SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING. 
455 
To effect this, it is admitted by all that a legal measure of some kind is necessary, but 
a considerable difference of opinion exists as to what measure will best conduce to the 
desired end ; some advocate an extension of the Pharmacy Act, others that provisions 
touching pharmacy should be introduced into an amended Medical Act. Of these two 
courses, I am strongly in favour of the second. 
That medicine, surgery, and pharmacy should be regulated by one comprehensive Act 
of Parliament appears to me highly advantageous, and I think that such a recognition 
of pharmacy on the part of the Legislature would be duly appreciated by the public as 
well as by the medical profession. I entertain no fear of the Medical Council wishing 
to act in any way to the prejudice of pharmacy; I believe it is the public good that that 
body has at heart, and that it would willingly listen to the suggestions of pharmaceutists 
in order that the amendments of the Medical Act, which it is about to seek, should most 
thoroughly conduce to their object. It should, however, always be borne in mind, that 
an enactment offering unmixed advantages is simply impossible ; that in some cases it 
may work badly or cause hardship ; and that all we can hope for is a balance of good in 
favour of the change. 
In the examinations in pharmacy, I think it would be desirable that the Medical 
Council should be represented,—that is, that the Board of Examiners should comprise 
one member appointed by the Council; while, upon the other hand, I think that in the 
Medical Council there should be a pharmaceutical element,—that is, a member appointed 
by the pharmaceutical body. 
Believe me to be, my dear Sir, 
Yours very faithfully, 
Plough Court , Lombard Street , March 1 Gth, 1864. Daniel Danbury. 
Mr. Pedler asked if the Society had not now the power of compelling an 
examination, and whether that was not the rule they adopted. 
The President said there was no power in the present Act to compel an 
examination, except on chemists and druggists becoming members of the So¬ 
ciety. The present resolution was beyond the scope of the Pharmacy Act. 
Mr. W. B.PANDALLsaicl the question was not whether it was necessary some¬ 
thing should be done, but how to do it. Mr. Hanbury’s letter had altered the 
aspect of the thing altogether. He was not prepared to say it was a better 
way, if something comparatively compulsory was to be adopted, that it would 
come from the Medical Council. If so, at all events, it must be in a different 
manner to that suggested by Mr. Hanbury. There must be proper provision 
made for an ample representation of the Pharmaceutical Chemists, and if the 
Medical Council were prepared to allow their constitution to be so amended 
as to take Pharmaceutical Chemists into their body as part of the govern¬ 
ing body, he thought they might submit to the government of that body ; but 
if they refused to admit the Pharmaceutical Chemists on equal terms, then it 
was the duty of the Pharmaceutical Society to try if they could not get inde¬ 
pendently of any other body what they wanted. Many of the members of the 
Pharmaceutical Society who had been admitted without examination practi¬ 
cally stood in no better position than many of those who had not joined it. 
When this Society was established, he was a student of University College, 
but it never occurred to him or his father that it would be advantageous for him 
to come here. He acquired professional education elsewhere, and from his 
knowledge of many of his contemporaries, he could state that they were as ca¬ 
pable of performing their duties as he was, although they were not members 
of the Society, and in certain branches many of them were very superior 
men. He was also of opinion that if they amended the Pharmacy Act so as 
to admit all the chemists and druggists of the kingdom, that some means 
should be devised for distinguishing those who had been educated, and had 
passed the Society’s examination. He was very desirous of giving the trade 
generally the means of enjoying the privileges and immunities of the Society, 
but he could not consent to their being placed on a level with Pharmaceutical 
Chemists. With regard to the question of compulsory examination, Mr. 
