390 
PHARMACY  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN. 
Mr.  John  Savory,  Pharmaceutist,  of  Bond  street,  London. 
"471.  Do  you  think  that  the  fact  of  knowing  that  no  examination  is  re- 
quired, causes  apprentices  to  pay  very  little  attention  to  the  study  of  their 
business? — I  am  quite  sure  of  it ;  I  have  had  pretty  well  thirty  years  experi- 
ence, and  from  all  I  can  learn,  the  want  of  an  examination  in  this  country 
for  pharmaciens,  or  for  chemists  and  druggists,  is  the  cause  of  young  men, 
during  their  apprenticeship,  paying  little  or  no  attention  to  their  business. 
({ 472.  Supposing  an  apprentice  were  desirous  of  informing  himself  respect- 
ing his  business,  was  there  before  the  establishment  of  the  Pharmaceutical 
Society  any  definite  course  of  instruction  ? — None  whatever  till  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society. 
u  474.  Do  you  find  any  difficulty  in  obtaining  competent  assistants  % — I  find 
the  greatest  difficulty  in  obtaining  them. 
"  475.  Have  you  frequently  had  occasion  to  examine  20  or  30  when  you 
wanted  one,  before  you  found  one  that  was  fully  qualified  for  his  business? 
— I  have  lately  been  in  want  of  two  assistants,  and  T  have  had  40  or  50  appli- 
cants, and  out  of  those  I  found  very  few  who  were  acquainted  with  the  ru- 
diments of  pharmacy  or  chemistry  j  they  could  hardly  read  a  Latin  prescrip- 
tion ;  that  is  to  say,  if  it  was  anything  out  of  the  common  way.  I  never 
take  a  young  man  into  my  house  without  his  passing  an  examination ;  it  is 
by  no  means  a  severe  one.  I  put  prescriptions  before  them,  and  if  they  can- 
not read  those  Latin  prescriptions,  of  course  I  consider  at  once  that  they  are 
not  qualified  to  come  into  my  house.  I  do  not,  however,  rest  satisfied  with 
that.  I  ask  them  upon  articles  in  those  prescriptions.  As,  for  instance,  I 
believe  in  one  of  them  there  is  muriate  of  soda ;  I  say,  '  Pray,  can  you 
tell  me  what  is  muriate  of  soda?'  The  reply  is  'It  is  muriate  of  soda.'  But 
what  is  it ;  can  you  tell  me  any  thing  about  it ;  what  is  its  present  chemical 
name?    '  Muriate  of  soda,'  that  is  all  that  I  can  get  out  of  them.77 
Sir  Benjamin  Brodie,  Bart. 
"  718.  Do  you  consider  that  division  of  labor  in  the  profession  is  desirable  ; 
and  that  there  should  be  a  class  of  persons  devoting  their  almost  exclusive 
attention  to  chemistry,  and  the  manufacture  of  medical  substances? — Not 
only  desirable  but  very  important. 
"721.  Do  you  think  that  that  class  of  persons  ought  to  pass  an  examina- 
tion ? — It  seems  very  desirable  that  they  should. 
"763.  A  doctor  of  medicine  is  examined  previously  to  obtaining  his  diplo- 
ma ;  and  a  surgeon  is  examined  previously  ;  why  should  not  a  chemist  be 
examined  previously  ? — Exactly  ;  and  I  think  that  those  examinations  would 
be  mere  useful  in  fact  than  the  examinations  of  medical  practitioners,  be- 
cause the  candidates  cannot  be  crammed  for  them;  whereas  candidates  get 
crammed  for  medical  examinations  to  a  very  great  extent,  especially  for 
those  of  the  Apothecaries  company." 
[Sir.  Benj.  Brodie  gave  strong  testimony  in  favor  of  the  Pharmaceutical 
Society,  and  advised  that  they  should  have  power  to  enact  their  own  by-laws, 
subject  to  the  revision  of  the  Secretary  of  State.] 
Mr.  Peter  Squire,  Pharmaceutist,  of  Oxford  St.,  London. 
"  784.  At  the  time  you  were  educated  in  business  was  there  any  regular 
method  of  educating  pharmaceutical  chemists  and  druggists? — They  were 
regularly  apprenticed  and  premiums  given  ;  and  it  was  necessary  that  they 
should  have  served  seven  years  apprenticeship  at  that  time. 
"  785.  But  was  there  any  recognized  method  of  teaching  them  Chemistry, 
Pharmacy,  Materia  Medica,  and  so  on  ? — None  whatever  ;  they  picked  up 
what  they  could  by  becoming  at  first  mere  scrubs,  and  then  elevating  them- 
selves from  being  mere  scrubs  by  becoming  assistants. 
14  787.  Where  they  instructed  in  the  theory  of  chemistry  ? — Not  in  the  least. 
H  788.  If  a  young  man  had  devoted  much^of  his  attention  to  chemistry  and 
