May 27, 1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
94 7 
Mr. Wiggin (Ipswich) : Gentlemen, I beg to move 
rthat the Report of the Council be received and adopted, 
and printed in the Journal and Transactions of the So¬ 
ciety. I am very pleased indeed to have again the oppor¬ 
tunity of addressing you, to come up again as I have 
■done for many years, combining business with pleasure. 
As you have all, no doubt, read the Report, anything I 
•could say would be quite a woi'k of supererogation, par¬ 
ticularly after the able manner with which our President, 
in his opening address, has commented upon everything 
•connected with it. So far as regards the Finances, I 
amust say I think the statements in the Report are hardly 
■so good as usual; but I accept, as I feel myself bound to 
>do, the explanations made by our governing body, those 
■whom we have elected to serve us for the last year. I 
have nothing particular to say about that bone of con¬ 
tention amongst us, the Poison Regulations, because 
they will be the subject of remark hereafter; but I may 
say that I would rather we should manage our own 
work than let other people do it for us. There is one 
•ether matter which the Chairman mentioned, and upon 
which I feel very strongly, namely, the retirement of 
Mr. Sandford. We know the peculiar circumstances 
•under which he retired, and I must say, that in electing 
to do so he did a very graceful act; one which, in my 
•opinion, proved him to be a most honourable gentleman. 
I think he properly appreciated his position, and I hope 
■and trust that by our votes to-day w r e shall show that 
the feeling of the majority of this Society goes with him. 
A Member : May I ask whether, by adopting the 
^Report, we also take the regulations as to the Poison 
Rill with it ? 
The Chairman : You do not. The regulations will 
tbe put to you afterwards as a separate question. 
Mr. M. Carteigiie : I beg to second the motion for 
rthe adoption of the Report. 
Mr. Robbins : I should like to make a few observations 
with regard to the Benevolent Fund. In reading the 
.Pharmaceutical Journal of last week, I was struck, 
mpon looking over the list of subscriptions, with the 
.smallness of the sums there enumerated. I searched the 
list for a great number of names which I fancied ought 
rto be there, and found them only conspicuous by their 
-absence. In looking over some of the large towns of 
.great commercial importance, I found that the sums 
put dowm were really very insignificant, and there were 
•other towms wdiich I looked for in vain. I think it is a 
•disgrace to such a body as the Pharmaceutical Society 
lhat this should be so ; w r e arc bound to look after the 
•orphans and widows, the poor and the indigent of our 
■own body. It is not only a duty which we ought to per¬ 
form, but we should also look upon it as a privilege and a 
pleasure. I cannot fancy that chemists are less liberal 
•and less charitable than other people. I think this must 
•arise from the subject not having been placed promi- 
mently enough before the members generally. I am told 
.that the donations, subscriptions and interest arising from 
.•funded property are not sufficient to meet the require¬ 
ments of the annuitants, and when we see that the amount 
:subscribed by the members does not amount to a shilling 
a head, I think it is time we took the matter into serious 
■consideration. Our President has mentioned that we 
.have recently had a legacy left us, and it is a remarkable 
.fact that that is the first legacy left to the Benevolent 
Fund. We have not many Peabodys in our ranks, and 
■therefore I shall not quarrel w r ith the dead ; but to the 
.living I wmuld urge that they take this matter into 
consideration and see w r hether, before the next meeting, 
we cannot put a more respectable list before the mem- 
.‘bers. 
Mr. Kent : Sir, my chief object in coming here to-day 
was to speak upon the subject which has been alluded to 
by the last speaker. I happen to know six large towms 
in the country from which you receive only £2. 7?., and 
there are above 100 respectable chemists doing a very 
large amount of business there. I do not think that 
those chemists are divested of feelings of sympathy for 
the poor in our class more than those chemists who do 
subscribe to our funds. I think it is due to the fact that 
their attention has not been drawn to the subject. I 
think if your local secretaries were specially directed to 
call attention to this matter, and make application to 
the different chemists of their localities, you wmuld find a 
great improvement in the state of your Benevolent Fund. 
I hope that we have a good many of those local secre¬ 
taries now present, and that their minds wall be drawn 
to the subject; also that the incoming Council will en¬ 
courage those gentlemen by sending a nice circular, so 
that it can be distributed amongst the chemists in their 
locality. I feel assured that w r e cannot exactly sleep 
comfortably in our beds if w r e neglect our "widows and 
our orphans. I would further suggest that in the case 
of those chemists wdio are known to be well-to-do, and 
will not subscribe a farthing, if any of their friends should 
become dependent, it should be a question whether the 
Society should entertain any application from them. 
The various charitable institutions throughout the coun¬ 
try, I believe, act upon that principle; and it again acts 
as a sort of stimulus on all parties during the time of 
prosperity, when they do possess the means to contribute 
something, to know that if the sorrows of life should 
come upon them, and their friends are left destitute, they 
will be cared for by the societies to which they have 
belonged, and to which they have subscribed. I am 
heartily pleased that attention has been drawn to this 
matter, and hope that after this day we shall have to 
congratulate ourselves upon the improved state of our 
Benevolent Fund. 
Mr. Humpage : I should like to say a word, Sir, re¬ 
specting this Benevolent Fund. I believe it is through 
apathy that many gentlemen have not come fonvard 
and assisted the Fund, and I think that generally they 
are not members of the Society. If they were, and had 
the Journal coming before them four times a month, they 
must see that the Benevolent Fund and its distribution 
does occupy a considerable portion of the Council’s time 
and attention. When we bear in mind that three years 
ago there were about 2000 members of the Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Society, I did expect, when the doors of the So¬ 
ciety were so widely, so kindly (I was going to say so 
lavishly) rolled open, a very large number would rush in. 
We asked them to come in and unite with us who had been 
working for thirty years. We had created the Society; 
we had in addition subscribed £10,000 for this Benevolent 
Fund—and all we asked them was, to come in and shake 
hands and help us. There could be no difference of 
opinion as to the desirableness of this fund. There 
might be a difference as to the proceedings at the Council 
table, but I repeat, there could be no difference as to 
the propriety of every member of the trade who can af¬ 
ford it giving an annual subscription to this fund, since 
all are eligible to receive its help. I hope and trust many 
country chemists will speedily.join the Society, when their 
attention will be more completely called to its advantages; 
and depend upon it, if they have any prejudices, the more 
you can bring them in contact -with the Society, those 
prej udices will be melted away. I have come in contact 
with many gentlemen who have prejudices. A short 
time ago a gentlemen who lives in my neighbourhood, a 
man of standing, a man of influence, a man of character, 
and a man of position, launched a complaint to me to this 
effect,—I had no circular from the Council of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society respecting these poison regulations, and 
I think I am as respectable a man as the 2000 who had 
the circulars. I am one of the 10,000 outside. I told 
him that he did not look at it in the proper light. I 
said, “ Why have you not had a circular f Because you 
would not unite yourself with the Society. If I volun¬ 
tarily keep myself back from joining a club, can I ex¬ 
pect to have notice of the movements and doings of that 
club? Assuredly not.”—“Sir,” said he, “I never looked 
at it in that light; I see the justice of it; you are right.’* 
