'January 25, 1873.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
589 
“ Thus the trade is hemmed in on all sides hy a far- 
reaching monopoly. In granting these powers, certain 
duties were imposed of which some have been well ob¬ 
served while others have not. The existing rights of 
persons in business were reserved, and it was provided 
that no other than educational restrictions should be im¬ 
posed upon those who were desirous of entering the busi¬ 
ness. That women, already largely engaged in it, might 
not bo disqualified, the Act throughout employs the 
word “ person ” as including both men and women. The 
•course which the Council recently took of admitting 
women to the lectures of the School of Pharmacy was 
•therefore in accordance with the law. That which they 
have since taken, of excluding them from the practical 
teaching of the laboratory attached to it, through which 
the other students pass, is not in accordance with the law. 
The law contemplated that in this business men and 
■women should have equal opportunities, and that as some 
hundred women were before enabled to earn their living 
in dispensing drugs th®y should not now be disqualified, 
provided they equally -with men submitted to the re¬ 
quired educational tests. The still more recent resolu¬ 
tion of the Council to prohibit the women attending the 
laboratory classes from submitting themselves to the usual 
examinations or competing for the scholarships and prizes 
is not less unfair. Is was at first alleged that they 
had more time at their disposal, and would have a greater 
•chance of acquiring a high degree of knowledge, and of 
.surpassing the male students in examination. If that 
were so, they would not prove the less valuable dispensers 
-or assistants because they were better informed than the 
average students ; and students possessing greater facili¬ 
ties for reaching a high standard of instruction should in 
the interests of the public and in the best interests of the 
'trade—precisely those which the Pharmaceutical Society 
nvas instituted to promote—be encouraged rather than 
rejected. But on investigation the statement was found 
to involve an entirely erroneous view of the facts. Of 
the three ladies attending the classes during the session 
Two were engaged in extremely laborious work as dis¬ 
pensers holding engagements by which they were occu¬ 
pied from early morning till late at night; and the third, 
at was stated, was also largely occupied in other pursuits. 
Moreover, it was known that many of the male students 
were able to devote their whole time to their studies: 
.and it had never been and is not proposed to exclude 
them on that ground from competition. Nor is such a 
-course customary on grounds of this kind in any edu¬ 
cational institution. The majority which carried the 
restrictive resolution was narrow, and it may be supposed 
-. that the whole consequences and character of the proceed¬ 
ing were not apparent to them. 
“ The Council of the Pharmaceutical Society consists 
wholly of tradesmen of a superior class, but not yet 
accustomed to the kind of responsibilities weighing upon 
4 i body entrusted with State powers. A private and 
-voluntary association, such as it formerly was, is free to 
indulge its fantasies and its tastes. It may be liberal or 
illiberal within the range of its conceptions; equitable 
or inequitable according to its standard of judgment or 
the elasticity of its corporate conscience. They might 
reasonably resent criticism from without, and propose to 
•do as they please with their own. But in directing public 
interests and fulfilling public functions they must rise 
..above the considerations of the counter, and consent to 
•consider justly the claims of the most inferior being wiio 
can muster knowledge enough to decipher the medical 
cacograms which pass as prescriptions, distinguish 
between aconite and horse-radish, sugar the powders and 
gild the pill for which suffering mortals credulously but 
impatiently wait. As shrewd tradesmen they may con¬ 
sider the advisability of narrowing the competition 
.among chemists, but as the interpreters of an Act of 
Parliament they must exclude personal considerations in 
framing the regulations which guard the entrance to the 
chemist’s shop.” 
THE CHEMISTS’ BALL. 
That the Chemists’ Ball is now permanently 
established as an annual gathering, must have been 
evident to those who were present at the very 
pleasant reunion at Willis’s Booms on Wednesday 
evening last. We understand that about 340 per¬ 
sons were present, amongst whom were many -whose 
names are familiar to pharmacists as household 
words. 
At the supper, which was good and -well served, 
Mr. Frederick Baiiron took the chair, and in giving 
the customary toast of the evening, “ Success to the 
Chemists’ Ball,” coupled with it “ The Health of the 
Ladies,” and expressed a hope that although he had 
now been connected with the drug trade five-and-forty 
years, he might nevertheless live long enough to see 
the time when a lady would take the chair at the 
Chemists’ Ball. This was received so enthusiasti¬ 
cally as to leave no doubt, on the one hand, of the 
satisfaction the arrangements had given to those 
assembled, and on the other of the sympathy of the 
company with the view’s expressed by the chairman 
as w r ell as in other quarters. It -was mentioned by 
the Chairman with regret, that tv r o gentlemen, 
Messrs. Billing and Warwick, who had done so 
much to contribute to the success of the Ball, not 
only on this, but on previous occasions, were preven¬ 
ted by domestic circumstances from being present. 
THE NEW AMERICAN PHARMACOPOEIA. 
Amongst the matters which just now interest the 
pharmacists of America, the issue of the new edition 
of the United States’ Pharmacopoeia will be of para¬ 
mount importance. It will be seen by a notice on 
p. 506, which, through the kindness of Professor 
Attfield, who had received an advance copy, we 
are enabled thus early to put before our readers, that 
it has its points of interest for the English phar¬ 
macist also. First, in the fact that it is the fifth 
that has been issued at intervals of ten years, a defi¬ 
nite time being thus recognized at which the Phar¬ 
macopoeia should be modified in accordance with the 
progress of medical and pharmaceutical science ; to 
this has now been added a resolution authorizing the 
issue of a fresh edition at a shorter interval if ne¬ 
cessary. Secondly, that it is the work of a conven¬ 
tion in which delegates from pharmaceutical as well 
as medical colleges take part. Both these points are 
worthy of consideration in this country, where, on 
the one hand, as was recently pointed out by a con¬ 
temporary, no satisfactory provision has been made 
for the addition of a new’ remedy, even when so well 
established as hydrate of chloral; and, on the other, 
the responsibility of producing a pharmacopoeia is, 
by the terms of the Medical Act, confined to the 
General Medical Council. Another matter, which 
probably will not be without its influence upon a 
future British Pharmacopoeia, is the adoption of the 
system of nomenclature advocated by Professor 
Attfield. "While on the JsubjectJof pharmacopoeias it 
may be mentioned that, in referring to the statement 
respecting a Universal Pharmacopoeia made bj^ Br. 
Thudichcm at a recent evening meeting, the New 
York Drug<jists Circular expresses a regret that 
America is not. yet taking part in the discussion. 
