PHARMACY  IN  GERMANY  AND  PRUSSIA. 
429 
The  ministerial  instructions  of  the  13th  of  July,  1840,  indicate 
the  course  to  be  pursued  when  several  applicants  compete  to- 
gether for  the  same  concession ;  so  that,  as  far  as  it  is  possible 
to  judge,  the  concession  may  be  granted  to  the  most  worthy  ap- 
plicant— the  one  who  presents  the  greatest  guarantee  of  compe- 
tence ;  but  there  is  no  fixed  rule  with  regard  to  this,  and  what- 
ever precautions  the  superior  administration  may  adopt,  it  is  dif- 
ficult to  prevent  some  degree  of  partiality  in  the  granting  of 
concessions.  It  is,  moreover,  impossible  to  avoid  the  suspicion 
of  partiality,  notwithstanding  the  confidence  placed  in  authority 
in  Prussia.  I  have  been  assured  that  there  is  no  lack  of  in- 
stances in  which  persons,  having  obtained  concessions  -through 
interest,  instead  of  making  use  of  them  themselves,  have,  after  a 
short  time,  sold  them,  and  realized  sums  of  from  thirty  or  forty 
to  fifty  thousand  francs.  Whatever  may  be  truth  of  these  state- 
ments; it  cannot  but  be  acknowledged  that  this  part  of  the  sys- 
tem is  very  defective,  and,  according  to  the  opinion  of  all  com- 
petent persons,  stands  greatly  in  need  of  reform. 
But  even  supposing  that  the  choice  of  the  government  is  per- 
fectly appropriate,  that  the  concession  is  always  given  to  those 
who,  in  their  examinations,  have  shown  themselves  to  be  the 
most  competent,  to  those  who,  in  all  respects,  really  merit  the 
preference,  the  successful  applicant  always  gains  an  advantage 
which  is  not  justified  by  the  circumstances,  or  which  is  at  least 
out  of  all  proportion  to  the  merit  which  he  may  be  supposed  to 
possess.  It  is  conceivable  that  the  government  should  confer 
such  a  privilege  as  a  national  recompense  for  great  public 
services ;  but  it  does  not  appear  why  such  a  privilege  should  be 
the  recompense  for  having  merely  passed  an  examination  with 
greater  or  less  success.  In  order  to  be  just  towards  pharmaceu- 
tists, and  at  the  same  time  to  exonerate  the  government  from  the 
responsibility  thrown  upon  them  by  the  necessity  of  choosing 
between  several  rival  candidates,  it  would  appear  to  be  more  ap- 
propriate, whenever  the  wants  of  the  population  called  for  the 
establishment  of  a  new  pharmacy,  that  the  government  should 
compel  the  pharmaceutists  of  the  locality  to  establish  the  busi- 
ness for  their  own  profit ;  and  that  the  government  should  re- 
strict itself  to  granting  a  concession  to  the  pharmaceutist  who 
should  present  himself  as  the  owner  of  the  new  business. 
