MANCHESTER CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 359 
anticipated to prove valuable. The meeting approved the suggestion, and referred it to 
the Committee. 
The discussion upon the Pharmacy Act, as adjourned from the last meeting, was con¬ 
tinued, and many members took part in it. 
Before the meeting separated, Mr. Abbott exhibited a very large and interesting col¬ 
lection of specimens representing microscopic crystallography, including sublimates, etc., 
and prepared by himself. 
MANCHESTER CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
A public meeting of chemists, druggists, and their assistants, in the Manchester dis¬ 
trict, was held, on Friday, November 6th, in the Memorial Hall, Albert Square, 
to take into consideration the provisions of the new Pharmacy Act, and to form an 
association having for its objects educational facilities for assistants and apprentices, the 
mutual improvement of its members by the formation of a library, museum, and school 
of pharmacy. The meeting was numerously and influentially attended, and Mr. Councillor 
Brown (Jewsbury and Brown) was called to the chair. The chairman, in his preliminary 
observations, explained that a few members of the trade, impressed with the importance 
of the provisions of the recently adopted Act, and considering the difficulties of procuring 
the necessary education for qualifying assistants so as to enable them to comply with 
the requirements of the law, had met together and arranged the present meeting. They 
desired that the projected association should include, as far as possible, all, whether in 
or out of the district, who were affected by the Act. After explaining that by lav/ no 
one could, after December, sell any poison or dispense any medicine containing poison 
unless registered under the new law, and that the privilege of registration was accorded 
to all who were in business on their own account at the time of the passing of the Act, but 
not to assistants and apprentices, who were now required to educate themselves and 
pass an examination previous to commencing business, he proceeded to urge the neces¬ 
sity for providing the groundwork on which could be raised the contemplated higher 
educational qualifications required from future chemists and dispensers of medicine. He 
also dwelt on the importance of the whole trade forming themselves into a society, 
which by means of classes, lectures, meetings, and mutual association, would facilitate 
the carrying out of the new Act, which, while protecting the public, would raise the status 
of the members.—Mr. J. T. Slugg, F.R.A.S., moved, “ That it is desirable that an associa¬ 
tion of pharmaceutical chemists and chemists and druggists in Manchester and the neigh¬ 
bourhood be formed, having for its objects, provision for the better education of assis¬ 
tants and apprentices, the mutual improvement of members, the general advancement 
of the interests of the trade, and the formation of a library, a museum, and a school of 
pharmacy ; and that the title of the proposed association be ‘The Manchester Chemists 
and Druggists’ Association.’” Mr. Slugg contrasted the fortunate position of young 
men now entering the trade with that of young men who entered it when he did forty 
years ago, and said that “ at last that happy day had arrived to which so many good 
and earnest men had looked forward for years. There could be but one opinion as to 
the importance and beneficial character of the Amended Pharmacy Act. It was no 
longer possible for ignorant and incompetent men to slip into the business, as some 
had done, and become competitors of the properly educated druggist.” Mr. Slugg 
paid a just tribute of praise to the founders of the Pharmaceutical Society, with whose 
object he had always agreed, though he had not joined the Society, because he had 
always advocated compulsory examination. The passing of this Act had removed all 
cause for jealousy, and he trusted that all ill-feeling would be laid aside, and that every 
member of this now’ honourable calling would heartily unite in carrying out the 
objects of the Act. Those who were now in business, by means of the Act, had suddenly 
become possessed of great privileges; but the possession of privilege always entailed 
on its possessor some corresponding duty. Their duty in the present instance was un¬ 
doubtedly to look to their assistants and apprentices, to do what they could towards 
furnishing them with suitable helps in the way of education. He concluded by urgently 
appealing to employers to join the Association at once,—help at the beginning being of 
more value than after it had become a prosperous institution, and hoped also that the 
young men, assistants and apprentices, would become members. The resolution was 
