Am,juiyr;i9£!rm'}        Training  of  British  Pharmacists.  323 
scientist  and  charlatan,  religious  ascetic  and  successful  business 
man,  scholar  and  dreamer.  Partially  forgotten  and  lost  as  he  is 
through  want  of  authentic  information,  and  surrounded  by  a  halo  of 
strange  tales  and  traditions,  he  constitutes  a  peculiarly  attractive 
link  between  the  scientific  theories  and  practices  of  to-day  and  the 
romantic  dreams  and  mysterious  doings  of  the  long  ago. 
THE  TRAINING  OF  BRITISH  PHARMACISTS. 
By  F.  A.  Upsher  Smith,  Pharmaceutical  Chemist. 
Prof.  Carl  G.  Hinrichs  recently  referred  1  to  the  training  of  phar- 
macists in  Great  Britain  in  a  paper  which  suggests  further  notes  on 
the  same  subject,  and  incidentally  a  few  corrections.  Professor  Hin- 
richs states  that  "  any  one  may  be  examined  for  a  degree  before 
their  universities,  whether  he  studied  in  England  or  not."  But  in 
England,  as  regards  university  examinations,  this  applies  only  to 
the  London  University;  at  Oxford,  Cambridge  and  the  other  uni- 
versities residence  for  a  certain  number  of  terms  is  necessary.  The 
examinations  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society,  however,  may  be  taken 
by  a  student  without  having  studied  at  any  school  or  college.  In 
England  a  few  students  do  not  give  up  business  for  a  time  to  attend 
school  or  college,  but  devote  certain  evenings  during  the  winter  to 
attendance  at  local  classes  in  botany,  physics  and  chemistry,  and  in 
this  way  prepare  themselves  cheaply  and  slowly  for  the  qualifying 
examination,  the  Minor.  This,  however,  is  an  arduous  method  of 
preparing  for  the  examination,  and  nowadays  few  adopt  it.  The 
majority  of  students  enter  a  school  or  college  for  a  six  or  nine 
months'  course,  at  the  end  of  which  they  sit  for  the  Minor.  The 
School  of  Pharmacy  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain, 
familiarly  known  as  "  The  Square,"  is  the  leading  school,  and  in  a 
few  provincial  university  colleges  a  special  course  is  arranged  lor 
pharmaceutical  students.  In  these  institutions  the  course  for  the 
Minor  extends  over  a  whole  session,  about  nine  months.  In  addi- 
tion there  are  a  number  of  private  schools  where  the  Minor  course 
is  completed  in  three  or  six  months,  and  where  the  tuition  follows 
more  closely  the  exact  lines  of  the  syllabus.  It  should  be  noted 
that  the  great  majority  of  candidates  for  the  Minor  are  trained  in 
1  Ante,  page  75. 
