CENSUS  KETURNS  RELATING  TO  MEDICINE  AND  PHARMACY.  333 
THE    CENSUS   RETURNS    RELATING    TO    MEDICINE  AND 
PHARMACY  IN  ENGLAND. 
The  present  population  of  England  and  Wales  in  round  num- 
bers is  twenty  millions,  and  to  minister  to  the  medical  wants  of 
this  population  it  appears  that  there  are  38,441  persons  engaged, 
or  preparing  to  engage,  in  different  departments  of  the  practice 
of  medicine.    Thus  the  Registrar  General  in  his  report  states: 
"  The  medical  order  comprises  38,441  persons,  of  whom 
35,995  are  men  and  2,446  are  women;  14,415  physicians, 
surgeons,  and  apothecaries,  are  at  the  head  of  the  list ;  3,566 
medical  assistants  and  students,  1,567  dentists,  and  16,026 
chemists  and  druggists,  including  apprentices  and  assistants 
(3,3S8  of  the  age  10-20),  follow.  Then  there  are  of  men  cup- 
pers 10,  officers  of  medical  societies  and  agents  21,  corn-cutters 
56,  professors  of  hydropathy  and  homoeopathy  27,  herb  doctors 
and  patent  medicine  venders  92,  82  medical  botanists,  50  gal- 
vanists,  12  mesmerists,  21  bone-setters,  2z  quack  doctors,  so 
returned,  and  2  cancer  doctors,  besides  others.  The  women 
consist  chiefly  of  druggists,  388,  and  midwives,  1,913." 
It  thus  appears  that  in  England  and  Wales,  with  a  popula- 
tion of  twenty  millions,  there  are  sixteen  thousand  chemists  and 
druggists  of  all  sorts,  including  apprentices  and  assistants.  The 
returns  do  not  indicate  what  proportion  of  these  are  engaged  in 
business  on  their  own  account,  but  they  classify  them  according 
to  their  ages,  and  we  thus  find  that  of  the  16,000  there  are 
only  12,638  of  the  ages  of  20  years  and  upwards.  There  are, 
therefore,  3,388  who  are  under  twenty  years  of  age,  and  who 
no  doubt  constitute  the  class  of  apprentices.  Of  the  12,638 
persons  of  20  years  of  age  and  upwards  who  are  engaged  in  the 
practice  of  pharmacy,  a  large  proportion  occupy  the  position  of 
assistants.  Although  the  census  returns  afford  us  no  means  of 
showing  exactly  how  many  are  principals  and  how  many  assist- 
ants, yet  we  may  form  a  pretty  good  estimate  of  this  by  refer- 
ring to  the  statistics  of  such  a  place  as  London.  Mr.  Coke,  one 
of  the  compilers  of  the  "statistical  charts  of  the  population," 
in  his  very  useful  and  compendious  tables,  has  calculated  the 
average  number  of  the  population  in  London  to  every  chemist 
and  druggist,  and  this  shows  that  there  is  one  chemist  and 
