600 
THE TWENTY-THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF 
Moved by Dr. Corrigan, seconded by Dr. Quain, and agreed to :—“That a communi¬ 
cation be addressed to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, drawing his at¬ 
tention to the present defective state of the law regarding the Practice of Pharmacy, 
under which any person, however ignorant, may undertake it; and expressing the opinion 
of the General Medical Council, that some legislative enactment is urgently called for 
to ensure competency in persons keeping open shops for dispensing medicines and for the 
compounding of Physicians’ and Surgeons’ prescriptions.” 
Gentlemen, I believe the greatest mistake we could possibly commit would be 
to treat the Medical Council with distrust. I think they would gladly see us 
obtain power for the regulation of pharmaceutists entirely independent of their 
Board, and I know no men who could give us more effectual aid in obtaining 
those powers. I will not prejudge questions which are to come under your con¬ 
sideration this morning ; they will require, and I am sure receive, very calm 
thought. It is an old saying, that every question has two sides, and ours is no 
exception to the general rule. Standing with our own position assured, we are, 
as it were, between two parties : one, which I have mentioned, may be supposed 
to speak with great authority, and its opinion is entitled to all respect; the other, 
our brethren iu the trade, who ought to be with us in the advancement of a work 
which is as much, or indeed more, for their benefit than our own ; and now by a 
union of the whole we seem to have the opportunity of elevating the position of 
Chemists and Druggists as a class, and yet (by promoting what might at first 
sight seem to be a class interest ) adding to the general welfare and security of 
the Public. 
The “Annual Meeting ” of this Society is not called for scientific discussion, 
but some of my predecessors in this chair—who have filled it much more ably 
than I do—have on these occasions taken some note of the progress of pharmacy. 
I have to-day regarded the business of the Society as for the moment of such ab¬ 
sorbing interest to us all, that I have confined my remarks to that point; not 
that we can ever separate the progress of pharmacy from that of pharmaceutists, 
the two are so intimately associated that what advances one promotes the other. 
But it may have been thought that I should have found some cause for congratu¬ 
lation, and some evidence of the fruition of the seed sown during the last twenty 
years, in the establishment since our last meeting, by gentlemen who I think look 
up to the Pharmaceutical Society as their “ Alma Mater,” of a Conference for 
the exclusive discussion of scientific matters of pharmaceutical interest. Some 
mention may have been expected, too, of the issue of a new Pharmacopoeia; that 
at least is an event which must interest us all, the more especially as it has been is¬ 
sued from a new source, and is the first in the formation of which Pharmaceutical 
Chemists have been asked directly to assist. Gentlemen, we all know to how 
much discussion that book has given rise, and if it has not been the best studied , 
it certainly has been the best abused book which has appeared for many a day. 
It seems to have been somewhat the fashion of critics to dwell on its weak points, 
but they have told us also that it contains many improvements on former Phar¬ 
macopoeias, and at least it possesses the one merit of having brought England, 
Ireland, and Scotland into union on a most important point. 
Gentlemen, these criticisms have proceeded from various quarters, some of 
them from men so high in authority that the adoption or non-adoption of the 
British Pharmacopoeia by pharmaceutists has been a difficult question, and it 
is therefore satisfactory to find that even the Medical Council themselves have 
felt the difficulty, and appointed a Committee, consisting of Dr. Christison, 
Dr. Sharpey, Dr. Apjohn, and Dr. Quain, “ for preparing the next edition of 
the British Pharmacopoeia;” under their guidance, “an Editor or Editors will 
be appointed.” As we have been told that in many of the new forms a sort of 
compromise had to be effected between London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, we 
may perhaps hope that this lessening of the number of champions from each 
city may facilitate the work. 
