782 
ANNUAL MEETING. 
culty whatever in doing so. Then it was said that London members could know very 
little about the nature of the country trade; but with all deference to gentlemen who 
made use of that argument, he must say, having been for six months in a large pro¬ 
vincial establishment, that he did not see what difficulty they could have in carrying 
out these regulations ; and it must be borne in mind that something like one half of 
the London members came originally from the country, and must be supposed, there¬ 
fore, to know something of the requirements of their provincial brethren. Again, it 
had been argued that it was folly to saddle themselves with regulations for which 
there was no necessity; but the answer to that was, that it was much better to saddle 
themselves than let anybody else do it. Lastly, he believed there was an impression 
abroad that the Council desired to force these regulations upon chemists, but he 
could say for himself, and he believed every member of the Council would say the 
same, that nothing was further from his mind. If the Council had entertained such 
a wish, they would certainly have taken means more likely to attain their object; for 
by suddenly calling a special meeting, in all probability not nearly so many members 
would have attended, and they might then have pushed a resolution through. His 
decided opinion w r as, that it would be for the benefit of the Society in the future, if 
not at the present moment, to adopt the suggested regulations. 
Mr. Collins thought it wrnuld be very inconvenient for the meeting to discuss a 
string of resolutions which many of them had now heard for the first time. If they 
were taken seriatim , the discussion would not be so rambling and desultorv, and thev 
might come to something like a conclusion. Some of the proposed regulations might 
be assented to without difficulty, whilst to others there might be great objections, but 
at any rate he was glad to find that they were not bound to any one of the three 
modes, but might adopt the three combined. That, he thought, would remove one 
great difficulty. He himself had, from time to time, adopted some of these methods, 
they were no novelties, for he found it necessary to take precautions against mistakes ; 
and therefore, as was frequently the case, they had poison cupboards, bottles properly 
labelled, and due caution given to assistants. He would move that the regulations 
be considered and assented to, or dissented from seriatim. 
Mr. Bootiiby seconded the proposition, but on being put to the vote it was nega¬ 
tived, the meeting desiring to discuss the whole matter at once. 
Mr. Dickinson said he was always disposed to pay great deference to the Council, 
but it was utterly impossible that all men could agree, and with respect to these pro¬ 
posed regulations they had already got, under the Pharmacy Act, quite sufficient to 
complain of. Personally he did not complain, because everything included in the 
schedule he declined to sell by retail, and he could put anything he liked in a pre¬ 
scription, if he entered it in his book. As to Ho. I., he ventured to say that all 
chemists and druggists adopted that now, and therefore there was no necessity for 
making a special regulation about it. Then with regard to No. II., he must say it was 
very kind of the Council to give them the option of adopting any particular means 
they thought proper; but all bottles, packages, etc. were to be kept apart in some 
place devoted to dangerous articles. In his youthful days he was very familiar with 
a story called Blue Beard; he did not know whether the Council intended them all 
to have an apartment like Blue Beard used to have in olden time; he hoped not, for 
fear some of the ladies would be getting there. But it certainly appeared to him that 
this regulation about a cupboard or apartment was perfectly superfluous ; for no 
chemist or druggist who knew what he was about wanted any regulation of the kind. 
Then they went on and proposed that bottles should be made distinctive to the touch. 
He had read somewhere that a white and delicate hand v'as a great recommendation, 
but he did not think those who had to undergo the drudgery which some gentlemen 
had described, would have a very delicate touch. His experience was, that the more 
mechanical contrivances were introduced to prevent people using their common sense, 
the greater would be the danger. Then the third recommendation was, “that the 
bottles or vessels used in any shop or dispensary to contain poison shall be tied over, 
capped, or secured in a manner distinguishable from the way in which any bottles or 
vessels not used to contain poisonous or dangerous articles used in the same shop or 
dispensary may be tied over, capped, or secured.” It did not say what was to be 
done when the bottles were uncapped; it seemed to him there ought to'be a para- 
