610 
THE TWENTY-THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF 
under tlieir control. This Act recognized the Board of Examiners of the .Phar¬ 
maceutical Society, and proposed to take their certificate as evidence of qua¬ 
lification. The Council of this Society felt confident that the clauses which 
created so much alarm in the minds of chemists and druggists would never pass 
as they stood in the Bill, at the same time they kept a steady eye on the 
progress of events. The Medical Council have for the present relinquished 
the proposition; hut it may nevertheless ultimately prove to have given rise 
to great changes in our business, for we must regard it as the immediate cause 
of the agitation now going on in and out of our Society for legislative power 
to compel the examination of every man who shall in future commence busi¬ 
ness as a dispensing chemist. 
It is almost needless to recapitulate the steps which have been taken with 
regard to an extension of the Pharmacy Act. 'The Special General Meeting 
of the Society is yet fresh in our memory; the Bill drawn by the solicitors 
under the instruction of the Council is before every member in his Journal 
of the present month, which also contains an intimation that its consideration 
will form part of this day’s proceedings. 
The arrangements brought into operation last year for the appointment 
of Local Secretaries seem to work satisfactorily. It is of great importance that 
the interests of the Society should be carefully watched in the Provinces, and 
there is much in the power of these gentlemen which may advance its progress ; 
the Benevolent Fund too, might be (and in some cases has been) considerably 
augmented by their exertions. At this moment, when the Society meditates 
applying to Parliament for an extension of its powers, which, if granted, will 
go far to consummate the labour of nearly a quarter of a century, the cordial 
co-operation of all its members is of vital importance, and can be best se¬ 
cured by the representatives of the Council throughout the kingdom. 
This [Report, in its commencement, speaks of the increased contributions to 
the Benevolent Fund, but it cannot close without specially drawing attention 
to the necessity of further support. It will be remembered that in the last 
two Reports attention was directed, first, to the rules for its distribution, and 
afterwards to the desirability of establishing pensions as well as temporary 
relief: the demand for the former appears to have arisen, as indeed it might 
fairly be expected to arise, with the advancing age of the Society. The 
Council has taken advantage of the present appeal to Parliament to obtain 
some extension of its powers in the administration of this fund. Under the 
Charter, relief can be granted only to such as are actually connected with the 
Society at the time of application, or to the widows or orphans of men who 
were so connected up to the time of their decease ; but it will be easily under¬ 
stood that a member when falling into straitened circumstances, will often 
(unwise though it may be) endeavour to curtail his expenses by such means 
as are least likely to indicate his real position to his neighbours, and retire¬ 
ment from a voluntary society may seem to be one of them. In practice the 
Council has actually found this to be the case, and felt it painful to be un¬ 
able to afford aid where it was much needed. 
The Council cannot take leave of the Society at the conclusion of their 
year of office without paying a tribute of respect to one who was for a long 
period their very zealous and faithful colleague—Mr. Bucklee, of whose 
assistance they were deprived by death in October last. 
Mr. Orridge moved that the Report and Treasurer’s Account be received, adopted, 
and printed in the Transactions of the Society. As the important business of the meet¬ 
ing had reference to the proposed new Pharmacy Bill, and would occupy considerable 
time, he should be brief in what he had to say with regard to the Report. He thought 
the Council had scarcely done the professors sufficient justice, when it was remembered 
