GOS 
THE TWENTY-THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF 
We, the undersigned Auditors, have examined the Accounts of the Pharmaceutical 
Society, and find them correct agreeably with the foregoing stat:ment, and that, as 
shown by the Books of the Society, there was standing in the names of the Trustees 
of the Society, at the Bank of England, on the 31st of December, 1863:— 
On Account of the General Fund, New 3 per Cents . £1000 0 0 
Life Members’Fund, 3 per Cent. Consols ... 2475 12 2 
Benevolent Fund, 3 per Cent. Consols. 6182 19 10 
Frederick Barron, "j 
John Carr, 
Charles Davy, }»Auditors. 
William McCulloch, | 
February ''loth, 1864. Benjamin Yates, J 
The foregoing statement offers no salient point for remark on the part of 
the Council, but it will nevertheless be found, on analysis, to afford satisfac¬ 
tory evidence as to the financial condition of the Society, inasmuch as almost 
every item on the credit side is somewhat higher, and most of the charges 
“ per contra ” a little lower, than in the account, rendered at our last Annual 
Meeting, of the receipts and disbursements of 1862. The two sides are alike 
important; from the one we estimate the interest taken by members and 
associates in supporting the Society, from the other the care bestowed by the 
Council in the management of its affairs. The number of those who have 
joined the Society during the past year, has been sufficient to compensate for 
the unavoidable decrease by death and other causes. Beading upwards in our 
balance-sheet, and comparing it with 1862, we find the registration fees of the 
former year to be—pharmaceutical chemists, 30; assistants, 34 ; apprentices, 
68 ; against 36, 44, and 73 in 1863. In the lecture and laboratory fees some 
improvement is apparent, and in the Benevolent Fund a marked increase has 
taken place. 
There is one source of income which has improved of late, and which is 
worthy of remark—the arrears of subscription. Our account terminates 
at Christmas, 1863, but we may be permitted to state that since that time a 
much larger sum has been received on this head than during the whole of the 
former year ; and we mention this to show that men who had joined the 
Society in the enthusiasm of its early days, and then fallen away, must have 
found a satisfactory answer to the “ cui bono” of our opponents and luke¬ 
warm supporters. 
Last year we had the satisfaction of drawing attention to the great dimi¬ 
nution of expense in the publication of the ‘Pharmaceutical Journal and 
Transactions,’ and now we show that improvement not only to have been 
kept up, but even to have been increased by another hundred pounds, and 
that too, without deterioration of the work. 
Although there is an increase in the number of pupils in the laboratory, 
the Council cannot but feel disappointed regarding it. When, by the aid of 
the munificent legacy from the late Mr. Bell, it was deemed wise to remove 
the students from the ill-ventilated and insufficient laboratory in the base¬ 
ment to a more commodious one at the top of the house, a confident expecta¬ 
tion was entertained that the improved accommodation would bring together 
a much larger class. In this department no pains have been spared. An 
excellent Director is in charge, aided by a competent Demonstrator; but up 
to this time the anticipations of the Council have not been fully realized. It 
is true that the funds of the Society cannot be more wisely spent than in 
promoting education, and that the difference between the receipts and dis¬ 
bursements of the laboratory is not very large (about £160); but the Council 
