450 
PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
member. They must bear in mind there was great difficulty in carrying any 
particular clause in a Bill. They had had experience in that matter, and they all 
knew the sacrifice of time, money, and almost life, which it cost their lamented 
President, Mr. Jacob Bell, in obtaining the Pharmacy Act. The same diffi¬ 
culty will meet you in this case, for they would scarcely find a man in the 
House of Commons who would throw his heart into the work as their late 
President did. There, however, was this one advantage in their favour now, 
that they had been recognized by the Government, by their giving a preference 
in their appointments to young men who had been educated here. The Phar¬ 
maceutical Society, as a body, ought to be the only persons who should be en¬ 
trusted with the dispensing of prescriptions and the compounding of medicines, 
because they were an educated body, and he felt considerable pride in saying 
that the Pharmaceutical Society had started up during the last twenty years 
a very intelligent class of young men, who were capable of doing anything 
in connection with their business. This was an institution of which every 
chemist and druggist might, if he chose, become a member. There had been 
no exclusion on our part. The founders of this Society had established a 
great and glorious institution, which he had no doubt would continue to 
flourish for centuries to come. They had placed within the reach of every 
young man the means of obtaining a good, sound, practical, professional edu¬ 
cation, which was the best thing he could start with; and if young men only 
knew how beneficial it was to them, there would not be room for another 
student in the Laboratory. B e believed the time would come, however much 
they might put it off for the present, when they must go to Parliament for 
compulsory power, so that only competent persons should be able to prepare 
prescriptions. He approved of their altering the bye-laws so as to bring in 
all the chemists and druggists who were in business in 1850 or previous to 
that time, and who could be properly recommended, on the payment of a small 
fee, and he hoped the Council would speedily take action for the accomplish¬ 
ment of that desirable object. He thought, however, that young men who 
had lately commenced business, and assistants ought to pass an examination, 
or it would be inflicting a wrong upon those who had ; and he asked his- 
friend (Mr. Collins) if he wished to see a greater success than would be sure 
to attend such a line of policy. He very much disapproved of a sweeping 
measure that would prevent the men in the black country and similar small 
shopkeepers, which were to be found in every village, from selling Epsom salts 
and senna, because it would be a great injustice to them, and in many instances 
it would be a great hardship to the poor. In fact they would never get such an 
Act of Parliament. They had been told that in this free-trade country no 
one class could have exclusive privileges. Their Bill must stop short at pre¬ 
scriptions, and not interfere with small shopkeepers in small villages who sold 
ordinary domestic medicines. Confining the business to properly qualified men 
would be beneficial to the body and protective to the country. Restricting 
the number in a town w ould give them the chance of a better living than 
they now get; because there would only be one or two in a village who would 
keep to the one trade, instead of there being, as now, half-a-dozen unquali¬ 
fied men, wdio were obliged to add other things, and were “ anything you 
like” rather than chemists or druggists, whose apprentices had no training 
or means of studying. In arguing for the admission of those chemists and 
druggists who were in business at a certain time, it was not his wish to bring 
the present Pharmaceutical Chemists down to the level of chemists and drug¬ 
gists, but to hold out the hand of fellowship to them and lift them up to our 
high position. Such a proceeding would do more to solidify and make this a 
good, prosperous, and worthy institution than any other course they could take. 
Mr. B. Orridge said that Mr. Hollier did not advocate their taking in the 
