THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
GIL 
how highly the medical journals and medical men spoke of the learning and ability dis¬ 
played by them' in the lectures which they delivered on the Pharmacopoeia, and which 
had the effect of materially enhancing the value of the Society in their estimation. He 
regretted it had not been possible to delay the Report for a week, because in all proba¬ 
bility the Council would then have referred to the Lord Chancellor’s Small Debts Bill. 
Few chemists’ bills amounted to more than £20, and to deprive a man of the power of 
suing after twelve months was something like confiscation ; and he thought the argu¬ 
ment used in favour of that proposition absurd, viz. that because some artisans’wives im¬ 
properly and recklessly involved their husbands with the tallyman, that therefore the 
book debts of honest tradesmen should not be recoverable after twelve months. 
The President said he believed a remonstrance would be laid before the Lord Chan¬ 
cellor with reference to that part of the Bill. 
Mr. Hollier seconded the motion. That part of th'e Report which bore on the 
Amended Pharmacy Act he considered very important. He wished the Local Secretaries 
had taken more action in reference to it, because he believed that if they had shown a 
more leading spirit on the point they would have obtained in a great degree the support 
and approval of the chemists and druggists generally, as well as Pharmaceutical Chemists. 
He was able to speak with more confidence on that point from his own experience in 
the district where he resided. He approved also of that portion of the Report which 
alluded to the Benevolent Fund. 
The motion was then agreed to unanimously. 
The President said they had arrived at the most important business in connection 
with the meeting, viz. the consideration of the new Pharmacy Bill, which having been 
published in that month’s Journal might be taken as having been read. 
Mr. George Edwards said: I have had a weighty task committed to me, to commend 
to your acceptance the Bill which has been placed before you. It was only at the 
Council Meeting this morning that this duty was allotted to me; if I had had longer 
notice I would have endeavoured to prepare myself better to discharge it, and to have 
arranged with greater clearness and order that which I wished to say to you ; and as I 
expected rather to reply to some of the objections which I knew would be made to it 
than to descant upon its merits, if what I say should seem to bear this character I must 
beg you to hear me with indulgence. I am consoled by the reflection that if I cannot 
adequately recommend it I can call with confidence upon another advocate; the Bill 
shall speak for itself, and ■when I see how it has gained approbation on every hand, I am 
ready to believe that it will be successful with you. If you will look at the existing 
Pharmacy Act you will see it declared in the preamble, that it was desirable that every 
person who should be entrusted with the compounding and dispensing of medicines 
should be examined, and it declared also that the title of Pharmaceutical Chemist should 
set forth to all the world that the man that bore it might be depended upon as one who 
had proved himself by examination an educated and trustworthy man. It refused to 
limit the right which every man possesses to deal with whom he chooses, but it resolved 
to point out the person who may be safely trusted, and then leave every one to act as he 
thought best. Now this was the avowed purpose of the Legislature; ive might have 
other objects in view, but this was the sole purpose of the Legislature, and to this there 
was but one exception ; they said, “ You, Members of the Pharmaceutical Society who 
have laboured for this, who have with much cost and pains set on foot a wise system of 
education to accomplish it, and without whose efforts this desirable step would never 
have been taken,—as your reward you shall be entitled to assume without further exami¬ 
nation this title of honour. And now we commit this Bill to you to be carried out in 
the spirit in which it is enacted.” We have done this for the last twelve years: hundreds 
have passed our examinations, they have won the approbation of the Legislature, the 
Government has opened its appointments to those who have our certificates, they have 
the confidence of the medical profession, and the public are steadily learning to appre¬ 
ciate the title of Pharmaceutical Chemist, and we occupy the place of respect and 
influence which belongs to us to-day. And now Ave are called upon to take another step 
and provide a measure for the satisfactory regulation of pharmacy in this country for the 
future, and in doing this we must remember that we have the interests of two great 
classes to regard ; on the one hand there are the public, the Government, and the medical 
profession, who look to us to maintain the objects for which they have trusted us, and 
on the other, the whole body of chemists throughout the country who are not our 
