406 MANCHESTER CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
who prescribes—though the degree may he small by some of us in one way or an¬ 
other. And have we to stand on our defence for so doing ? However, it is quite as well 
that we understand each other on this question ; and it is equally well that medica 
men understand it too. , 
I do not defend, hut deprecate, indiscriminate and imprudent prescribing by the 
pharmaceutist. Prescribing is not his vocation; and, if circumstances were piopitious, 
I would say, “ never prescribe again.” But he cannot immediately ignoie the autho¬ 
rity of custom, or the demands of the public,—and last, but not least, the sustaining re¬ 
venue it affords. , , . ,, 
The poor particularly, and a great many of the middle class as well, seek the chemist s 
aid for the treatment of simple ailments, and I have no doubt very frequently with ad¬ 
vantage ; and I believe if the reputed evil resulting from their confidence weie very ap¬ 
preciable, the confidence would soon come to an end, and the medical man be alone 
consulted. , , 
The thoughtful and best educated amongst us, and those who know most ot the won¬ 
derful and mysterious delicacy and intricacy of the human organism, and the closeness 
with which one disease simulates another, will most willingly admit that it is a grave 
thing indeed to be trusted with the curing of disease, even when the physician is ripe 
in experience and skill; and they will not readily risk their peace of conscience by un¬ 
dertaking so serious a responsibility with imperfect and inadequate knowledge. _ 
Having, as it were, freely admitted the standing indictment so often laid against us 
by medical men, I must not forget the many extenuating circumstances of our some¬ 
what anomalous, and I hope transitionary, position. _ 
The first, and a very important, plea we can offer is that of custom. The public, for 
a very long period, has largely depended upon the chemist for the removal of minor 
ailments, and has not yet lodged complaint against him. The second plea, and the one 
that is the key of the position, is that medical men overstep the just limits of their vo¬ 
cation, to a far greater extent than we overstep ours, by dispensing, I should say, nine- 
tenths of all the medicines compounded in the country, and in keeping open surgeries, or 
rather open shops, for retailing drugs ; and that they, in many ways, to a serious extent, 
encroach upon and compete with us in what we believe to be our special business. 
This is a very unsatisfactory condition of affairs, and it will require all our best efforts 
to apply a suitable remedy. . 
Both the medical man and the pharmaceutist occupy false ground, and by so doing 
stand in their own light. The art of healing, as well as the science of pharmacy, if I 
may so term it, suffer and are delayed a higher development by this maladmixture of 
duties. Medical men are equally interested with us in bringing about a better arrange¬ 
ment, and they have long felt dispensing to be irksome and burdensome after having 
visited their daily round of patients, and I believe many are anxious to give up the prac¬ 
tice. 
It is natural, too, to expect that where everything is devoted to the skilful prepara¬ 
tion and to the best storing and choosing of drugs, as in a well-appointed pharmacy, the 
medicine there compounded will be superior, more reliable, and consequently more effi¬ 
cient and curative. It is likewise notorious how very indifferent is the compounding in 
many surgeries, and that the office of dispenser is often filled in a very unsatisfactory 
manner. Besides the vast gain to patient and physician afforded by better dispensing, 
and the use of a much wider range of remedies almost unattainable in ordinary medical 
dispensing, by giving up the compounding to the chemist the medical man would 
relieve himself, not onlv from a somewhat undignified and unprofessional drudgery, but 
from a great amount of serious and constant responsibility. 
It appears to me, gentlemen, that the time has come, or is close at hand, when we 
may consistently ask the medical man for his countenance and co-operation in our en¬ 
deavour to build up British pharmacy to an elevation deserving the name of a profession, 
or at any rate to that condition of development whereby he, as well as ourselves, will 
receive the benefit j he in more skilful, scientific, and suggestive help from us, and we 
in the satisfaction and advantage of having reached our true position as trusty aids in 
the amelioration of suffering and in the curing of disease. 
We desire to have the dispensing of prescriptions—pardon me specking for you as 
well as for myself—free from any obnoxious percentage arrangements, which I regret 
to say are sometimes entered into by medical men and chemists. Apart from the iin- 
