OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
557 
in the slightest degree to dictate to prescribers ; it is as much our duty to follow 
their instructions and carry out their wishes in individual cases, as it is to follow 
the Pharmacopoeia generally. There can be no difficulty in dispensing medicines 
from the old forms when so ordered. AVe daily use preparations which have no 
place either in the London or British Pharmacopoeia ; our only aim should be to 
do exactly that which the doctor thinks best for his patient, and to that end the 
most perfect confidence between medical practitioners and dispensing chemists 
is essential. If chemists, on their part, declare the new Pharmacopoeia as their 
standing guide, prescribers will soon acknowledge the necessity for explicit in¬ 
struction when they desire a departure therefrom, and I think they will rather 
thank us for so clear an understanding. 
Gentlemen, you will hear, when our Secretary reads the Report, of the ad¬ 
vance we have made in the Benevolent Fund. It has been a great gratifica¬ 
tion to me to see this advance made during the term of my presidency, although 
I cannot claim any special merit for myself concerning it. I shall ever remem¬ 
ber that I was the first President to whose lot it fell to preside at an election of 
annuitants, and to announce success to candidates who would, but for the 
timely succour thus secured them, have ended their days in abject poverty. I 
have seen in three succeeding years six such annuitants elected. I have seen 
the accumulated Fund advance from about six to very nearly ten thousand 
pounds, and I thereby see it safe to go on, year by year increasing the number 
of annuitants, if worthy cases be presented to the Society for such grants. But, 
Gentlemen, to you who have borne with my inefficiency as a President,— 
to you who have by your heartiness in our common cause substained our Society 
in all things notwithstanding that inefficiency,—I appeal now on quitting this 
chair, to make up the capital fund to the originally proposed sum—the sum pro¬ 
posed in the days of our ever-honoured founder, Jacob Bell—the sum of ten 
thousand pounds. 
The Secretary then read the following Report of the Council, the Finan¬ 
cial Statement (pages 560, 561) being taken as read :— 
The Finance Report of the past year offers no marked change to which the 
Council deem it necessary to draw attention ; the increase in the subscriptions 
from members, associates, and apprentices, which advanced considerably about 
four years ago, has been maintained, as will be seen on examination, by an 
accession of prospective strength to the Society in the enrolment of assistants 
and apprentices. Tfie former numbered 158 in 1867 against 124 in 1866, and 
the latter 229 against 198. The publication of such facts as these is not the least 
valuable and gratifying part of the annual reports, because it shows actually the 
estimation in which the Society is held by those who are entering the business, 
and by implication it proves the value attached to it by the public. 
Notwithstanding this increased desire on the part of the younger members of the 
trade to be connected with the Society, it will be noticed with regret that the exa¬ 
mination fees have fallen somewhat short of those of 1866 ; but here the deficiency 
arises in the Major rather than the Minor classes, and the Council have reason 
to ascribe this in some degree to the uncertainty existing as to the issue of the 
efforts to obtain an extension of the Pharmacy Act. It may be natural, al¬ 
though it is a very short-sighted policy, for men who think a certain registration 
will be accorded to them by reason of their position in the trade at the time of 
the passing of any new Act, to rest on their oars and go in with the tide rather 
than work up to the highest position by at once passing the Major Examination. 
They fail to appreciate the fact that although the aegis of the Society will prove 
to them a certain defence, yet the individual merits of men count for more and 
more every day in this age of progress. The small difference which appears 
