MEMORIAL OF THE APOTHECARIES OF LONDON. 331 
ment and the various Medical Authorities in the years 1845 and 
1846, in which the Society lent their willing and active co- 
operation, having failed of effect, the Society were themselves the 
first to propose the Conference of the Medical Corporations, to which 
delegates from the National Association of General Practitioners 
were afterwards admitted, upon the suggestion of the Secretary of 
State; that, at the frequent meetings of the Conference thus con- 
stituted, the delegates from the Society of Apothecaries, in con- 
junction with the other members of the Conference, zealously 
laboured to effect such an arrangement as might prove generally 
acceptable to the Medical Profession, and might secure the sanction 
of the Government and the Legislature ; and the Society have 
seen the unsuccessful termination of the labours of that Conference 
with unfeigned regret 
That although the Society, under the circumstances which have 
been stated, consented to relinquish the duties which were in- 
trusted to them by the Act of 1815, they are anxious not to be 
understood as regarding the performance of those duties as onerous 
or distasteful ; on the contrary, they have ever regarded the trust 
confided to them by the Legislature as of the most honourable 
character : they look back upon the public good which they have 
been enabled to effect with the highest feelings of pride and 
satisfaction ; and they will never voluntarily relinquish the per- 
formance of their duties but under the strongest conviction that 
the public will be benefited by the change in the law which would 
transfer those duties to other hands. 
That the Society would not have intruded the expression of 
their feelings upon the Secretary of State at the present moment, 
if an impression had not gone forth that the Society were willing 
to be relieved from the labours imposed upon them by the Act of 
1815, and if they had not thought that their silence might give 
some sanction to such an impression. 
That the Society have during the agitation, and, unhappily, the 
dissensions to which the discussion of the question of Medical 
Reform has given rise, steadily persevered in carrying out the 
objects of the Legislature, by improving the curriculum of study, 
and raising the standard of qualification of those who seek their 
Certificate, and they will continue to do so as long as they retain 
the confidence of the Legislature ; and the Society refer with the 
utmost satisfaction to the evidence given before successive Com- 
mittees of the House of Commons on medical affairs, and to the 
concurrent testimony of members of all branches of the Profession, 
as to the result which has attended the Society’s administration of 
the Apothecaries’ Act. 
