278 
SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING. 
Journal carefully, he would have seen the notice calling the meeting. It struck 
him that sufficient publicity had not been given to these proposed bye-laws for 
the members of the trade generally to know what they were. He believed they 
had not appeared in the Journal, and therefore the trade were met, according 
to Act of Parliament, to confirm these bye-laws and send them to the Secretary 
of State, when they really knew nothing about them. He thought they should 
have been submitted to the trade for consideration, before they were asked to 
confirm them. 
Mr. Flux pointed out the great difference between the present and the former 
occasion on which the bye-laws were altered. They were now, to a certain 
extent, working against time. The Act of last session necessitated the provi¬ 
sion of certain machinery, and that that should be got ready in time for gen¬ 
tlemen to come and qualify themselves under it, so as not to be shut out from 
the exercise of their calling on the 31st December, 1868. Under these circum¬ 
stances, there was really no time to lose. If these amendments were published 
in the Journal for November, there would then have to be a meeting in the 
middle of November, and after that they would have to go to the Privy Council 
(not as before, simply to the Secretary of State), and they did not know when 
a Privy Council might be called competent to deal with this question. Prac¬ 
tically, therefore, they would be thrown on to Christmas, and during the 
Christmas holidays gentlemen would not like to come there to be examined, nor 
would examiners like to attend. Fie therefore put it to the gentlemen present 
that it was not only desirable, but necessary, that these bye-laws should be 
dealt with promptly. They were simply a continuation of the old bye-laws, 
prepared with the greatest care, with such alterations as Mr. Deane had called 
attention to, with two or three clerical alterations, and with such additions as 
were necessary to create and put into working order the machinery for giving 
effect to this new Act of Parliament. 
Mr. Dickinson said there might be reasons for urging this forward, but he 
believed there was never anything gained by acting precipitately. He did not 
think Pharmaceutical Chemists, and those who wished to become such, would 
suffer by a little delay. As far as he had been able to gather, their present ma¬ 
chinery was pretty nearly perfect, and every one knew what he had to do in order 
to become registered under the new Act; and he imagined they could have 
conducted the examinations under the old bye-laws. Everybody had read the 
Act of Parliament, and knew all about it; and as they would now have a larger 
constituency, he thought it very desirable that the bye-laws also, which would 
be almost equivalent to an Act of Parliament, should be thoroughly well 
known. 
The Chairman remarked that it would be competent to them hereafter to 
establish new bye-laws if necessary; but in the present case there was no de¬ 
parture from the principle of the old bye-laws, and the passing of them imme¬ 
diately would be a great benefit to the trade at large. 
Mr. Vizer agreed with Mr. Dickinson that these things should not be gone 
through too hurriedly. The additions and alterations, in his opinion, ought ro 
have been made public in the Journal, or notice sent round to the members in 
some way. 
The Chairman said there had been no time to insert the new bye-laws in the 
Journal. 
Mr. Vizer thought it was evident, from the smallness of the meeting, that 
the trade generally did not know much about the matter. 
The Chairman said it was necessary, before new bye-laws could be sub¬ 
mitted to the members for confirmation, that they should be passed at 
three meetings of the Council; they might be read if it were considered 
desirable. 
