December 2,1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
451 
31st. Structural and Physiological Botany, every Thurs¬ 
day evening, at 8.45, commencing Thursday, November 
2nd. Nominal fee to each course, 5s. The introductory 
lecture in each course will be free to all connected with 
the trade. The Council particularly request that all 
young men, who can conveniently attend, will do so, 
whether connected with the Society or not. 
LEEDS CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The Members and Associates, with several chemists 
and druggists, numbering nearly ninety persons, met at 
the Trevelyan Hotel, Boar Lane, Leeds, on Wednesday, 
Nov. 22nd, 1871, at eight o’clock; the chair was taken 
by the President, Mr. E. Brown, who delivered the fol¬ 
lowing address:— 
Gentlemen,—The advantages of association have been 
recognized amongst men from the earliest periods. All 
social and political organizations depend on the impres¬ 
sion that, by mutual concession and co-operation, the in¬ 
terests of all so sharing are promoted. Monarchies, 
republics and empires are but the development of asso¬ 
ciation on a national scale. Let there be first the sense 
of profit by union, and then will the system, ’whether 
crude or complex, to achieve the objects for which the 
union is designed, spontaneously follow. The associa¬ 
tions for the useful direction of energy and enterprise, 
of capital and skill, of benevolent and philanthropic 
effort, with their immensely varied objects, that have of 
late years been formed with such marvellous rapidity, 
and many with such surprising results, have been for 
the most part induced by the increase of population on 
areas long occupied, or by migration to lands before 
almost unpeopled, and the opening of regions previously 
unknown. The circumstances calling into being these 
associations we cannot sever ourselves from,—circum¬ 
stances that at once demand and promote degrees of 
mental activity such as probably have never had a pa¬ 
rallel. 
We live in an age when even that most rude and 
destructive of arts, the art of war, requires for proficiency 
in it much patient and scientific study. Does it not be¬ 
hove us, then, engaged as we arc in a peaceful and bene¬ 
ficent occupation, to avail ourselves of the aids and 
advantages secured by mutual association ? There are 
many aspects other than that whence I have ventured 
to approach our sphere of thought that might convey 
impressions of the value of union, but, tempting as they 
are, we have neither the time, nor is this the occasion, 
to review them. It may be well, however, at this social 
meeting, before we pass on to subjects immediately con¬ 
cerning us as phai’macists, to notice a few of those in¬ 
ducements to union or association for the promotion of 
our social and intellectual advancement that have special 
claim on our regard. The various associations for ob¬ 
jects almost without number that exist demonstrate, if 
demonstration were required, that the experiment of 
association is conclusively in their favour. Associations 
and companies often fail of their object, and so of con¬ 
tinuance, either because attempting too much, or of 
being composed of inharmonious elements. It is to be 
hoped that our friendly union is not endangered by 
these sources of non-success. The slight claims on our 
time, our money and our patience are surely counter¬ 
balanced by the advantages of our formation into a 
society. We do not incur responsibilities that can in 
any degree make union irksome; while there are ad¬ 
vantages in association that cannot be had without it. 
We do not mine to sink our capital, nor speculate in 
steamy and gaseous evaporations to give it wings. We 
do not lay rails or make roads on which our means may 
run away, nor embark to wreck our resources in mid 
ocean. We do not bind our several interests so closely 
that dissolution would be a happy release, nor yet is 
our affinity so insensible that disintegration should be a 
natural consequence. To harbour the notion that con¬ 
nection with our association lays a man more or less 
under obligation to reveal any thing that might prejudice 
his personal interest, so far as that interest is not also 
common to all, is a delusion that incurs more loss to any 
one who may entertain it than it can possibly to those 
who do not. 
The whole history of pharmaceutical associations, 
whether in London or the provinces, goes to establish 
the fact, that those whose position makes them more in¬ 
dependent than others of such union are the most ready 
to communicate what promotes the, welfare of their fellow- 
members. And if there is one lesson more than another 
that friendly intercourse with colleagues in our art teaches, 
it is that the aids and the hindrances, the perplexities and 
the encouragements, falling to the lot of each one are 
much the same as those that affect all. Our several cir¬ 
cumstances, as our separate formula}, are left intact by 
our union ; but what contributes to the good of all is by 
it secured alike for each. The very recognition of mu¬ 
tual interests is hopeful and healthful to us in the con¬ 
duct of business; a fact the more we appreciate, the less 
we shall have to suffer. The long and anxious hours we 
have to give to our occupation, while in some respects 
hindrances, should be in others inducements to our 
being associated. Our union may be one of the best 
steps towards lessening the time and lightening the care 
of our daily round of duty. To be “ out of” fashion irt 
some things might be a virtue, but not to be in fashion 
in the matter of our association, society tending with 
events as they do, would be a weakness and a loss. Wo 
have not so far achieved by our union results to exult 
in ; but we have results quite sufficient to encourage us> 
to persevere. Since our earliest meetings at 13, Briggate, 
our progressive steps have been steady if not swift, and 
while our position now is but a modest vantage to have 
been attained by the engagements of a succession of 
years, we can from this position look forward with hope 
that our association, with increased efficiency, will pro¬ 
mote the objects for w r hich it was formed. The incidents 
and the apparatus of our local society are not without 
interest. That so many of us have formed friendly ac¬ 
quaintance, and so solved down the trade jealous}' that 
is so much the child of ignorance, is surely cause for 
satisfaction. We have learnt something of each other’s 
weaknesses, and with this knowledge composed ourselves 
by deliverance from the dread of master}', and we have 
seen something of each other’s virtues, and so learned te 
respect those who, with weapons like our own, are daily" 
fighting the battle of life. This acquaintance, too, must 
infuse into the competition, unavoidable by the proximity 
of our places of business to each other, more of honour 
than without it would prevail, and the public also par¬ 
take of the benefit thus derived Rom an improved tone, 
in our business transactions. Our winter evening meet¬ 
ings are times of refreshing mental stimulus, whether to- 
those who lead or those who follow the train of thought 
directed to the subjects that in those meetings come 
before us; and the organization of our local society, 
simple as it is, enabled us to take a practical share in 
stemming the tide of vexatious parliamentary interfe¬ 
rence in our shop arrangements that threatened the che¬ 
mists of this land last session ; and, if need be, our asso¬ 
ciation, not as an object, but as an incident, of its exist¬ 
ence, would serve a like end again; and here it may be 
remarked that the chief aim of our association, as is. 
that of the Pharmaceutical Society, however some of its 
members may have overlooked the fact, is to bring 
about such a state of things in our body as to render- 
government interference in the conduct of our phar¬ 
macies quite unnecessary. 
It is at once our interest and desire to accord with the 
action of the Pharmaceutical Society, most heartily and 
earnestly ; but when some members of that Society are 
led to esteem certain fetters as decollations incumbent on. 
