528 
PROPOSED LEGISLATION AFFECTING PHARMACY. 
Society, and bound to protect every one of them until the deliberate will of 
the whole corporation be ascertained. 
It is for this reason that we wish especially to bring under consideration of 
the Society questions which may and will arise at the General Meeting on the 
18tli inst. Any resolution passed thereat must be considered as a legitimate 
vote of the whole body, inasmuch as that will be a meeting for general pur¬ 
poses, previous intimation of any proposition to be made thereat being unne¬ 
cessary. 
But although previous intimation is unnecessary, it happens on this occasion 
to have been given, through the medium of this Journal, in a letter which we 
print this month from Mr. Orridge. 
Now for the Society there can be no more important question than the ad¬ 
mission of members. At its formation it was necessary to form a basis by 
incorporating those chemists and druggists who, recognizing the importance 
of qualification, were willing to give their money, their influence, and their 
time, for the furtherance of that object; the Pharmacy Act recognized those 
men as the founders, and established a new class wherefrom the Society should 
in future be augmented, making it at the same time the examining and regis¬ 
tering board, but “ Pharmaceutical Chemists ” and “Assistants ” might, or 
might not, ally themselves to the Society as u Members ” or u Associates Still, 
with the voluntary principle only to aid it, the Society, justly regarding itself 
as “ a means to an end," has admitted no members or associates since 1853, ex¬ 
cept those who had previously taken their legal standing, by examination, un¬ 
der the Act. When a proposition was made to admit members by “ certificate 
offltness,” the reply was prompt, and decided that such a proceeding would 
be unjust to those men who had submitted to examination, and the Societ} r 
had no equivalent to give them in return for the concession. At this mo¬ 
ment there is an equivalent to offer, viz. the compulsory examination of all 
men who are to enter the trade hereafter, not simply those who may assume 
certain titles,, but of all who shall keep open shop for the dispensing of pre¬ 
scriptions. This is an important equivalent, and it becomes us to consider well 
whether, still regarding the Society as “ a means to an end,” it would not be 
wise to make the concession in order to attain the end—the long-desired com¬ 
pulsory examination. No legislation can be retrospective ; it is not sought to 
submit men already in business (whether as principals or assistants) to exami¬ 
nation, and it may be said that their registration as chemists and druggists is 
an ample protection of their vested interests ; but should we not greatly faci¬ 
litate the working of the compulsory Act, if in its infancy we brought the 
whole body of chemists and druggists into union; should w r e not enlist their . 
sympathy in our objects ; and is not the chief of those objects the education 
of future pharmaceutists ? This may. seem something like beginning again 
de novo, and to a certain extent this will be an actual beginning,—we mean so 
far as our compulsory powers are concerned. 
There is one thing probably which we are bound to protect even more care¬ 
fully than membership, i. e. the title of “ Pharmaceutical Chemist ” granted 
under the Pharmacy Act, and that might be kept as an inducement to lead 
men on to the higher examination. We believe this would be fair, just, and 
politic. It would be easy to make chemists and druggists already in business 
members of the Society, with all its privileges of voting, etc., but to bar the 
highest title against all who cannot demand it on the one irresistible plea of 
qualification. 
