50 
METHYLATED SPIKIT LICENCE. 
to membership? it may be answered that they concede the power of opposing 
and effectually obstructing legislation. If it be asked again, Is it right that 
men who have hitherto done nothing towards promoting the objects of the 
Society should be admitted to the benefits of membership on easier terms than 
those who enter by the legitimate means of examination ? it may be said that 
in doing so they take a lower position, both politically and with reference to 
scientific status. They will be members of the Society, but not Pharmaceutical 
Chemists, the latter being the title which implies qualification, and for which 
the money consideration in the shape of fees is given. 
It cannot be denied that the effect of now admitting any considerable 
number of men to membership without examination would be to lower the 
value of the title of member of the Society in public estimation ; but if the ad¬ 
mission of such members be confined to chemists and druggists registered on 
the passing of the Act, the result alluded to would continue only for a few 
years, and would cease as the men first registered died out. The attainment of 
an Act of Parliament, bringing ail future chemists and druggists under such 
regulations as would necessarily tend to raise and improve their position, would 
be worth a small temporary sacrifice affecting the value of a title, and especially 
as the title thus affected is not that which rightly indicates scientific and pro¬ 
fessional qualification, but merely implies association with men of kindred pur¬ 
suits for the objects of mutual assistance, and the general advancement of 
scientific and trade interests. 
The higher aud parliamentary title of Pharmaceutical Chemist would be left 
to those who possessed it unimpaired, nay, even increased in value, by any 
depreciation that might be effected in the less formally recognized and accre¬ 
dited designation of Member of the Pharmaceutical Society. 
In whatever is done, however, it is important that not only the interests of 
individuals having a vested interest in the practice of pharmacy, or of associa¬ 
tions of such individuals, but also and especially the interests of pharmacy as 
affecting the public at large, should be studied, and, as far as possible, advanced. 
One of the prime objects in the establishment of the Pharmaceutical Society 
was the advancement of chemistry and pharmacy, and the promotion of a uni¬ 
form system of education of those \yho should practise the same. Anything 
that should diminish the efficiency of the Society, with regard to the purposes 
for which it was formed, or that should tend to lower the standard of qualifica¬ 
tion among practitioners of pharmacy generally, however much it might advance 
individual or class interests, would be detrimental to the good of the public, and 
could not be rightly made subject for legislative enactment. 
METHYLATED SPIRIT LICENCE. 
It will be remembered that in March last a memorial from the Chemists and 
Druggists of Bath aud Bristol, praying for a reduction of the methylated 
spirit licence, was presented by the Pharmaceutical Society to the Commissioners 
of Inland Revenue. Our readers will be glad to learn, that a Bill, introduced 
by Government, is now under consideration in the House of Commons, contain¬ 
ing the following clause :— 
u After the first day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-seven , the annual duty payable upon a licence to be taken out 
by a retailer of methylated spirit, under the provisions contained in the Act 
passed in the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth years of Her Majesty’s reign, 
chapter ninety-one, shall be the sum of ten shillings 
