G 2 0 
Till: TWENTY-THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF 
required in the country as in London. There might he some truth in it, but it should 
be remembered that it was maintained upon the voluntary principle, each year it had 
increased, and the students had found it more and more easy to pass the examinations. 
There would now be the alternative of the Minor examination for those who preferred 
being only Associates, which would give the security required by the Medical Council that 
the dispensers of medicines keeping open shops should be competent persons. A parti¬ 
cipation in the management of the Society he considered should be confined to those 
who voluntarily contributed to the funds. Apart from themselves, others were moving 
in this matter, and it became the Society to consider what could be done which would 
best promote the accomplishment of the object they had in view, and they said it would 
be by an amendment of their Act, which would give them a registration class from 
which to draw their future members. Much had been said with regard to the dis¬ 
tinction enjoyed by examined members. Now he was inclined to think that the value 
of the education was of greater consideration than the title, and that there were many 
young men whose gratitude was so great for the information they had obtained there, 
that they would give up the distinctive name if they saw it was for the general 
benefit of the Society; but they must take care and not permit such an influx of 
non-examined members as would destroy the prestige they had created, weaken the 
. morale of the Society, and bring them into contempt. He congratulated the So¬ 
ciety upon the number of young men who were now taking an interest in the So¬ 
ciety, from the value attached to the education, and impressed on the members that 
they should, by all the means in their power, abstain from doing anything that would 
abuse the confidence that had hitherto been placed in the Society. At present they 
had 2100 members, of whom 420 had passed the Major examination, which was about 
one-fifth of the body; besides that, there were 428 Associates who had passed the 
Minor examination upon the faith of the same contract, and who spent their money 
under the belief that they were making an investment that would prove advantageous 
to them when they commenced business. The entire number of examined men who 
had altogether passed the Society amounted to 1005, so that whilst they might have a 
few men who would be disposed to pay an entrance fee and come into the Society, they 
had a thousand whose interests they ought to protect, and keep the strictest faith with. 
He was not at all sanguine as to the number outside the Society who would join them. 
He did not believe they would amount to anything like a considerable number, because he 
did not think the same excitement existed now as in 1852, when the Pharmacy Act passed. 
Even then, after all the energetic means that were taken by Mr. Bell and others, the result 
was only some 800 gained to the Society, and now he thought they would not gain more 
than a quarter of that number, even if they admitted all who chose to join them. There 
was not only an indifference prevailing now, but also a want of sympathy, which w r as the 
cause that many did not join them. All that the men who would be on the registered 
list would have to swallow to take the full benefit attaching to Pharmaceutical Chemists 
would be a little pride and the payment of a small sum to pass the Major examination, 
—obstacles which might be very easily overcome if they took a fair view of the case. 
He believed it would be better for them to remain a voluntary society at the core, than 
that men should be brought in who were unwilling to swallow a small quantity of pride 
and pay a small sum in fees. 
Mr. Reynolds, as a member of the Council and of the Local Society at Leeds, con¬ 
sidered it was his duty to inform the Meeting that resolutions had been agreed to by the 
Pharmaceutical Chemists of Leeds, which he begged to read to the meeting. They were 
as follows :—• 
1. That the proposals of the Pharmacy Bill to restrict the use of the terms £: Chemist” 
and “ Druggist,” and to prevent the keepiug open shop for the dispensing prescriptions, 
by other than registered persons, are attended by so many difficulties that they are not 
feasible. This meeting would consider it preferable to take as the basis of legislation an 
enactment confining the sale of certain powerful poisons to persons registered as being 
qualified for such a trust. It also considers that an annual subscription should be sub¬ 
stituted for the single registration fee proposed by the Bill. 
2. That the class of “ Chemists and Druggists ” proposed to be registered under the 
Bill is entitled, upon every principle of justice, to self-representation in the body by which, 
it would be governed, and also to exemption from serving on juries. This meeting re¬ 
grets that the Bill does not admit these rights. 
