Am'ju°iyi;'i905arm'}        Training  of  British  Pharmacists.  325 
to-day  are  scarce ;  consequently  assistants  are  becoming  scarce,  and 
if  there  is  no  adjustment  of  the  balance  the  result  will  be  to  the  ulti- 
mate advantage  of  those  who  do  enter  the  calling. 
In  comparing  the  relative  ages  of  American  and  English  students 
in  schools  of  pharmacy,  Professor  Hinrichs  comments  on  the  more 
mature  appearance  of  the  latter;  this  difference  is  easily  explained. 
Candidates  for  the  Minor  must  be  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and,  as 
the  course  of  instruction  at  a  school  does  not  extend  over  more  than 
nine  months,  it  follows  that  prospective  candidates  remain  in  busi- 
ness until  about  the  age  of  twenty.  The  usual  age  for  leaving 
school  is  sixteen,  and  if  the  apprenticeship  is  over  before  the  age  of 
twenty  is  reached,  a  post  is  readily  obtained  in  the  interval  as  an 
unqualified  assistant  in  a  pharmacy.  The  "  Minor "  examination 
itself  is  usually  regarded  with  awe  by  candidates.  This  is  owing  to 
the  fact  that  the  examination  is  partly  practical  and  partly  oral.' 
Hence  a  nervous  candidate  is  placed  at  a  disadvantage  throughout 
the  whole  examination.  There  is  no  valid  reason  why  written 
papers  should  not  be  set  in  theoretical  chemistry,  physics,  botany, 
pharmacy,  prescription-reading  and  materia  medica,  supplemented 
by  a  certain  amount  of  viva  voce  examination  in  some  or  all  of  these 
subjects.  But  at  present  there  is  no  written  paper  and  the  nervous 
man  suffers  accordingly.  Many  absurd  instances  are  quoted  of 
nervousness  in  this  examination.  One  candidate,  during  an  exami- 
nation in  practical  pharmacy,  was  told  to  help  himself  to  an  apparatus 
for  coating  pills  in  the  far  corner  of  the  dispensing- room.  He  re- 
turned after  a  time  with  a  lemon-squeezer!  I  have  known  students, 
the  best  of  their  year,  misname  such  familiar  drugs  as  gentian  root 
and  senna  leaves.  Alterations  in  the  Major  Examination  which 
confers  the  title  of  "  Pharmaceutical  Chemist  "  are  at  present  under 
the  consideration  of  the  Council  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society.  It 
has  been  recently  proposed1  by  the  Board  of  Examiners,  that  in 
future  the  subjects  of  the  Major  Examination  shall  be  :  (a)  chemistry 
and  physics ;  (b)  materia  medica  and  pharmaceutics ;  (c\  botany. 
Of  these  subjects  it  is  proposed  that  (b)  should  be  obligatory  on  all 
candidates,  together  with  either  (a)  or  (c).  The  advantages  claimed 
for  this  suggested  reform  are  :  ( I )  Th  it  a  larger  number  of  candidates 
may  be  expected  to  present  themselves  for  the  Major  Examination. 
1  Pharmaceutical  Journal,  May  6,  1905. 
