9 
l 
PHARMACEUTICAL MOVEMENTS IN CANADA. 
In Canada a great proportion of the open drug-stores are kept by medical 
men, and the increasing number of English and Scotch chemists and druggists 
appears to be viewed by the profession with some jealousy. The College of 
Physicians and Surgeons of Lower Canada obtained, some two years since, 
an Act compelling all chemists and druggists to obtain their licence to prac¬ 
tise pharmacy from their Board, in order to which they are required to pro¬ 
duce certificates of attendance on one course of botany, two courses of 
chemistry, and two courses of materia medica, at a recognised medical school, 
and also to pass the required examination. The fees for the curriculum 
amount to sixty dollars ; the examination fee to fifteen dollars. The chemists 
in Lower Canada allowed this measure to pass without opposition, but after¬ 
wards formed themselves into a Society, which however was stillborn. The 
College of Physicians and Surgeons for Upper Canada are now endeavouring 
to pass a similar measure for that portion of the kingdom, to which the 
chemists of Ottawa and other towns in Upper Canada are making an active 
resistance, and propose to their brethren elsewhere that the chemists of the 
Dominion shall unite themselves together into a Society to regulate their own 
profession. In consequence of this movement, a meeting of the chemists of 
Montreal, convened by Mr. Gray, was held on Friday evening, May 31st, 
John Kerry, Esq., in the chair, who called on Mr. Gray, the acting Secretary, 
to read the resolutions passed at the meeting of Ottawa chemists; after which, 
the chairman stated that it wmuld doubtless be desirable to combine to carry 
out the ideas of the chemists in Upper Canada, and regretted that as the 
President and Secretary appointed to form a Pharmaceutical Society for 
Lower Canada were both in England, it would perhaps be as well to take 
fresh action in the matter. He requested Mr. Gray to read the memorandum 
of the nature of that Association, wdiicli he did. 
Mr. Mercer, F.C.S. (Evans, Mercer, and Co.), being called upon for his 
opinion, stated that he thought, how ever desirable it might be to establish a 
Society for the Dominion of Canada or for the province of Quebec, in one 
point of view' it w as too late for such action, as legislation for Low r er Canada 
was a settled thing, and, on the other hand, the chemists had not yet shown 
by the principles of association that they were in a position, either of numbers 
or influence, to undertake the education and examination of their own mem¬ 
bers. He thought, therefore, that it would be wiser to form a local associa¬ 
tion of the chemists of this city, for the improvement of the elder, so as to 
form an educational nucleus wFich might afterwards be extended, should it 
be fouud desirable, to a wider circle. At present he was surprised at the 
number of medical men in this country ; indeed, doctors and lawyers ap¬ 
peared to be over-numerous ; the number of chemists, except in Montreal, 
Quebec, and Ottawa, was very small; and it would be as well to be self- 
reliant, and see what could be done among ourselves for the advancement of 
pharmacy within our own sphere. He therefore moved that a Society be 
formed for this end. 
Mr. Crathern seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously. 
Mr. Muir moved, and Mr. Goulden seconded, a resolution that a com¬ 
mittee be formed for constituting the Society. 
Dr. J. B. Edwards thought that it might very properly come within the 
duties of that Committee to discuss and decide the question as to whether 
the association be general or local. It appeared to him that the circumstances 
were on the whole favourable to a general Society, and might not be equally 
so at a future period. Recent consolidation of the provinces into one con- 
