512  Pharmacy  and  Medicine  in  Egypt.  {^VeX/iST' 
a  graduate  of  a  recognized  school  and  be  able  to  produce  documents 
from  his  consulate  showing  nationality  and  also  pass  government 
examinations.  An  assistant  pharmacist  should  produce  a  certificate 
from  his  employer  or  some  one  in  authority  testifying  to  good  conduct 
and  character  before  being  admitted  to  examinations.  If  successful, 
the  assistant  is  entitled  to  practise  pharmacy  and  is  allowed  to  dis- 
pense prescriptions  containing  poison  and  take  charge  of  the  poison 
locker  during  the  absence  of  the  principal  at  meal-time  or  on  other 
brief  occasions.  The  examination  board  consists  of  several  govern- 
ment and  civil  pharmacists,  headed  by  the  president  of  the  School 
of  Medicine  and  Pharmacy  in  Cairo. 
Narcotics  and  habit-forming  drugs  and  chemicals,  poisons,  and 
explosives  may  not  be  sold  or  given  without  a  legal  prescription  from 
a  known  physician.  Poisons  shall  not  be  sold  to  any  person  who  is 
unknown  to  the  pharmacist  unless  recommended  by  a  known  person, 
and  not  until  an  entry  is  made  in  a  special  book  kept  for  this  purpose, 
stating  the  date  of  sale,  name  and  address  of  the  purchaser,  and  the 
quantity  of  the  article  sold  and  why  it  is  needed.  The  sign  of  the 
purchaser  and  prescriber  or  introducer  must  be  affixed  to  the  entry. 
Those  who  disobey  the  rules,  if  natives,  are  fined  or  put  in  prison, 
or  both,  and,  if  foreigners,  are  banished  and  their  establishments 
confiscated. 
The  average  pharmacist  in  Egypt  is  well  educated,  conscientious, 
and  lives  up  to  the  ideals  of  his  profession.  He  considers  himself 
a  proficient  man,  and  holds  a  position  similar  to  that  of  a  physician 
or  other  professional  man.  Some  do  not  consider  themselves  com- 
mercial or  business  men,  as  is  the  custom  in  America,  and  it  is  an 
insult  to  ask  a  pharmacist  to  sell  you  a  box  of  candy,  writing-paper, 
or  a  note-book,  and  it  is  still  worse  if  you  ask  him  for  cigarettes.  The 
reason  for  this  is  that  the  position  of  a  pharmacist  is  higher  than  that 
of  a  tobacco  dealer.  Their  stock  is  nothing  but  medicines,  and  the 
only  side  lines  that  are  to  be  found  in  their  pharmacies  are  tooth- 
brushes, rubber  goods,  perfumery,  and  a  miscellaneous  assortment 
of  patent  medicines,  sick-room  requisites,  and,  for  the  accommodation 
of  American  tourists,  fancy  goods  of  all  kinds,  with  the  exception 
of  tobacco,  have  been  introduced  in  some  pharmacies. 
Pharmacy  in  Egypt,  as  a  business,  is  very  profitable  and  largely 
overdone  in  large  cities  where  there  are  millionaires  from  all  over 
the  world. 
The  pharmacies  are  very  sanitary  and  clean  and  up-to-date  in 
