PHARMACY IN SWEDEN. 
71 
is observed that the larger number of inhabitants and the fewer 
shops the better are the medicines. 
The Apothecaries have, in consequence, a sufficient competence 
ensured in their calling, and are not compelled to enter into 
other trades. Hence it is they love their profession, and by dis- 
pensing medicines of the best quality, strive to obtain the confi- 
dence of the authorities and the public. On the contrary, if the 
number of shops is very large — or, still worse, unlimited — the 
Apothecary or Chemist cannot gain a subsistence from his pro- 
fession, and is, therefore, obliged to seek in other trades what he 
cannot find in his own ; and Pharmacy instead of being the main 
object, is reduced to an insignificant rank, and reflects no credit 
upon its followers. 
Under such a system, if each Apothecary train up one or more 
Assistants, the number of candidates for shops will in time become 
extravagantly large, and the difficulty of controlling them in- 
creases in the same proportion. 
(Some of the Apothecaries in Sweden have endeavored, in con- 
sequence, to employ Assistants only, and no apprentices, in order 
to obviate too great competition.) 
The Apothecaries' Shops (Apothek.) — The shops in the 
towns are for the most part large, and internally are often ar- 
ranged with considerable elegance. The laboratory, according 
to the regulations, must contain a steam apparatus for preparing 
decoctions, extracts, aromatic oils and waters, &c. 
Decoctions and infusions must be prepared extempore. 
Tinctures must be kept in a room in which the temperature 
is not under 15° Celsius, in order that the dissolved materials 
may not be precipitated by the cold. 
Native vegetables must be renewed every year, and the old 
stock destroyed. 
The best medicines, if there are several kinds in commerce, 
must always be written for. 
Every shop has a sign of its own, derived from some animal or 
other object. To each medicine prepared according to a pre- 
scription must be attached a label, on which is the name of the 
shop. 
The so-called homoeopathic Apothecaries shops do not exist in 
Sweden. They are not necessary, inasmuch as homoeopathy does 
