MANCHESTER CHEMTSTS AND DRUGGISTS 5 ASSOCIATION. 407 
policy of such arrangements, which are liable to result in disadvantage to the patient 
we consider ourselves fully and wholly entitled to the somewhat scanty imbursement 
that rewards us for the risks, responsibility, and trouble of compounding. 
There has been on the part of the profession a certain degree of doubt as to the skill 
and capacity of pharmaceutists, and probably this doubt has prevented some from givin rr 
up their dispensing. This deterrent influence can scarcely be said to operate now to a 
great degree, and very soon there will scarcely be a village of any size but where there 
will be one or more trustworthy and attested pharmaceutists to dispense prescriptions. 
But if there be no prescriptions to dispense for these examined and well-trained men ? 
Surely it was not merely to have suitable custodians of poisons that the Pharmacy 
Act was framed ! J 
If medical men fail to make use of them and employ them in their proper capacity 
pharmacy as a science will make little progress, and instead of there being a gradual 
diminution of prescribing by chemists, there will be more and more, as some use will 
be made of the knowledge acquired by the disappointed would-be pharmaceutist. 
Sometimes perhaps it is wisdom to wait the gradual unfolding of events, and not 
hasten by pointed action their development. We, in our connection with medical men 
have waited long for the time that would bring us into better business relationship.’ 
Now, I think it is well that we cease to wait in mute expectation, and that we should 
put into circulation our opinions, and use all our influence to hasten the desired time 
when doctors shall not dispense, or chemists prescribe. 
It is very desirable, either by means of the Pharmaceutical Society, which ought to 
take the lead in all good movements to advance our interest, or by any other suitable 
means, that the medical profession be fully informed on this question. It is just as 
important to them as to us. Through the agency of the local chemists’ associations 
springing up so plentifully, the link of communication may be made, and the apparent 
cool indifference on the part of the profession be eradicated, and pharmacy and physic 
be made to fraternize. Can we not here in Manchester take our share in developing 
this new era ? I believe that we can if we only maintain the vigour of our new but 
somewhat noted Association, and add to its strength by working zealously and unitedly 
on its behalf. 3 
If I am not trespassing too long upon your patience, I will offer a few brief remarks 
upon domestic medicine. I am quite aware that amateur home physicking is viewed by 
a section of the medical profession with a very deprecatory, if not a jealous eye, and 
there is little doubt, like all good things, as even our very virtues are, the practice is 
often subject to very grave abuse. There is no fear that the British pharmaceutist will 
ever wear the bonds of his Continental brother, and that we shall be subject to the com¬ 
bined medical and governmental restraints that he endures. Still it may be as well, if 
only for mental exercise, to span the right we enjoy in selling medicines for home use. 
It is a considerable branch or part of our business, and a source of profit to us, and 
neither the public nor the chemist will ever consent to forego such a valued privilege. 
By means of popular treatises on medicine, some of which are written by medical men* 
and by the greater diffusion of general scientific knowledge, the public are much better 
acquainted with the use of drugs than formerly. I am persuaded that much good is 
effected by the timely use of home remedies. It has frequently struck me of late how 
firmly the two sheet-anchors of modern medicine, viz. quinine and iron, are already 
fixed on the popular list, and how frequently the poor and least-informed reap the 
benefit of their use. 
The medical purists, or ihe medical men, who would limit the use of medicines entirely 
to those prescribed by themselves, can I am sure be only the exceptional few, and per¬ 
haps it was unnecessary to have mentioned their existence to-day. 
In conclusion, I would ask this question. How is British pharmacy to be raised from 
the comparatively low status it at present occupies to the true position it ought to 
occupy, viz., to be the trusty scientific helpmate of the physician ? The answer to this 
question now depends alone—as the requisite training required by law will be secured_ 
upon the right understanding that may be come to between the medical man and the 
pharmaceutist. Each must be content to give up certain territory which altered circum¬ 
stances plainly prove should be relinquished, and new treaties of amity and friendship 
must be made between them. 
I feel that I have far from exhausted my subject, but I trust, gentlemen, the plain 
