PHARMACEUTICAL LEGISLATION. 
43 
druggists ” to a register as such, leaving them to select the separate folds of 
the rest of the flock by a process of natural selection. By such a course the 
Registrar, as a legal functionary, places every man in his proper legal posi¬ 
tion, and the Society elects its members upon its own principles of affiliation. 
I confess I think this would have been the right course ; leaving the con¬ 
stitution of the Society untouched, and preparing a separate enclosure for the 
new-comers, with privileges attaching to such a registration,—exemption from 
juries, to wit, etc. etc. 
But while these are my views, T can see that the world has been marching 
on for the past fifteen years, and that during this period men have entered 
the trade, and advanced therein to influence and importance, external to the 
Society, wishing well to its principles, and enjoying many of the waifs and 
strays of its good influence, but feeling no personal interest or connection 
with it, and ready to view with jealous alarm anything which might be con¬ 
sidered a class privilege, and to cry down monopoly, even of intelligence. 
This is perfectly natural; and when one comes to make the personal acquaint¬ 
ance of these brother chemists at the Provincial Associations and at the 
Pharmaceutical Conferences, we are ready to welcome them as brethren, and 
they to acknowledge that the “ old lady at Bloomsbury Square ” has some 
very fine children. Therefore, if under these views of consolidation, the 
Council see fit to concede some of the abstract rights of her children, I, for 
one, willingly bow to that decision. The settlement of the question will be 
most advantageous to the next generation ; and the most we can expect from 
it in our time is an increased social area, and more harmonious action, which 
are no mean benefits. 
Now having fairly stated the case as it appears from my point of view, let 
me ask my friend T. B. Groves, and my old pupil Henry Morris, how they 
can find themselves in a comfortable position betweeu these two stools. They 
may protest, but surely they cry out before they are hurt, and I am sorry 
that they should occupy so uncomfortable a position. Granted that a small 
piece of gilt is scraped off their gingerbread, wherein are they losers P They 
presented their gingerbread to the Society ; that worshipful company of 
goldsmiths gilded it, and put a stamp upon it. But it took away none of 
their gingerbread. Their knowledge is their gingerbread, let them make 
their market of it; if it be good, it does not require the gilt; if stamped, it 
is known to be genuine, and once tasted the public will cut and come again. 
If other makers be already in the market with good gingerbread, ungilt and 
unstamped, will they suffer loss if all is gilt? I say no. All that is con¬ 
veyed by the tinsel of a diploma is meretricious, unless it adorns that which 
without it would be valued for its sterling excellence. 
“ The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, 
A man’s a man for a’ that.” 
I would appeal, therefore, to these mistaken friends of pure consistency fo 
withdraw all opposition to the parental wisdom of the Council; their views 
are, I know, fully and freely expressed at that Board, and no decision of so 
important a character can be there arrived at without a most conscientious 
equipoise of pros and cons. 
Judging from the language of some of your correspondents, it might be 
inferred that all chemists and druggists in business on a certain day were to 
be pitched, “ holus bolus,” into the Society. Let me say, Not so ! If you 
find among the “ chemists and druggists ” placed on the register as such, 
Messrs. X. Y. X.,—proposed and seconded as eligible for membership of the 
Pharmaceutical Society,—willing to pay entrance-fee and subscription, and 
to support the general progress of the body by identifying themselves with 
