OX PHARMACEUTICAL RESPONSIBILITY AND REMUNERATION. 117 
so will the public accept his judgment in matters pertaining to his own art •_ 
and even a druggist’s dictum that pure Sulphur is better than Sulphur and 
plaster of Paris, will come to be admitted as reasonable. 
Our art, gentlemen, is ever progressive. All science is interesting for us, since 
almost eveiy scientific discovery may sooner or later, directly or indirectly, 
yield some result profitable to pharmacy. Let us not therefore neglect our op¬ 
portunities, but identifying ourselves with the general advancement of know¬ 
ledge, let us strive to improve by every means in our power that branch of the 
healing art which it is our province to cultivate. 
Mr. Cooper said that he had peculiar pleasure in moving that their best 
thanks be presented to the President for his admirable address, which exhi¬ 
bited such deep research. Mr. Hanbury had told them of the investigations 
of others, but there was no one connected with pharmacy who contributed 
more to a certain knowledge of the art than did Mr. Hanbury. As to the 
new regulations upon the sale of poisons, it was hardly likely that all would 
iew them alike : in rural districts they could not fail to cause inconve¬ 
niences. 
Mr. Bevans (San Francisco) seconded the resolution, which was carried 
with applause. 
The President acknowledged the vote. 
The reading of papers was then proceeded with. 
OH PHARMACEUTICAL RESPONSIBILITY AND REMUNE¬ 
RATION. 
BY MR. EDWARD SMITH, TORQUAY. 
At the last meeting of the Pharmaceutical Conference at Norwich, a letter 
was read from Mr. R. W. Giles “ On the Relation of Remuneration to Phar¬ 
maceutical Responsibility.” 
As the subject matter of that letter has hardly received the consideration it 
well deserved, I veuture to bring it again before your notice at this meeting. 
The gist of Mr. Giles’s letter was that, considering the responsibility neces¬ 
sarily attendant upon our business, and the anxious care and constant applica¬ 
tion required to carry it on successfully, the remuneration attached to it is such 
as will not “afford to the industrious pharmaceutist a reasonable prospect of 
providing for his latter days without the aid of the Benevolent Fund.” 
With this, and, indeed, with everything advanced by Mr. Giles, I heartily 
agree; nevertheless, it is a melancholy picture to present to those just entering 
the business: those already engaged in the struggle know full well how great is 
the truth of the remark. The reflection that we are ourselves the cause of this 
great evil not only makes our position the more humiliating, but upon the 
majority of our brethren seems to have a very depressing effect, deterring them 
apparently from struggling and fighting for better things. I do indeed hope and 
believe there is sufficient vovs and ‘ Geist ’ in our body to enable us as a body to 
take and maintain a higher position. The public and the Legislature are gradu¬ 
ally, but persistently, asking from us higher and higher qualifications, and for 
this higher status we must make ourselves in every way fitted. As a compen¬ 
sation, we ought gradually to expand our ideas of what constitutes fair and 
honourable remuneration. 
_ Two powerful and sometimes antagonistic influences pervade the pharmaceu¬ 
tical mind,—there is the commercial spirit and the professional spirit. A mind 
