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SELECTED ARTICLES. 
kingdoms, apothecaries shall practise medicine; and all that 
remains for the consideration of those who possess power, is 
to provide that they shall know how to practise well. 
Notwithstanding that I avoid entering upon that question, 
it may not be uninteresting to the members of the profession, 
and even to those non-professional visiters who are present, 
that I should describe to them, briefly, the actual condition of 
the apothecaries in Germany, in order that the position which 
the members of that department of the profession occupy, as 
well in general, as in strictly learned society, may be clearly 
understood; for, unfortunately, the statistics of medicine and 
of its professors, have not attracted the attention the subject 
merits; and I have known many of my friends, as well phy- 
sicians as apothecaries, express their opinion, that the apothe- 
caries of France and Germany must be in a miserable state; 
for my friends, having in their mind the condition of such as 
are in this country, were naturally led to conclude, that an 
apothecary who did not visit, but should live by making up 
prescriptions, could have but a very insufficient income. lo- 
attempting, by the following remarks, to dissipate these in- 
correct ideas, I shall confine them to the state of Pharmacy in 
Germany, as in that country the pure apothecary exists in a 
degree of purity unknown elsewhere; the laws in France, as 
we shall cursorily remark, reducing the profession to a very 
inefficient condition. And it is fortunate for the simplicity, 
as well as for the brevity of the communication, that the 
differences between the regulations of the various German 
States are so trivial, that the description can be found almost 
equally applicable to all. 
The grand distinction between the apothecary in Ireland 
and Germany, is, that the latter is, in fact, an officer of the 
government. On his being pronounced by competent exa- 
miners properly qualified for the office, he is, on the occurrence 
of a vacancy, appointed to dispense medicines to the sick 
people; and the government, in place of paying him a direct 
salary from the public purse, enables him to pay himself by 
charging for his medicines; the price being fixed by authority, 
