SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING. 
449 
The President said that was not the question, but whether it was expe¬ 
dient or not to go to Parliament for an extension of the powers of the Phar¬ 
macy Act. The simple question was, whether the time was ripe for their 
going to Parliament for an extension of their Act. 
Mr. Geo. Edwards said it had been just ruled by their lawyer that they 
did not want an Act of Parliament to admit the outside chemists and drug¬ 
gists, and therefore they need not argue that point now. 
Mr. Giles, of Clifton, said it would be convenient for the meeting to 
know , whether other resolutions were to follow the one then under dis¬ 
cussion ; because if so, they had better confine their observations strictly to 
what was before them. If not, he thought the meeting should have the pri¬ 
vilege accorded to them of entering fully on every point they might think it 
necessary to bring under the notice of the Counci]. 
The President said he had been informed that probably other resolutions 
would follow, in the consideration of which Mr. Collins’s remarks would be 
more appropriate. He tliouglit they would save time if they discussed and 
considered each resolution on its own merits. 
Mr. W. B. Bandall, of Southampton, said it would be better not to con¬ 
fine the various speakers strictly to the resolution before the meeting. If 
they did so, he thought it would defeat the objects they had in view. As 
one of the requisitionists who had a desire to support the Council in what 
they wished to do, he thought they should hear everything the various 
speakers might have to say. 
The President said, that on the part of the Council, he disclaimed any wish 
to check discussion, but desired only that gentlemen’s remarks should be as 
pertinent to the resolution as possible. The question they were there to con¬ 
sider had nothing to do with the admission of members. 
Mr. Collins said he understood they had assembled to consider generally 
the expediency of going to Parliament for extended powers, and the object of 
his remarks was to show that it was so, by bringing forward such facts as he 
believed proved that their past policy had not been so successful as they all— 
the Council included— could have wished. The number of persons who had 
passed the Major examination since the foundation of the Society was 821, 
and the Minor 923, and he brought forward that fact to show that they had 
failed in inducing chemists and druggists to come forward in large numbers 
and pass an examination. He believed that if they could get Parliament to 
give them the powers they wished, of compelling every person, before he 
commenced business as a chemist and druggist, to pass an examination here, 
they would be doing a great benefit to the trade, and giving to the public 
a great protection. The voluntary system had failed, and a compulsory ex¬ 
amination met with his entire approval. There were very few professionally 
educated men to supply the wants of the public, and the few there were, 
were exposed to the unlimited competition of ignorant and stupid persons. 
He should give the resolution his cordial support. 
Mr. Pedler said that he thought they should hear everything that could 
be said on both sides before they came to a conclusion on the resolution. He 
agreed in the opinion that it was a very important question they had to consider, 
and he should wish to see passed in review all that the Pharmaceutical Society 
had done, before they came to a definite decision on the subject. He hoped the 
discussion would not be narrowed to one particular point, because he thought 
the more liberty they gave to the speakers the more likely were they to come 
to a unanimous decision. He considered they ought to go to Parliament for 
extended powers. He would rather the initiative in this matter had been 
taken by the Council, and that they had prepared a scheme for the opinion of 
the meeting, rather than it should have been taken up by an individual 
