SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING. 
445 
and I at once thank them for t.lie opinion they enunciate, tliat dispensing 
chemists, on whom the public so much depend, and on whose ability and care 
the physician must so much rely in seconding' his efforts, should be an edu¬ 
cated body, and should not be allowed to exercise their calling without first 
giving proof of their qualification. I thank them, too, for the tribute they 
pay to this Society in acknowledging its certificate to be sufficient evidence of 
a man’s fitness to dispense ; but I believe firmly that the Medical Council have 
really no wish to interfere in pharmacy, they have enough to do with phy¬ 
sicians, surgeons, and apothecaries; and although their proposition establishes 
pharmacy as a branch of the medical profession, I have no doubt they will 
gladly leave its management in our hands if we set to work earnestly and 
honestly in the matter. The expressed opinion then of the profession is in 
our favour. And what of the public ? The press—I don’t mean the medical 
press—has spoken out on the subject, advocating an examination, and admit¬ 
ting that this question should not be regarded as a mere matter of free trade ; 
that the safety of the public requires some enactment such as that we now 
seek. These articles we have all been able to read—they are public. But 
there are, doubtless, other evidences of the feeling of the public to be gathered 
from our ordinary conversations with our neighbours and customers, and from 
such conversations each man must draw his own conclusions. The opinion 
of men in authority—perhaps I might say of the Legislature—to whom we 
must apply in this matter, may not be so generally known ; but I may say for 
myself, that brought into contact, as I have been during the last few years, 
with members of both Houses of Parliament on questions concerning our 
Society, I have heard an opinion favourable to the examination of chemists 
expressed almost universally by them. I may even go further, for within the 
last two months, on making application to one of Her Majesty’s principal 
Secretaries of State for a privilege to be granted to chemists and druggists,—a 
privilege to the granting of which I believe Government would not have been 
opposed, I was met by the difficulty that “ there was nothing to prevent any 
person opening a chemist's shop without having undergone personal examina¬ 
tion as to qualification." But, Gentlemen, there is another party to the ques¬ 
tion,—the chemists and druggists themselves ; and what of them ? Why 
they tell us that they too desire to make examination compulsory. Preserve 
the rights of men already established in business,—which is, indeed, but 
common justice,—but let none enter the business hereafter who are not quali¬ 
fied. I may be too sanguine, but believing, as I do, that the medical profes¬ 
sion, the public, the Legislature, and the chemists themselves, all agree in ac¬ 
knowledging the necessity for compulsory powers in this matter, I am inclined 
to hope that such powers may be obtained. In asking for them, w T e must be 
careful to provide due safety for the public, and to observe due liberality to¬ 
wards chemists already in business. Gentlemen, I will not trespass further 
on your time ; I have thought it right to make these introductory remarks, 
and I trust you will now proceed to consider the subject before us calmly 
and thoroughly. I may perhaps be allowed to add, that the Council is as 
earnest as you can be to forward the matter; we have given great attention 
to it, not merely since, but before the receipt of the requisition. 
Mr. Hollier, of Dudley, said, he was one of those who had been instrumen¬ 
tal in getting up the requisition for holding that meeting, and he confessed he 
did not regret it when he looked around and saw so large and influential an at¬ 
tendance of members, which showed the deep interest that was felt in the import¬ 
ant question they were called upon to discuss and seriously consider. He had 
felt great interest in the matter for a very long time, and he was able to in¬ 
dorse the sentiment of the President, that they had an ardent and an earnest 
desire to do all that lay in their power to promote the interests of the large 
yol. y. 2 ii 
