TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY 
66 
early and Sunday closing, by the neighbourhood in which he resided. When 
the early closing movement first arose he was with an old chemist in Sloane 
Street, who was induced to close early for about a month, and then be re¬ 
turned to the old plan. There were certain large houses which could do 
almost as they pleased, like medical men in large practice, but in the case of 
many others poverty compelled them to do that which they would rather 
avoid. If the new Pharmacy Bill, when if came into operation, brought them 
a large accession of members, they might, by co-operation and by friendly dis¬ 
cussion, do a great deal. He did not advocate keeping open from seven until 
eleven o’clock on Sundays, but they must be guided by the kind of business 
they did and the particular neighbourhood in which they resided. He knew 
a gentleman with whom Mr. Pedler was connected some years ago, and who 
was then a strong advocate for early closing ; but, when he got into a business 
of his own, he said he could not do anything of the kind,—lie must keep open. 
Then, again, there was the difficulty which he had found himself, north, east, 
south, and west, of bringing all the tradesmen in one neighbourhood to adopt 
the system; some would agree, but others would not, and therefore, from re¬ 
gard to their own interest, every one kept open even to quite a late hour at 
night. In one business he had it was no uncommon thing to be open until 
twelve o’clock, with customers coming in constantly up to that time ; and if 
they shut the doors, they only sent people elsewhere. There was no doubt 
it was very desirable to close on Sunday ; but, as had been stated, it was not 
at all an uncommon thing for ladies and gentlemen to leave their prescrip¬ 
tions on the way to church, to be called for when they came back, and even 
the clergyman himself would sometimes look in for something to relieve his 
neuralgia. He did not quite agree with the remark of the President, that 
the co-operative movement would be a nine days’ wonder, but at any rate it 
interfered very considerably with some articles generally sold by chemists; 
for instance, he understood that Rowland's macassar oil was sold at 2s. a 
bottle. He should like to hear any suggestions thrown out with a view of 
meeting this state of things. 
Mr. Savage was very glad the discussion had arisen and hoped good would 
result from it; but after all it was an individual matter, for they could scarcely 
hope to get such combined action as to ensure uniformity. It was determined, 
twenty-five years ago by the chemists at Brighton, which was, as they knew, 
much resorted to by invalids, and where therefore medicine might be called for 
at any time, to close earlier. A meeting of the masters was held, and it was 
determined to close at nine o’clock, keeping the door open an hour later ; but 
in consequence of some inefficiency in the arrangements, new comers into the 
town were not made aware of the agreement that had been come to, and as 
they kept open later, it gradually became somewhat general in the trade to 
keep open till ten o’clock. He had not done so, nor did he intend to do so. 
He thought a good deal might be done to relieve the young men by taking off 
all the duty that was not absolutely required to be done, say after seven o’clock, 
so that each assistant might have an opportunity, in turn, of studying or 
reading, but still being on the premises in case he were wanted. He had 
adopted that plan for many years and had found it most successful, having 
had three young men pass the Pharmaceutical Society. With regard to 
Sunday, he opened for an hour twice in the day at one of his shops, and the 
other he kept closed as much as possible. If they endeavoured to do as they 
would be done by, they might do a great deal to relieve their assistants. 
Mr. Flux suggested, in reference to early closing, that a hint might be 
taken from the Post-office late letter-box system, and that as a test of 
urgency a small fee might be required in favour of some general fund, from 
customers who came after a certain hour. 
