In the Lancet we find the following account of a
recent medical ex• amination at .Apothecaries' Hall, from a correspondent- " A young man had just come from the country with all his necessary testi- monials for the ordeal of examinatioa for practising his profession. These cer- tificates he had possessed a long time previous. When examined on the drugs, he was found very deficient ; and, as a last resource, he was shown the jai* root ; when, after looking at it for a lung while, he admitted his ignorance of the substance, and was told that lie might retire,—without his certificate, of course. Well,' he said, ' my only alternative is, when I reach home, to shoot myself; at the same time showing a pistol, with which he told the Examiners that he should commit suicide. The Examiners begged that he would reflect before he committed so desperate an act; but he said that their advice was of no use, as he had quite made up his mind on the subject. He was then seut a short distance from the table; when the Board consulted together, whether he should have his diploma or not; and at length one of them was sent to the young Inaa to tell him that although they had come to the decision to grant him his licence to practise, yet he was no more fit to practise than a boy who had been only three months apprenticed. Thus were the health and lives of a portion of the community committed to this person's keeping. I do not, Mr. Editor, very often troubl,e periodicals with my communications, but 1 could not refrain from ;tan,
this fact to the accumulation of records against that dangerous institution, Apo- thecaries' Hall, whose existence has long afforded grounds for terror throughout the kingdom—not to students, but the whole community."
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