Hay 24, 1S73.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
939 
had been a chemist and druggist, and she had carried 
on the business for a time after his death. She after¬ 
wards became manager or housekeeper in an asylum, and 
.applied to be admitted a member of this Society. He 
opposed her admission, and when she asked him what his 
objection was, he told her it was simply that she was Miss 
Leech ; to which she replied very truly, that was not her 
fault. There were many other means of earning a living 
open to women, and he was opposed to encouraging them 
to enter a business where they would have, day by day, 
to deal in things which he should be very sorry for any 
near female friends of his own to have any knowledge 
of. He trusted, therefore, the meeting would entirely 
negative the proposition. 
Mr. Giles thought it particularly desirable that the 
question should not be settled on a false issue, which was 
not at all unlikely to be the case. On the one side gen¬ 
tlemen might be influenced by chivalrous feelings and on 
the other by something like jealousy. Now, there was 
really no room for any jealous feeling, because competi¬ 
tion was not a question of sex, but of the number of shops. 
This question had been advanced a certain stage by a 
measure the Council had taken in conceding what he con¬ 
sidered the essentials, in admitting women to the lectures, 
and what remained was he believed in great measure a 
matter of sentiment. Now it was not their business to 
adjudicate upon the sentiments of other people, or to say 
what sphere of action women should occupy. Every gen¬ 
tleman might influence his own friends or relations in ac¬ 
cordance with his own views; but at that moment he knew 
a young lady who was devoting herself to nursing,. which 
many others had done, and he apprehended that in that 
vocation they would come into contact with many things 
which might be very offensive. At the same time he 
must say puribus omnia pura, and it was possible that 
women might find a proper place in pharmacy quite consis¬ 
tent with all delicacy. He feared that a great many would 
be influenced in voting upon this question by their indi¬ 
vidual disposition ratherthan by reason; but it appeared to 
him that ladies had received permission to enter the trade, 
and to qualify themselves for it, and that being done it 
could not be undone. For his own part, he should have 
hesitated a great deal before going so far as that, for he 
was pretty certain that when the A cts of P arliament were 
passed such a thing was not contemplated. During many 
hundreds of years there had been a certain kind of separa¬ 
tion between the functions of the sexe3, and their duties 
in ordinary life, which they must believe, if they had any 
respect for their ancestors, was founded on good reason. 
Still the circumstances of life changed, and in an over¬ 
crowded country things which were once fitting were no 
longer to be maintained, and they must be prepared to 
give to woman a more independent sphere of action. If 
they desired them all to be married they would to a 
certain degree be only adding to the difficulties which 
already existed, at any rate, many of them did not get 
married and therefore required some means of honourably 
and independently maintaining themselves. These facts 
must be looked in the face, and they must expect that the 
state of things, which he confessed he preferred, might 
have to give place to something different. He therefore 
thought the Society might have been excused if this ques¬ 
tion had been postponed for a time, but as this had not 
been done, and access had been given to the lectures, it 
s im ply became a question whether the Council were 
justified in excluding women from membership. He 
thought it was perhaps a doubtful question whether 
they had any right at law to exercise that power 
of selection. It appeared very much as if the Council s 
function in relation to the election of members was 
p im ply executive, and not judicial, but that was a 
legal question which could not be settled there, and 
he 3 hoped they would not attempt it. He noticed, how¬ 
ever, a difference in the expression which applied to people 
being entitled to registration, and to their being eligible 
for membership ; that was a difference which must be left 
to legal acumen to determine the value of, but he did not 
think it followed that because a person was eligible that 
therefore the functions of the Council were executive. 
For instance, a person might be eligible to be commander- 
in-chief, but if she were a woman, though she had passed 
the requisite competitive examinations, he apprehended 
the answer would be —“ You are eligible quoad the exa¬ 
mination, but you are not eligible quoad your sex.” He 
thought the best way would be for the ladies to go to the 
Court of Queen’s Bench and get a mandamus , and then 
the question would be satisfactorily settled. If it were 
settled now by refusing them admission, it would still be 
left open for agitation until it was settled by a court of 
law. If they were obliged to admit them they must do 
so by all means, but if it was a matter of choice he should 
certainly prefer their not being elected. 
Mr. SxWAGE said they seemed travelling a good deal 
beyond the record. It was admitted that they. had no 
power to exclude ladies from passing the examinations, 
and the only question was whether they should be ad¬ 
mitted to membership. He should be very sorry to have 
a lady dispensing in his shop, but at the same time, if 
there were ladies who wished to encounter any indelicacy 
that might occur, they had nothing to do with that. He 
did not believe there would be a dozen present themselves 
in forty years, but whatever the number might be, they 
must be above the average character, or they would not 
pass the examinations, and he did not see why they should 
be kept out in the cold. 
Mr. Linford begged to propose, as an amendment, that 
the question be referred back to the newly-elected 
Council. . , 
The question being raised whether Mr. Pickering s 
amendment had been seconded, Mr. Marsden said, lie 
should be very glad to second it. . 
Mr. Humpage remarked, there was one point of view from 
which this question had not been looked at. They were 
about to confirm an alteration in the bye-laws, the effect 
of which would be that, in future, after the. close of 18 
no individual should be eligible for examination except 
after passing three years’ apprenticeship. That was vir¬ 
tually what it amounted to. But if they voted for ladies 
being admitted, then these would have to undergo this 
three years’ apprenticeship the same as the other sex. 
Now this he strongly objected to, because, as had been 
observed by Mr. Pickering, they would have to undergo 
a certain routine, and hear and see things which would 
entirely destroy the delicacy of any young lady. Let 
ladies assist their husbands if they thought tit, though e 
should not like them to do so, but that .was a widely dif¬ 
ferent thing to sanctioning and encouraging them to enter 
the business. It was said that, having opened one door, 
they should open the second, but he had no responsibility 
on that point, for he had never voted in favour of ladies 
being admitted, and he certainly should oppose the mo¬ 
tion ; not out of any disrespect to the ladie3, but he did 
not want them as members. 
The Solicitor said, that as silence was sometimes 
taken to mean assent, he was anxious that silence on his 
own part should not be deemed assent to the proposition 
contained in the resolution, as to the law of the subject. 
At the same time, he had not made up his nnnd upon it, but 
he had an impression, rather than an opinion, that if the 
ladies did go to the Queen’s Bench for a mandamus, they 
would not be successful. He believed that the Society 
possessed all the privileges of a voluntary associa¬ 
tion, with regard to election to membership, so long as 
those privileges were reasonably exercised. n 
clubs in London, ladies were absolutely excluded ; that 
society was formed of gentlemen, and he was under 
the impression that if gentlemen chose , so to con¬ 
tinue it, the law would sustain them in so doing. 
Brougham’s Act, which had been referred to showed 
that the expression implying one gender should be held 
to include the other, “unless the context be repugnant 
thereto ” And he believed that there would be no dith- 
