"""jine'issJ™  }  Modern  Pharmaceutical  Study.  315 
to  be— as  they  now  are— Chemistry,  Pharmacy,  Materia  Medica  and  Bot- 
any, with  the  practical  manipulations  of  the  laboratory  and  dispensary  ; 
also  the  modes  of  ascertaining  the  strength  and  purity  of  drugs,  the  test& 
and  antidotes  for  poisons,  the  doses  of  ordinary  medicines  and  an  acquaint- 
ance with  Latin,  the  language  of  prescriptions. 
These  qualifications  were  all  made  more  imperative  by  the  Pharmacy/  Act 
of  1854,  by  which  it  was  fixed  that  every  person  who  assumed  the  title  of, 
or  pretended  to  be,  a  "  Pharmaceutical  Chemist,"  or  Pharmaceutist"  in 
Great  Britain,  or  a  member  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society,  must  have 
passed  an  examination.  A  register  must  be  kept  of  all  such  persons.  The 
Act  thus  established  a  distinction  between  qualified  and  unqualified  per- 
sons, giving  titles  which  the  public  might  recognize ;  but  it  did  not  other- 
wise interfere  with  the  sale  of  drugs  or  dispensing  of  prescriptions,  and  it 
was  not  yet  necessary  that  every  apothecary  should  pass  this  examination, 
which  still  was  a  voluntary  one.  It  remained  for  the  legislature  of  1868^ 
to  complete  the  work  thus  begun. 
The  Pharmacy  Act  of  1868  commences  thus :  "From  and  after  the  31st 
day  of  December,  1868^  it  shall  be  unlawful  for  any  person  to  sell  or  keep 
open  shop  for  retailing,  dispensing  or  compounding  poisons,  or  to  assume 
or  use  the  title  Chemist  and  Druggist,  or  Chemist,  or  Druggist,  or  Pharm- 
acist, or  Dispensing  Chemist  or  Druggist,  within  the  meaning  of  this  Act, 
and  be  registered  under  this  Act,  and  conform  to  such  regulations  as  to  the 
keeping,  dispensing  and  selling  of  such  poisons  as  may  from  time  to  time 
be  prescribed  by  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  with  the  consent  of  the  Privy 
Council." 
It  will  be  at  once  seen  that  a  new  class  is  hereby  added  to  the  Register, 
1  e.,  "Chemist  and  Druggist."  The  Registers  are  published  annually, 
according  to  Act  of  Parliament.  It  is  optional  with  both  classes  whether 
they  become  members  of  the  Society  or  not. 
The  Society  consists  of  three  grades — Members,  Associates  and  Registered 
Apprentices  or  Students.  Members  must  have  joined  the  Society  before 
1853,  or  have  passed  the  "  Major  Examination,"  and  thus  have  been  regis- 
tered as  "Pharmaceutical  Chemists."  Associates  must  have  passed  the 
"Minor  Examination."  Registered  Apprentices  or  Students  are  required 
to  have  passed  the  "  First  or  Preliminary  Examination." 
Of  these  examinations  the  following  is  the  order.  The  "  First  or  Prelim- 
inary Examination''''  is  held  in  thirty-eight  cities  in  Great  Britain  "at 
twelve  noon,  on  the  first  Tuesday  in  January,  April,  July  and  October  in 
every  year. ' ' 
The  examination  is  a  written  one  and  comprises : 
Za^m.— Translation  into  English  of  a  paragraph  from  the  first  book  of 
Cfesar  [De  Bello  Gallico]  ;  Latin  grammar. 
Arithmetic. — The  first  four  rules — simi^le  and  compound ;  vulgar  fractions- 
and  decimals;  simi)le  and  compound  proportion  ;  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  British  and  metrical  systems  of  weights  and  measures. 
English. — Grammar  and  composition. 
The  "minor"  and  the  "  major"  are  held  five  to  six  times  a  year  in  Lon- 
don and  Edinl)urgh  by  a  s])ecial  board  of  examiners. 
