254 
BENEVOLENT FUND. 
friends accustomed to watch and take part in the noble institutions formed in 
this metropolis to stimulate and increase, by concentration and organization, the 
private benevolence of individuals ; and to this may be attributed the great in¬ 
crease in subscriptions and donations to the fund in the last two or three years, 
which increase has seemed to justify the Council in departing from the original 
resolution to withhold annuities until the invested capital of the Benevolent 
Fund amounted to £10,000. Two pensions, of £30 per annum, are now appro¬ 
priated, and will, we hope, carry comfort to the homes of the recipients. The 
number of voters, on this occasion, gives proof of the general interest taken in 
the matter, and the commencement of annuities will, undoubtedly, draw atten¬ 
tion to the fund ; and, probably, when the Council is enabled to announce its 
ability to add to the number of annuitants, more applicants will present them¬ 
selves than we have now had. By prudent guardians of a benevolent fund such 
a contingency should be well considered; it should ever be remembered that 
such a fund is not for the present only, but for all time ; that, however hard it 
may be, a strict line should be drawn between “ capital” and “yearly income,” 
and that the dispensers of the charity, for the time being, are the trustees alike 
for the present and the future. 
By the bye-laws of the Society, it is enacted, that “ Donations in aid of the 
Benevolent Fund shall be invested in Government or real securities; and no 
'part of the invested capital of such Fund shall be distributed among the reci¬ 
pients of relief'’ 
The interest only of such investments, and the annual subscriptions in aid 
thereof, are applicable towards the relief of distressed members or associates of 
the Society, and their widows and orphans. 
Far be it from us to damp the kindly feeling of those who bear the purse. We 
know there is no harder task than to utter the ungracious “iVo.” It requires 
an amount of moral courage, which some men find it hard to exercise in the pre¬ 
sence of distress; and in reminding them of the sterner side of their duty, we 
desire also to stimulate all who should be contributors to the necessities of their 
poorer brethren to such action as will render that difficult “ No ” unnecessary. 
We might, too, dwell on the hope which we yet entertain of seeing the Bene¬ 
volent Fund of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain made available for 
the whole body of those who practise pharmacy in Great Britain, and the con¬ 
sequent necessity for enlarging that fund ; for we believe time will soon prove to 
those who have doubted our sincerity that the Pharmaceutical Society is go¬ 
verned by no narrow views in its efforts to advance Pharmacy in this kingdom, 
but that the same spirit which animated our founders in 1841, to promote a 
uniform system of education of those who should practise pharmacy, and union 
for the protection of those who carry on the business of chemists and druggists, 
still animates us. 
It has been no small success to consolidate and guide the Society to its pre¬ 
sent position, and render it a fit foundation for the superstructure which sooner 
or later will be added ; and, if advantages have accrued to those who have 
contributed to that success by membership only, as well as to those who 
have engaged more actively in the work, we think that fact should be taken as 
a proof of the honesty of purpose of the latter. Superficial indeed must be the 
observation of those men who say there is a desire to maintain the Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Society as a “ clique,” composed of the “ elite’ 1 '' of the trade only. 
The Society was established for all who fairly and honourably exercise the 
profession or trade of Pharmacy in Great Britain, and its constant desire has 
been to embrace all. 
