280 
SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING. 
Secretary to £500, and enabled him to pay all accounts, due by the Society, 
without restriction as to the amount. Section xiv. was the same as before. 
Mr. Dickinson, interrupting, asked if it were contemplated that in future 
there should be two classes of persons engaged in the business, viz. Chemists and 
Druggists and Pharmaceutical Chemists. Some of his friends contended that 
this was so, but he had held an opposite opinion, and was under the impression 
that the class of chemists and druggists simply would die out, and that, in the 
course of time, all men practising pharmacy, would be Pharmaceutical Chemists. 
He wished to know what would be the status of those who were Pharmaceutical 
Chemists by membership, not having been examined,—his own case,—if, for 
instance, he ceased to pay his subscription, what would be his position. 
Mr. Flux said, in such a case he would go into the ranks of the chemists and 
druggists, the same as if the new Act had not been passed. 
Mr. Dickinson said he knew that was the intention under the old bye-laws, 
which he believed, on grounds which he need not state, would not hold water 
as a bye-law, but it was important to consider the case, which might arise, of 
gentlemen who imagined that being registered as Pharmaceutical Chemists under 
the Act, they might cease all connection with the Society ; would they go back 
into the ranks of ordinary chemists and druggists ? 
Mr. Flux : Clearly. 
Mr. Dickinson apprehended that would not be so. 
Mr. Squire did not think auy one would give up the benefit which member¬ 
ship gave them for the sake of a paltry subscription. 
Mr. Dickinson said it was not a question of what would be done for the 
sake of a paltry guinea, but of being precise in their legislation, and under¬ 
standing their exact position. 
Mr. Flux said this question did not turn on the bye-laws, but on the Act, 
a much higher authority, which was quite explicit on the subject. There always 
would be chemists and druggists and Pharmaceutical Chemists, so long as there 
were gentlemen who would come forward to pass the Major examination, but 
whether gentlemen would volunteer to pass this examination or not, they could 
not become anything more than chemists and druggists, unless they did so. 
The position of things might be illustrated by the case of the College of Sur¬ 
geons, where there were gentlemen recognized as Surgeons, and others re¬ 
cognized as Fellows. Here Pharmaceutical Chemists would occupy the higher 
grade, corresponding to the Fellow of the College, but the other was equally 
eligible as a chemist and druggist. 
Mr. Dickinson did not think the illustration a very good one, because a 
Fellow of the College of Surgeons did not usually announce himself as such to 
the world, whereas, in the other case, a man wrote up “ Pharmaceutical Che¬ 
mist ” over his shop-front. 
Mr. Flux said the parallel lay in this, that the law necessitated a man being 
qualified as a chemist and druggist if he intended to carry on the business, but 
it did not make it compulsory on him to become a Pharmaceutical Chemist. If 
he chose, he might become a member of the higher grade, possessing the title 
and all the benefit springing therefrom. 
Mr. Dickinson was glad to have the question cleared up, as to there being 
in future two classes of men in the profession. 
The Chairman remarked that the reason for fixing the Minor examination 
as the one necessary for chemists and druggists under the new Act was, that 
it was asserted the other would be too high for many chemists and druggists 
in small country places. 
Mr. Flux then continued the reading of the bye-laws. Section xv. was the 
same as before, with the addition of the word u examiners” into the heading ; 
xvi., xvii., and xviii. remained as before, but, in the latter, clause 2 was struck 
