798 
ANNUAL MEETING. 
prehended. It only referred to the resources available for such purposes, and this, 
he thought, would remove any objection on the score of its being desirable that the 
Society should not educate at all. lie was quite aware that it was a thoroughly open 
question, whether the examining and educational functions should not ultimately be 
separated ; but in the meantime he simply prayed the Council to take into considera¬ 
tion, whether it was possible to frame a scheme by which those resources which were 
available for the purpose of education, might not be better distributed than they were 
at present. No one had yet proposed that the funds voted for the sustentation of the 
School of Pharmacy should be discontinued, and he, for one, should be very sorry to 
see such a thing clone at present. He only wished that the funds devoted to this 
purpose should be distributed more generally, rather than concentrated. He was 
sorry he could not adopt Mr. Reynolds’s modification, but it did not seem to meet 
the exact point which he wished to emphasize. 
Mr. Collins said in that case he hoped Mr. Reynolds would move the amendment- 
whicli he had suggested, and he should be happy to second it. 
Mr. Reynolds said he had no objection to move the amendment. 
A Member suggested, that if Mr. Schacht could agree upon a resolution, it would 
be better than dividing the meeting. 
Mr. Watts said he had a few remarks to make on the question of co-operative 
stores, and perhaps this would be a convenient time. 
Another Member thought this subject had been disposed of. 
Mr. Yizer said he came there to exercise his right, as an elector of the Council, to 
ask a question, which he supposed every elector had a right to do ; and he also appre¬ 
hended, that on such an occasion their representatives ought to give an account of 
their stewardship before they were re-elected. He was sorry to have to introduce the 
subject, because it was a very personal and disagreeable one ; but he felt his respon¬ 
sibility as a member of the Society, and ho would not shrink from doing his duty. 
He need not enlarge upon the evils which the co-operative system entailed upon the 
London trade; but a report was now prevalent, that a member of the Council was 
very deeply implicated in the supply of these stores with drugs. No doubt it was a 
disagreeable position to occupy, but ho felt that he was perfectly justified in asking if 
this report were correct. If it were not, he was quite sure the gentleman would for¬ 
give him for affording him an opportunity of denying it; and, on the other hand, if 
he were bound to answer in the affirmative, he did most unhesitatingly assert, that it 
would be the duty of every gentleman present,—and he wished it could be telegraphed 
to every member of the Society—to scratch the name of that gentleman off the 
Council. If it were correct that that gentleman was the medium of supplying those 
stores with drugs, to the serious detriment of every respectable chemist,—for they sold 
four ounces of tincture of quinine for Is., and so on,—it would become him to retire 
altogether from the membership of the Society. He therefore desired to ask the 
question with every respect, and with every feeling of regret that he was obliged to do 
so, whether it was true that the firm which the President represented was the medium 
or one medium for supplying the Civil Service Co-operative Stores with the drugs 
with which they were at the present moment injuring the business of the members of 
the Society. 
The Chairman said he could, in all good faith, give the most implicit denial to 
that question. The firm with which he was connected did not supply the Civil Service 
Co-operative Stores. 
Mr. Yizer : Or stores of any kind ? 
The Chairman said that was a question which it was not for him to answer in that 
place. That was not the place in which to discuss trade questions. The Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Society was not instituted as a trades union, and he declined to answer the 
question. At the right time and in the right place ho should be quite prepared to 
answer. 
Mr. Urwick said the question had a most important practical bearing. As long 
as their President, who had partly admitted that his firm was directly or indirectly 
concerned in supplying these stores, remained on the Council, did it not influence 
the Solicitor, who had to give an opinion as to the prosecution of the persons who 
dispensed these medicines ? 
