780 
ANNUAL MEETING. 
examinations to young men, but it must be remembered that, however anxious the 
Council might be to do so, they had no power in the matter, being governed by the Act 
of Parliament, which drew a strict line beyond which they could not go. The scheme 
of the Modified examination was drawn up by the Board of Examiners, but it had to 
be approved by the Privy Council, under whose directions they had to act to a certain 
extent. 
The motion was then put to the meeting and carried. 
The Chairman then said, It is now my duty, gentlemen, to bring before you the re¬ 
gulations which have been proposed by the Council in deference to the authority, and 
in fulfilment of the duty imposed upon them by the Act of Parliament; and in con¬ 
sidering this very important subject, I must beg your attention while I recall the cir¬ 
cumstances under which the Pharmacy Act of 1868 was carried through Parliament. 
It must be remembered that the constant aim of the Pharmaceutical Society, since its 
foundation, has been the elevation of the social status of the trade by means of im¬ 
proved education and the consolidation of the trade into a legally constituted guild 
upon the basis of an educational test. With this object in view, year by year and 
period by period, agitation was renewed in Parliament to obtain the necessary recogni¬ 
tion and powers; but Parliament invariably met the question in the light only of 
poison regulations. In the course of time some little was gained in the way of Parlia¬ 
mentary recognition of qualification, tested by voluntary examination, and by tardy 
steps a Committee of the House was obtained to inquire into the whole question of 
Pharmacy as practised in this country. The result of that inquiry, as all will remember, 
was the recommendation to the House of a Poison Bill. The necessity for regulations 
in regard to the keeping and dispensing of poisons thoroughly imbued the House, the 
Government, and the Medical Council. It will be fresh in the memories of those who 
two years ago worked on the Parliamentary Committee, how hard a battle had to be 
foun'ht in the House against the Medical Department of the Privy Council on the one 
hand, and the Medical Council on the other, both of which bodies were eager to obtain 
the power of legislating in the matter of poisons, and it was only by dint of the greatest 
watchfulness and diplomacy that the Pharmaceutical Society secured to itself the 
powers which were thus sought to be wrested from it. And how did it succeed ? The 
Parliament and Government were determined to have poison regulations. The Society 
was equally determined to secure, if possible, compulsory examination as the test of edu¬ 
cational qualifications. A quasi compromise was the result; we virtually undertook to 
carry out, practically, what was very well known to be the intention of the Government 
and Parliament in the matter of poisons. We accepted a Poison Bill as the basis of 
compulsory powers, securing what we have always contended, and do still contend, is 
the only true security against accident—an improved educational standard for those 
entering the trade. The importance placed by Parliament upon the responsibility thus 
accepted, is evinced by its forming the burthen of the very first clause of the Act. The 
clause is as follows “From and after the 31st day of December, 1868, it shall be un¬ 
lawful for any person to sell or keep open shop for retailing, dispensing, or compound¬ 
ing poisons, or to assume or use the title Chemist and Druggist, unless such person shall 
be a Pharmaceutical Chemist or a Chemist and Druggist within the meaning of this 
Act, and be registered under this Act, and conform to such regulations as to the keep¬ 
ing, dispensing, and selling of such poisons as may from time to time be prescribed by 
the 5 Pharmaceutical Society with the consent of the Privy Council.” This clause, un¬ 
doubtedly, imposes upon the Society the duty of doing that which Parliament had de¬ 
termined” after careful investigation in committee, was necessary, and in this view of the 
matter your Council anxiously undertook the construction of such a code of regulations 
as would prove in practice the* most accommodating to the necessities of every description 
of trade and every circumstance of practice. With regard to the practical working of 
the regulations now proposed, I will leave it to more able hands to elucidate. I will, 
however, say this, that I cannot, for myself, see any practical difficulty in the way of 
their adoption, and, I fail to gather from all the protests which have been sent up, any 
more logical objection to them than that of perhaps a natural dislike to being compelled 
to submit to any special code. Nevertheless, the Act which we have accepted imposes 
this necessity upon us, and it is a question for this meeting seriously to consider the re¬ 
sponsibility'it would incur if it rejected these regulations or failed to adopt any. Would 
not such an act be construed by the Government as a deliberate rejection of the first 
