534  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.    {'^'^- oltl'im^^"^^ 
number  of  sundries  which  has  in  recent  years  been  diverted  to  a  large  extent 
into  other  channels,  with  a  corresponding  diminution  in  the  pharmacist's 
means  of  living.  In  discussing  the  question  how  the  loss  was  to  be  madegood^ 
Mr.  Benger  uttered  some  well  merited  strictures  upon  the  growing  tendency 
among  medical  men  to  delegate  their  prescribing  to  manufacturers,  and  spoke 
of  it  as  a  reproach  to  pharmacy  that  so  many  of  the  preparations  dispensed  by 
medical  men,  and  even  prescribed  by  physicians,  or  purchased  and  used  by  the 
public  on  theu'  own  responsibility,  should  be  manufactured  by  persons  who 
possess  no  legal  qualification  to  practise  pharmacy  in  this  country.  In  fact,  he 
is  of  opinion  that  the  wholesale  manufacturer  of  medicines  should  possess 
the  same  legal  qualifications  as  the  retail  pharmacist.  Notwithstand- 
ing, however,  the  severe  competition,  Mr.  Benger  believes  there  is  re- 
munerative work  to  be  found  by  the  skilled  pharmacist  who  looks  for 
it  in  the  right  direction.  This  would  seem,  in  his  opinion,  to  lie  in  the  ten- 
dency to  diff'erentiation  in  pharmaceutical  production.  No  man  will  produce 
all  the  preparations  he  uses  or  sells,  but  he  may  make  most  of  them,  and  it  is 
open  to  him  to  endear  or  to  make  a  f^pecial  reputation  for  some.  If  he  can 
succeed  in  doing  anything  better  than  it  has  been  done  before  he  will  find  no 
difficulty  in  obtaining  better  payment  for  his  work."  This  argument  was  the 
more  forcible,  since  the  speaker  himself  is  a  notable  illustration  of  the  truth  of 
it.  The  success  or  failure  of  the  pharmacist  of  the  future  will,  in  Mr.  Benger's 
opinion,  largely  depend  on  his  fitness  to  accommodate  himself  to  altered  and 
modified  conditions, — among  which  w^ill  be  a  diminished  demand  for  his  ser- 
vices as  a  mere  distributor  of  medicines, — and  his  own  recognition  of  the  fact, 
that  outside  pharmacy  proper,  but  nevertheless  allied  to  it,  are  fields  for  skill, 
industry,  and  enterprise  in  which  his  technical  and  scientific  knowledge  ma}' 
be  profitably  utilized.  Ail  this  led  up  naturaliy  to  a  consideration  of  the  impor- 
tant subject  of  the  natm-e  of  the  early  training  which  shall  best  equip  the  phar- 
macist as  a  scientific  man.  In  order  to  throw  light  upon  this  Mr.  Benger  has 
been  in  communication  with  various  eminent  men  as  to  the  conditions  of  phar- 
maceutical apprenticeship  or  pupilage  and  of  the  subsequent  or  qualifying  ex- 
aminations in  other  countries.  In  this  way  he  has  become  possessed  of  a  mass 
of  information  upon  these  points  from  France,  Germany,  Austria,  Belgium,. 
Italy,  Switzerland,  Russia,  Sweden.  Denmark,  Holland,  the  L'nited  States,  Can- 
ada and  Australia.  One  thing  that  must  have  struck  those  who  heard  the 
precis  of  this  information  laid  before  the  Conference,  and  will  strike  all  those 
who  read  it  for  themselves,  is  the  almost  unbroken  uniformity  with  which  in 
nearly  every  country  evidence  is  required  of  an  advanced  scholastic  education 
as  a  preliminary  to  a  pharmaceutical  career,  as  well  as  subsequent  systematic 
training  of  the  pupil  in  the  sciences  upon  which  his  calling  is  based.  Those 
who  have  objected  to  the  minute  dose  of  curriculum  which  it  is  proposed  to 
administer  in  this  country  will  find  no  support  in  these  reports  from  the  ex- 
perts in  the  countries  mentioned,  where  the  consensus  of  practice,  at  least,  is  in 
its  favor.  After  pointing  out  the  inferences  to  be  drawn  fi'om  these  reports, 
Mr.  Benger  concluded  by  urging  on  all  entering  the  pharmaceutical  ranks  that 
they  should  regard  scientific  education,  not  as  a  troublesome  impediment  placed 
in  their  way  by  a  reckless  Parliament,  prompted  by  a  pedantic  society,  but  as- 
the  very  key  to  future  success.  The  address  was  listened  to  with  interest 
throughout,  and  the  ripples  of  laughter  that  followed  the  utterance  of  the  quiet 
