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shorten heading to fix contents table - text explains it all
However, it seems the situation did change and that promotion became much slower. When William Hannah became an apothecary in December 1824, ten were appointed assistant apothecaries. Of these, three became apothecaries in January 1834, almost exactly nine years later. (One became a steward in September 1826, one was on the invalid pension from December 1833. The others were probably dead. Dates are from the [http://books.google.com/books?id=O94NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA245 1838 Bengal Directory].) So it does seem that if an apothecary was appointed from 1834 onwards he would probably be aged in his thirties at date of appointment which may help to indicate a date of birth (if not otherwise known).
===External Appointments with the rank of Extra Assistant Apothecary, following the Indian Mutiny.===A few cases have been heard of where appointments have been made to the rank of Extra Assistant Apothecary, in the Bengal SMD. These appear to have been made following the [[Indian Mutiny ]] when demands for trained personnel would have been great. In one case the Extra Assistant Apothecary appears to have been working prior to the appointment in a private capacity in Calcutta as an apothecary, perhaps as a chemist and druggist. His training and birth details are unknown. He unfortunately died soon after. In another case, the Extra Assistant Apothecary was born and trained in Britain. Thomas Baron appears in the list of Extra Assistant Apothecaries in the 1861 edition of the New Calcutta Directory, the only known list, as appointed 29 April 1858. Born in Manchester in January 1837, the son of a Chemist and Druggist, he appears in the England 1851 census as a scholar aged 14. In 1858 he would have been 21. Family word of mouth says he went to India as some sort of a Medical Officer. Possibly he had been apprenticed to his father. Interestingly, he subsequently appears in the lists of Hospital Apprentices with appointment date 10 October 1861, indicating that at least in his case, his appointment in 1858 had not been permanent. (He then appears to have sat all the required examinations before receiving an appointment as an Assistant Apothecary).
[http://books.google.com/books?id=oA8CAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA354 ''London Lancet, Volume 2 1859''], (Google Books) page 354 refers to the grievances of the Hospital Apprentices “to see a number of strangers admitted into the service with the rank of assistant apothecary, who never served as apprentice in it, in preference to the apprentices, of whom it is said that upwards of forty passed members await promotion. Undoubtedly, in periods of emergency, rules may be transgressed when necessary to secure the efficiency of the service, and it may be desirable, at a particular moment, to secure the aid of skilled civilians to whom adequate rank and pay must at once be offered ...”
