OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
687 
years he had had to speak of things which he hoped would be done, but now 
he was in a position to say they were accomplished ;—he could not but con¬ 
gratulate the Society upon the fact. Still he could not refrain from reminding 
his audience of the means by which the end had been achieved, and the Society 
established in the public favour. For many years he had been acquainted with 
the working of the Society,—had been a member of the Council for eleven 
years, he believed,—but this period had passed very rapidly and very pleasantly, 
and the success which had been achieved he attributed mainly to the exclusion 
from the beginning of all self-interest on the part of the founders and promo¬ 
ters, and to the adherence to the fundamental principle first laid down, that 
the Society could only subserve the welfare of its members by enabling them 
better to minister to the wants of the public. It had always been the policy 
of the Council to abstain from any interference with private matters affect¬ 
ing the conduct of business ; regulations which might be good in one locality 
or situation would not apply universally. Sometimes,- he was aware, they 
had been blamed for not interfering with these things, and charged with 
indifference : but his feeling was, that if they had gone into such matters 
they would have introduced explosives into the Society which would have torn 
it to pieces. It was only by union that they had attained the position they now 
occupied. He mentioned this, not so much to congratulate the members on 
what had been already achieved, as to show the necessity for moderation in 
exercising the powers with which they were now invested. It was not the 
same now as formerly, when the connection between the Society and chemists 
and druggists generally was a purely voluntary matter. They had now, in a 
certain sense and to a certain degree, a sort of control over chemists and drug¬ 
gists,—not in their private affairs, but in general matters affecting their 
business. lie recollected saying on one occasion, when a conference was held 
in that room with gentlemen who were then called outsiders, that if any great 
powers were proposed, he, for one, should be the first to decline them. As the 
Pharmacy Bill passed through Parliament, several attempts were made by 
friends of the Society to confer stringent powers upon it; some were resisted 
and some were confirmed, and in relation to such matters he could only say 
that their wisdom would be best proved, and the interests of the Society would 
be best secured, by a temperate and yet loyal fulfilment of those duties. Cer¬ 
tain powers and duties were entrusted to them by the Government, and it 
would be their duty to exercise those powers and fulfil those duties temperately, 
firmly, and judiciously. He could not conclude without saying one word with 
regard to the Benevolent Fund, because he was afraid that now they had 
£10,000, some might be inclined to stop short. £10,000 was a nice little sum 
for a man to retire upon, but if it so happened that his family increased, he 
might think the interest upon it was but a small provision. That was the case 
with them ; they had just increased their family, inasmuch as all who had been 
on the register of chemists and druggists were now eligible to partake in the 
benefits of the Benevolent Fund. He hoped, therefore, that they would not at 
all relax in their efforts, or be satisfied to stick at £10,000. They had no alms¬ 
houses where they kept people in a sort of genteel pauperism, but they were 
able to relieve widows and men who had fallen into distress, and with a little 
exertion he thought they might do even more than that. It had been sug¬ 
gested more than once that they might help a widow to educate her children, 
and if furnished with more means there was no reason why they should not 
do so. 
The Beport was then read by the Secretary. 
