COMPLIMENTARY DINNER TO MR. SANDFORD. 
705 
Dr. Alexander Silver, in responding, said, that if he did not worthily 
represent the medical profession, certainly no one esteemed more highly the 
Pharmaceutical Society, and its professors, examiners, and members, several 
of whose names were well known, not only to the medical profession, but all 
over the world. He need not say a word as to the value of the Society, but 
with its aims and objects he most cordially sympathized, for it was always 
praiseworthy in any body of men to try and obtain a well-defined position. 
He was sorry to know* that between certain branches of his ow r n profession 
and pharmacists there was an ill-grounded feeling of jealousy, but this was 
not felt by the more worthy and noble-minded members, who fully shared 
in the desire to separate pharmacy from medicine, and to make them two 
distinct professions. If a man desired to be a pharmacist, he could not at 
the same time be a well-qualified physician ; excellence in the tw o branches 
was incompatible. Furthermore, he esteemed the Pharmaceutical Society 
on account of the singlemindedness of its aims, for, notwithstanding its enor¬ 
mous influence and high position, it had newer descended to use that position 
for the purposes of trade, w T hich could not be said of all analogous bodies. 
The liberality of the Society also was most noble, the ample resources of their 
well-stocked library and laboratory being alw r ays at the service of any one 
who really required information; and, in addition, he could speak from his 
own experience that valuable assistance was forthcoming w hen necessary in 
the tedious and sometimes costly researches which medical men were from 
time to time called upon to engage in with reference to various medical 
agents 
Mr. Pandall (Southampton) said he had an easy task to perform in call¬ 
ing upon the company to drink “ Success to Pharmacy,” inasmuch as the 
great majority of those whom he saw around him were engaged in it as their 
daily occupation; and therefore, thinking of success only in a business point 
of view, there was no fear of the toast meeting with ready acceptance. He 
would, however, go beyond that, and propose success to pharmacy as an art. 
If it were true that for all the ills which flesh is heir to God had sent a 
remedy, it must be a noble thing to search out these remedies, and present 
them in a convenient form for use. Still further, he would propose success 
to pharmacy as a science, for surely it was a noble thing, entirely apart from 
pecuniary or utilitarian considerations, to search out the wonderful w r ay in 
which nature, in her own laboratories, elaborated the various articles with 
which they had to work. They could all remember the time w hen pharmacy 
was looked upon with some discredit, and when the public felt that they 
required more protection ; but it w as not so now, for he believed that it 
would now be considered a credit to belong to such a body. They might 
still, how'ever, propose success to education in pharmacy. A peculiar educa¬ 
tion was required for success in pharmacy, and that could now be obtained 
not only at the Pharmaceutical Society; but they must still go forwards, and 
each one, as he drank the toast, determine within himself that, from that day 
forward, he would strive, by every means in his pow r er, to raise the status 
of the profession to which he belonged, not for liis own advantage only, but 
for that of the general body of the public, to w r hose necessities they minis¬ 
tered. Their motto must still be “ Excelsior,” and they must endeavour to 
cultivate the professional spirit which would make them look upon their 
fellows not so much as rivals but as friends. Success, then, to pharmacy, not 
wistfully or even hopefully, but determinately, and in that spirit there could 
be no doubt as to the result. 
Mr. Deane, being called upon to respond, said he had found some of the 
greatest pleasures of life in connection with the business to w*hich he was 
devoted; and he would venture to suggest that all those who had young men 
