November 16,1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
389 
%\t |)jrarmitteufical ^journal. 
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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1872. 
Communications for this Journal, and boohs for review , etc., 
should be addressed to the Editor, 17, Bloomsbury Square. 
Instructions from Members and Associates respecting the 
transmission of the Journal should be sent to Elias Brem- 
ridge, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square , JV.C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, London, TF. Envelopes indorsed u Fharm. Journ.” 
THE RECTIFICATION OF THE REGISTER. 
If tlie practice of pharmacy is ever to reach the 
liigli position which the Pharmaceutical Society has 
during the last thirty years sought, by an unstinted 
outlay of energy and money, to secure for it, some¬ 
thing more than passive acquiescence will he re¬ 
quired from those members of the trade who do not 
belong to that body. The task of compiling and 
keeping a Register of the Chemists and Drug¬ 
gists in Great Britain,—made necessary by the pass¬ 
ing of the Pharmacy Act,—was committed to, and 
willingly accepted by the Pharmaceutical Society. It 
might have been expected, and fairly so, that such 
an unselfish undertaking, from which every chemist 
and druggist in the country was to reap equal bene¬ 
fit, would have received from each person interested 
the cheap assistan ce of keeping the Registrar in¬ 
formed of his place of residence. For so long as 
the Register can be referred to with confidence, as 
the sole evidence required in a court of justice that 
a person is registered under the provisions of the 
Pharmacy Act, 1868, so long will every chemist and 
druggist have at his command a ready means of 
preventing any but the properly qualified man from 
competing with him in business. It cannot be 
denied that at present the names of many persons 
are on the Register who have no other right to be 
there than that of a vested interest, inasmuch as they 
were actually in business at the time the Act was 
passed. But this evil will decrease with the lapse of 
time and eventually cease to be. Each year some 
of these names will be eliminated from the list; the 
fresh names added will be limited to those whose 
owners have passed the statutory examinations; and 
it is no flight of the imagination to say that in a 
comparatively short time pharmacy as a calling, 
being confined to qualified men, will not only be 
honourable from the scientific acquirements of those 
who follow it, but more profitable from the remunera¬ 
tion their skill will command through diminished 
competition. 
We have been induced to make these remarks, the 
truth of which must be obvious, by the result of the 
recent notice given by the Registrar with respect to a 
large number of names of persons from whom four 
inquiries, including two registered letters, had failed 
to elicit any reply. Notwithstanding the length of 
the list published on the 12th of October, it was 
thought that the circumstances attending the original 
compilation of the Register would account to some 
extent for it, and we believe it was not expected that 
the list would be considerably diminished through 
its publication. But our readers will, perhaps, be 
equally surprised with ourselves, to learn that of the 
persons then warned, no less than 236, or 25 per 
cent., have communicated with the Registrar during 
the past four weeks. Why they should have deferred 
doing so until they had put the Pharmaceutical 
Society to the expense, in each case, of two regis¬ 
tered letters, besides stationery, printing, and other 
office expenses, in a matter of interest to themselves 
alone, they would scarcely be able to explain satis¬ 
factorily. It again raises the regret expressed in 
these columns on a former occasion, that the Act 
does not require registered persons, as is the case in 
some of the American States, to send to the Regis¬ 
trar a yearly notice, accompanied by a fee, and 
stating their wish to be retained upon the Register. 
Possibly a few of these deficiencies arise from the 
fact that to some persons the filling in of a return 
is always a source of trouble. Some time since it 
was stated by a public department that no matter 
how simple a form issued might be, there was al¬ 
ways a large percentage returned blank or impro¬ 
perly filled up. And an illustration of this was 
afforded at the last election of annuitants on the 
Benevolent Fund of the Pharmaceutical Society, 
when the problem being generally the distribution of 
two votes between three persons, 118 votes or 2^ per 
cent of the whole number given, were rendered in¬ 
formal through want of success in solving it. 
Another illustration of the disturbing elements is 
to be found in the following singular effusion. In 
charity to the writer we suppress his name, although 
he scarcely deserves such consideration, and pro¬ 
bably is not capable of appreciating it. 
“I most respectfully enclose my ticket-of-leave, in 
order that you may know that I am alive and kicking, 
and feel that every chemist must be proud of his digni¬ 
fied position in being placed on a par with the convicted 
felon. The one has to report himself at the police-sta¬ 
tion ; the chemist, to your honourable [Society.” 
Chaeun a son gout, and this person is probably the 
only one preferring to have all his associations 
tinged with the ticket-of-leave system. But lest 
there be still some holding aloof from a similar feeling 
or merely from neglect, it is perhaps as well to remind 
them that the time given in the notice of October 
12tli will shortly expire, and that in the words of 
the Act, “ absence of the name of any person from 
“[such printed register, shall be evidence until the 
“ contrary shall be made to appear, that such person 
“ is not registered according to the provisions of the 
“ Pharmacy Act.” 
