EXCISE INTERFERENCE WITH THE SALE OF QUININE WINE. 211 
days of an unfortunate brother member is a much more important event, 
eclipsing the good done almost privately by the Council on behalf of the 
Society. There are now six annuitants, each drawing the yearly sum of 
thirty pounds from the Fund, and giving answer to those who said, three or 
four years ago, “ There are no demands for assistance, therefore there is no 
pressing need for further contributions ; ” they could not recognize the neces¬ 
sity for putting heart into the soil and leaving the crop to be reaped they 
knew not when, but seemed rather to regard themselves as farmers on short 
leases. When we recur to this apathy which existed so recently, we must 
the more joyfully hail the change which has since taken place. We look 
back to 1862, and find the subscriptions £45. 8s. only; but in each succeed¬ 
ing year there has been a marked improvement. In 1866, they amounted to 
£391. 6s., and in 1867 (not yet complete) to £474. 6s. Qd. We say nothing 
of donations,—the festival held in February last having made this an excep¬ 
tional year. 
But with this seeming prosperity, our duty must still be to urge the neces¬ 
sity for continued exertion. The fund is now fairly launched, not only as a 
means of affording occasional assistance in cases of emergency, but also for 
making permanent provision for those no longer able to help themselves. It 
will be an evil year when the Council cannot announce their readiness to 
grant, as they have done in each of the last three years, two annuities; but 
their ability to do so must rest entirely on the liberality of the members of 
the Society. A certain proportion must be maintained between assured 
pensions and interest on invested capital. It were better never to grant a 
pension at all, than having granted it to run short of the means of fulfilling 
the engagement. 
We feel confident, however, that such a reverse will not occur. The 
knowledge that so many hearts may be made happy by the small sacrifice which 
will suffice on the part of the donors, if all join in contributing to this fund, 
will act as a powerful incentive, and the yearly appeal for votes made to each 
member, associate, and contributor, cannot fail to spread this knowledge 
abroad. At the first election of annuitants the highest number of votes polled 
was under 900; at the last, more than 1400 w T ere recorded for one candidate, 
and this may be taken as evidence of the increased interest pervading the 
Society in the matter. 
Of all the secondary objects of the Pharmaceutical Society, perhaps the 
Benevolent Fund is the most important. It strengthens the bond of union 
which has enabled us to achieve so much, and by w hich alone we can hope 
ultimately to obtain complete success. 
EXCISE INTERFERENCE WITH THE SALE OF QUININE 
WINE. 
At one of the meetings of the Pharmaceutical Conference at Dundee, a case 
was described by a druggist of that tow r n, Mr. Kerr, in which he had been 
threatened by an excise officer with legal proceedings if he continued to sell 
quinine wine without a medicine stamp or a “ swrnets licence and, founded 
on this case, the Conference sent a memorial to the Council of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society, urging them to endeavour to get all legislative enactments 
reduced to the simplest possible code, and “ to adopt any other measures 
which may appear to them desirable to place the relations of the excise towards 
pharmacy in a clearer light.” This memorial was presented at the last meet¬ 
ing of the Council, and a committee was appointed to consider the subject. 
