380 
EXAMINATION EOll CHEMISTS IN BUSINESS. 
readily satisfy, and that nothing was required but that which a little reading 
up would enable any man to meet who had an 3 r title to the name of a respect¬ 
able and i rustworthy dispenser. Those who were doubtful and hostile have 
gone away friends, approving the course adopted by the Council, and per¬ 
suaded of the desire manifested to admit gladly into the ranks of the Society 
every one who could be received without frustrating the very purpose for 
which the Society was formed, and breaking faith with every one connected 
with it. 
A little consideration will show that however all persons may wish to ex¬ 
tend the advantages which only members now enjoy, there must be some 
method by which the worthy may be separated from the unworthy. ISTo re¬ 
spectable man would value either the title 41 Pharmaceutical Chemist” or 
“ Member of the Pharmaceutical Society,” if it could be put up, blazoned in 
very large letters, as doubtless it would be. perhaps within a few doors of his 
shop, by every quack or venereal drug-seller who might call himself chemist 
and druggist. The respectable man would think a title so prostituted a dis¬ 
grace instead of an honour, and would indignantly remove it. There must 
then be a test ; this will be admitted on all sides, and the only reasonable 
tests that can.be devised are either a certificate or an examination. The 
difficulties of the first and its unsatisfactory character are manifest. "When a 
man’s success in business is at stake, however unworthy, he will manage to 
get certificates somehow, and the quarrelling and charges of unfairness and 
want of impartiality which would arise, if the Council received some and re¬ 
jected others, would be most harassing and troublesome. There is nothing 
that would do but examination. This is what the Government felt when they 
brought in their former Poison Bill; they contrived a plan of examination, 
and they would have compelled all, whether already in business or not, to 
pass fit/. 9 , before they would have allowed them to sell the poisons named in 
their schedule, unless they were members of the Pharmaceutical Society ; and 
if they bring in another Poison Bill, as they very probably may, there is little 
doubt they will attempt to do the same thing again. Nothing will commend 
itself to practical men who sit down to devise a working scheme like exami¬ 
nation. 
It is sometimes said that the possession of a distinctive appellation by one 
chemist, when another who is his equal cannot display it, is an act of injus- 
icc, injurious to the man undistinguished, and misleading to the public. Let 
us try the justice of this statement by a parallel example. Let one scholar 
say to another, you have the “M.A.” appended to your name, while mine 
must be without it; what unfairness is this-—I am as good a classic as you 
are, perhaps a better, and fully your equal, as you know, in general learning, 
would not the answer be ? If it be so, you can apply for the honour as I did, 
and no doubt you will have it; but if you have not thought it worth your 
while to seek it as I did, you have only yourself to blame if you have not the 
distinction, and my honourable name only declares to the public that I am 
worthy—it says nothing either good or bad about anybody else. 
There is no doubt that the great advantage of exemption from juries is 
hoped for by all those who seek another Pharmacy Bill. This the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society have no objection to ; they are quite willing that all their 
brethren should have that boon which they have already secured, and all 
attempts to gaiu it will have their aid and concurrence ; but whether the 
Legislature will ever grant it is another thing. It must not be forgotten that 
the members of the present Government opposed it to the last; that the Bill 
was sent from Lords to Commons and Commons to Lords, in a way that no 
other Bill has been for many years ; that only the determination of the Lords 
to retain the clause, coupled with the certainty that the Jury Bill would be 
