548 
PHARMACY  IN  PIEDMONT. 
Frederick  the  Great  were  taught  trigonometry,  but  we  question 
if  it  ever  served  them  on  the  battle-field,  and  whether  at  Mol- 
witz  they  would  have  been  so  disgraced  if  they  had  been  taught 
that  which  is  useful  before  that  which  is  beautiful.  The  Pied- 
montese  chemist  is  eminently  theoretical,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  eminently  poor ;  the  atomic  theory  and  hydrometrical 
equivalents  do  not  aid  him  in  a  community  of  peasants,  amongst 
whom,  perhaps,  he  is  destined  to  live.  Science  has  exalted  him 
above  the  sordid  details  of  every-day  life,  and  the  philosopher's 
stone  is  an  elusive  research  which  brings  no  grist  to  the  mill. 
The  number  of  pharmacies  is  limited  according  to  the  popula- 
tion ;  thus  we  find  in  a  statistical  table,  in  the  Griornale  di  Far- 
rnacia,  of  January,  1859,  the  proportionate  number  of  chemists 
in  the  towns  and  provinces.  Turin,  with  a  population  of 
179,600,  has  50  pharmacies,  yielding  3592  for  each.  In  Nice 
there  is  one  for  every  2629 ;  in  Novara,  one  for  every  1810  ; 
while  at  Cuneo  and  the  villages,  where  the  inhabitants  are  iso- 
lated, the  number  of  inhabitants  to  each  pharmacy  sometimes 
reaches  4000.  The  restrictive  character  of  this  provision,  to 
protect  the  chemist  from  a  destructive  competition,  necessarily 
gives  increased  value  to  houses  of  reputation  in  populous  towns  ; 
and  at  Turin  large  sums,  exceeding  sometimes  three  or  four 
thousand  pounds,  are  paid  for  a  business  and  patent.  Few 
young  men,  however,  can  be  found  with  capital  sufficient  for 
entire  purchase,  so  that  a  system  is  general  throughout  the 
states,  by  which  the  payment  is  extended  over  a  period  varying 
from  ten  to  twenty  years,  secured  upon  the  property,  which,  by 
the  protective  law,  cannot  decrease  in  value;  but  this  facility  of 
payment  has  the  result  of  giving  a  false  value  to  a  business, 
which,  after  all,  yields  but  a  miserable  return.  The  pharmacies 
are  examined  annually  by  government  inspectors,  who  investi- 
gate the  quality  of  the  drugs  employed,  and  that  all  poisons  and 
active  preparations  be  kept  separately  and  under  lock  and  key, 
according  to  the  regulations  of  the  act.  But  the  most  lament- 
able obstacle  against  which  the  man  of  business  has  to  contend,  is 
the  tariff  instituted  by  the  Council  of  Health  in  1853,  for  the 
regulation  of  the  price  of  medicines  and  pharmaceutical  prepara- 
tions, and  which  produces  the  most  pernicious  effects,  and 
paralyses  the  efforts  of  those  who,  by  a  healthy  competition, 
