BATH CHEMISTS ASSOCIATION. 
339 
Mr. Kaimes moved a vote of thanks to the chairman for his Address, which was 
carried unanimously, and the meeting separated. 
PROVINCIAL TRANSACTIONS. 
BATH CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
At a meeting of this Association the following paper was read, “ On Charges for Dis¬ 
pensing Medicines/” by Mr. J. C. Pooley :— 
The subject I purpose to bring before you this evening will not be uninteresting, be¬ 
cause our material interests are deeply concerned in it. If you will give me for a time 
your patient attention, I will endeavour as briefly as possible to give you the results of 
my investigation into the subject of prices, and from these results to draw some prac¬ 
tical conclusions. 
Let me assume that our occupation is not merely a trade, nor is it purely a profession, 
but a combination of the two, and, therefore, it is needful to make a distinction in the 
principles upon which our charges are based. The trade part of our occupation may, 
to some extent, be regulated by the principles of supply and demand ; but in the pro¬ 
fessional part, other considerations must be taken into account,—such as expensively 
acquired knowledge, experience, skill, time, and responsibility, and these demand an ade¬ 
quate remuneration, in addition to the selling prices of the articles employed ; it is to 
this latter department alone that I have directed my attention, and ask yours. 
In pursuance of my object I wrote to some of the first Dispensing Chemists in London 
and in the provinces, and received a courteous reply from all, with their list of charges 
for dispensing ordinary prescriptions, but with the request from some that their names 
should not be stated in connection with their list. I have drawn up a table of these 
charges without the names being attached, but feel at liberty to mention the names se¬ 
parately, that due weight may be given to their statements. They are as follows:— 
Messrs. Bell and Co., Godfrey and Cooke, Hanbury and Co., Savory and Moore, of Lon¬ 
don ; Deane, Clapham; Schacht, Clifton ; Smith, Cheltenham ; Randall, Southamp¬ 
ton ; Reynolds, Leeds; Brady, Newcastle ; Giles, Clifton; Clay and Abraham, Liver¬ 
pool : besides these, you will find the printed price lists of the chemists in Edinburgh 
and in Hull. 
My object in procuring these was not to take an average from them, but to gather in¬ 
formation, and thus, with the experience before me of first-class firms, both metropo¬ 
litan and provincial, to endeavour to suggest a list of charges suitable for all of us who 
claim to be classed A 1 amongst Dispensing Chemists. 
In my endeavours, the following considerations had to be borne in mind:— 
That the public must not be alarmed by any violent change. 
That to secure co-operation from my fellow-chemists, the charges should approximate 
those of leading provincial firms. 
That an adequate charge should be made for professional skill, knowledge, and expe¬ 
rience, for time and responsibility, and for a proportion of the general expenses of the 
establishment, in addition to the selling price of the materials employed. 
The first thing that impressed my mind, when examining the lists of charges con¬ 
fided to me, was the apparent want of any fixed principle upon which they could have 
been founded. As an example, one first-class London firm charges for ordinary mix¬ 
tures by prescription, as follows :— 
s. 
oz. mixture.1 
1 
4 
6 
8 
10 
12 
16 
20 
>5 
Here we see the 4 oz. mixture charged Is 
2 
2 
2 
3 
4 
d. 
6 
8 
0 
3 
9 
3 
0 
6d. ; then, for the two additional ounces 
