This is a question which is frequently asked, and as time goes on, the affirmative answer is less frequently heard. That our present examination system is all wrong, almost every one who has given any attention to the question can scarcely deny, but it remains for some one to propose a better plan. That an examiner can by putting a dozen questions to a student, find out his capacity is an erroneous idea. We have for years held this opinion, and have seen it proved; it stands to reason that it should be

50.

In pharmacy as in other sciences, a man's knowledge is usually gauged by his ability to answer the questions put to him, but that he can or cannot answer these questions does not prove that the candidate is or is not a competent druggist. When we take into consideration the manner in which examinations are conducted in all English-speaking countries, with the average candidate so nervous that in the majority

No. 5

of cases he does not know "where he is at," with the conditions surrounding him so totally unlike those prevailing in his ordinary work, it is not surprising that so many fail to pass. In the great majority of cases the man with the steadiest nerves and greatest amount of cramming ability is the successful one. Pharmacy examinations are all run on the same plan, and that is the wrong one.

Two plans might be put in force; one is to let the colleges of pharmacy have a joint examination board, formed by members of the faculty, as at present, and members appointed by the local board or association, and in figuring up the results let the points made by each candidate during his regular college work be counted in. By this plan the whole college work of each candidate would be taken into consideration, and therefore a better idea of his ability could be obtained. We think that the teacher will know more about the ability of a student by months of personal contact, than any examiner, no matter how able, by half a dozen haphazard questions, not one of which perhaps is of any real importance as indicating the point at issue.

The ideal plan, although like other ideals, impracticable, would be to have the candidates work in the shops of the examiners say for three days in each week, with about half an hour's questioning each day on matters that have come up in the day's business, then let each examiner express his opinion of the candidate's ability, based upon his actual work as a salesman, dispenser and chemist. The difficulty with this plan is that where a large class was to be examined it would take a long time to carry it out, but it would be the plan to test the real ability of the candidates.

BORAX AND IODINE.

These commodities have attracted a good deal of at ention lately, owing to the operations of "conventions" which have more or less successfully governed the prices at which they are sold.

Borax, or biborate of soda, and boracic acid, are constantly increasing in the number of economic uses to which they are put, and in the aggregate

quantities consumed, but the sources of supply are also increasing in number. About twenty five years ago the borax of commerce was mainly derived from lagoons in a volcanic region in Tuscany, which were leased to English firms, and from tincal or crude borax, which was collected on the shores of lakes in Thibet and Persia. The English firms controlled the price by means of cheap labour in collecting, cheap means of transportation and distribution, and they still hold this leverage to a very large extent. It is a curious fact that widely distributed as are the principal sources of crude borax in China, Peru, Persia, Thibet and California, they are regions difficult of access, involving excessive freights, and thus the English refiners have been in a position to reduce prices so low as to make business unprofitable, until competitors would consent to pool their products, and sell at a uniform price, dividing the profits according to an arranged scale,

For the past two or three years prices of borax have gone steadily down, until they were so low as to yield a loss on the bulk of what was sold. Now, however, it is said an agreement has been reached by which an advance of al out thirty per cent. is asked, this to be followed by a further advance of thirty three and one-third per cent.,, so soon as the bulk of existing stocks is consumed. This would bring prices up to the level of about four years ago, though still much lower than five years ago. As an instance of the severe competition to which the California producers have been subjected, it may be stated that thousands of tons of concentrated unrefined borax, consigned round Cape Horn to London, have been bought there by American refiners, as being a cheaper source of supply than getting it directly by all rail from California.

Iodine is another article which is "controlled," and which has been until quite recently in a somewhat uncertain condition as to its immediate mercantile future. Formerly it was produced from the ashes of sea weeds, principally on the west coasts of Scotland, and it is still produced in limited quantities there, to give the makers a foothold in the iodine pool. The great production, however, takes place in the nitrate of soda beds in Chili, from a source so extensive and by a process so cheap that it is asserted it could be sold for onesixth of the present price with a good margin of profit, and in practically unlimited quantity.

But every effort to break the combination has so far failed. Once in a while an outside lot will be offered on the London market, but it is bought up by the pool, and the source of supply stopped. Some French operators formed a syndicate to operate in connection with the fishermen on the

coast of Brittany, but they were squared. The latest scare came from the intrusion of lots of iodide of potassium, made in Japan, into the London market, and this would be serious if offered as iodine, but being in the shape of iodides, it was easy to manage the chemists.

It appears we must still pay syndicate prices for jodine and its products for a time at least.

THE REBATE PLAN.

In his address at the St. Louis meeting of the N. W. D. A., Pres. Weller had the following to say of the rebate plan :

"First, we take it for granted that the rebate plan has come to stay. . . It is, we believe, the best plan that has ever been devised for the protection of the manufacturer, jobber, and retailer.

Once this plan is made effective in preventing price-cutting among jobbers, and in preventing department stores and price-cutters from obtaining supplies, the future of the plan is not problematical."

The only objection to the rebate plan is that it tends to restrict business, a fact every one admits, but that is exactly what the retail druggist wants; the sale of patent medicines should be restricted to retail druggists only. The manufacturers and jobbers who denounce the rebate plan and refuse to abide by it are simply playing into the hands of the department stores and cutters, by letting down the barriers which now render it difficult for them to secure goods. To a great extent the manufacturers are responsible for the evil because they will sell direct to cutters, or to anyone who is able to buy the necessary quantities, thus giving them a certain advantage over others who cannot do so.

Of course it may be a hardship on wealthy retailers if they cannot buy 5 gross lots and thus secure all the discounts, but if it be necessary for the success of the plan that only regularly recognized jobbers shall be able to buy direct, then let the rule be carried out. The plan was made for the benefit of the small retailers, the majority; and the greatest good to the greatest number demands that the majority must be protected. In the fight now being made by the Abbey Salt Co., the interests of the majority are being sustained by the company, but here and there we find a retailer who is not in favor of the plan; fortunately their number is few. If we examine their objections and opposition to the Abbey Co., we will find that it is because they cannot buy goods direct, and get the quantity discount. But if you try to show that by the Abbey plan it is nearly impossible for cutters to secure their goods and that the retailer is thus protected, they will reply that they don't care about that or what the average retailer does; all they know or care about is that they do

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a

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TORONTO & VANCOUVER, B.C.