaries' Company could convey information, we would 
have thought that it would be in regard to its powers and 
privileges. We shall see, however, hereafter, that his 
knowledge of such points is accurate and extensive, compared 
with that displayed by him regarding others, and that he 
knows, perhaps, less of the educational course of the 
Edinburgh College of Surgeons, than a first year's Edinburgh 
student, of the qualifications necessary for him to possess before 
he presents himself before the Examiners of the Worshipful 
Company. 
It is unnecessary for us to quote other evidence to convince 
our readers that the Society of Apothecaries have failed in 
the performance of a duty, the due fulfilment of which, is of 
the utmost importance to the community. We cannot see 
how it is at all more difficult to detect spurious medicine, and 
bring the guilty to punishment, than it is to discover when 
porter or ale has been adulterated. But the difficulty of 
performance will not excuse its not being done at all. Wc 
are told that a visit to a shop lasts less than a quarter of an 
VOL. III. NO. I. 10 
