692 
TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY 
of persons entitled to registration as Chemists and Druggists on passing a 
“ Modified Examination,” your Council strongly represented to the Govern¬ 
ment the desirability of removing the grievance. In consequence thereof the 
Lord Advocate added a clause to Lord Robert Montagu’s Amendment Bill, 
which was read a third time in the House of Commons on the 13th inst., de¬ 
claring that if the three years’ service had expired at any time prior to the 31st 
of July, 1868, it should be deemed sufficient. The rest of the Amendment Bill 
is intended to relieve Medical Practitioners who consider they are insufficiently- 
described by the word Apothecary, and Veterinary Surgeons in Scotland, who 
hold the diploma of the Highland and Agricultural Society. 
In the Session of 1868, an Act was passed to regulate the sale and keeping of 
petroleum. It is probable that if the attention of the Council had not been so 
entirely absorbed by the more important Pharmacy Act, some of the absurd and 
vexatious provisions which this Act contains would never have become law. 
There is reason to believe that the framers of the Act did not contemplate such 
restrictions on the sale and keeping of small quantities of benzol as are now, 
by a strict interpretation of the Petroleum Act, enforced. On representation 
being made to the authorities at the Home Office on the subject, Mr. Liddell at 
once promised to use his exertions to obtain an alleviation of the inconve¬ 
nience ; and a Bill to amend the Act of 1868 was accordingly introduced and 
read a first time in the House of Commons on Thursday last. 
There is another question now before Parliament in which Members of this 
Society, and all Chemists and Druggists, are interested, namely “ A Bill to 
amend the ‘ Adulteration of Food or Drink Act (I860),’ and to extend its pro¬ 
visions to Drugs.” A similar Bill was prepared, but not proceeded with, last 
year ; but it will be remembered that, at the instance of the Privy Council, a 
section (the 24th) was inserted in the Pharmacy Act, bringing dealers in 
drugs under the operation of the Act of 1860. Your Council could offer no 
valid objection to this introduction, it being one of the great objects of the So¬ 
ciety to promote purity in drugs ; still, considering that many articles used in 
medicine are brought from foreign markets, and most ingeniously adulterated 
before coming to this country, they secured the insertion of words to enable 
the retailer to prove his ignorance of such adulteration ; and, for the same reason, 
it becomes necessary now to watch carefully any further legislation on the sub¬ 
ject. 
The Council cannot close this report without strongly urging the necessity 
for continued or indeed increased activity on behalf of the Benevolent Fund. 
It is true the donations, subscriptions, and investments of 1868 far exceeded those 
of former years; it is true also that since Christmas the invested capital has 
reached the long-talked-of sum of ten thousand pounds; but it is equally true 
that the Pharmacy Act of 1868 opened a much wider field for the distribution 
of the fund, and consequently the standard which was deemed sufficient when 
none but persons actually connected with the Society could receive relief will 
bear a very different proportion to the requirements now that “ all persons who 
may have been , and have ceased to be, Members or Associates of the said Society, 
or who may have been duly registered as Pharmaceutical Chemists or Chemists 
and Druggists , and the widows and orphans of such persons' ’ shall be eligible 
to receive assistance in case of need. 
There are already eight annuitants on the fund, and holding to the principle 
that it is unsafe to grant annuities to a larger amount than the annual in¬ 
terest on capital, your Council sincerely trust that the same benevolent spirit 
which has been growing from year to year since the system of annuities was 
commenced in 1865 will still actuate all who have the means to assist their 
poorer brethren, and that future Councils will never be compelled by want of 
means to reject worthy applicants for relief. * 
