[May IS, 1872. 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
923 
THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY DINNER OF THE 
PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
On Tuesday, what will probably prove to be but the 
first of a long 1 series of similar gatherings, took place 
at the Crystal Palace, when a company of over two 
hundred gentlemen connected with the Pharmaceutical 
Society, with their friends, dined together, under the 
presidency of Mr. A. F. Haselden, F.L.S., the President 
of that Society. 
The Chairman, in proposing the first toast, said : 
Gentlemen,—Mine is the privilege, and I may add the 
honour, of proposing the first toast of the evening, a 
toast which always finds a ready response amongst 
Englishmen, viz., “ The health of Her Most Gracious 
Majesty the Queen, their Royal Highnesses the Prince 
and Princess of Wales, and the other members of the 
Royal Family.” No words of mine can add to the 
virtues, the many virtues which adorn our Sovereign 
Lady the Queen. As a lady, a parent, and a monarch, 
I know not where I could look for her equal. She 
reigns in the hearts of her subjects; her sympathies 
are truly with them; when they sorrow she sorrows, 
and when they rejoice she rejoices. The loyalty of the 
people of this country towards Her Majesty and the 
Royal Family of England is unequalled. Were it pos¬ 
sible that any could doubt this feeling, I would simply 
call to their remembrance the dark and dreary days of 
last December, and the bright and joyous day of Thanks¬ 
giving in February. His Royal Highness the Prince of 
Wales enjoys the esteem and affection of the people, but, 
indeed, it was only when we feared wo might lose him 
that we discovered how much we loved him. For that 
good, kind, amiable, loving and beloved lady, the 
Princess of Wales, I have only to whisper her name to 
make all faces radiant with smiles of approbation; and 
all the junior members of the Royal Family are winning 
the hearts and loyalty of the people. I need say no 
more but repeat the words of the toast, “ The Health of 
Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, coupled there¬ 
with their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of 
Wales and all the members of the Royal Family of 
England.” These few words produced frequent ap¬ 
plause, which was continued for some minutes at the 
end, and was followed by the band playing “ God Save 
the Queen.” 
Mr. T. Hyde Hills proposed “The Army, Navy, 
and Reserve Forces,” which was appropriately responded 
to by Captain Starkie. 
Mr. Brown, of Manchester, was called upon to pro¬ 
pose the health of the “ Medical Profession.” He said 
it augured well both for the past and future, to see so 
large a gathering at the first of what he hoped was 
destined to prove a long series of annual festivals. He 
was glad to think that the day had passed for any absurd 
jealousies between the medical profession and that of 
pharmacy. It must be to the interest of the medical 
profession that they should have as their colleagues an 
educated body of men, capable of cairying out their 
instructions, and assisting them to the fullest extent in 
their philanthropic labours; and the cordial understand¬ 
ing wdiich now existed, had, he believed, been greatly 
promoted by the founders and conductors of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society. And day by day this good under¬ 
standing was increasing, especially in London, but he 
hoped that even in the country the happy consummation 
was rapidly approaching when the general practitioner 
wdio dispensed his own medicines would disappear, and his 
place be taken by the educated physician of the future, 
who would find abundant employment for the educated 
pharmacist. There ought not to be any antagonism 
between such a noble profession and those who were so 
closely allied to it. It had been well said— 
“ A wise physician skilled our wounds to heal 
Is more than armies to the public weal;” 
but an army was of no use without a general, nor a 
general unless his orders were intelligently and promptly 
carried out. The physicians of the present day were 
able—thanks in great measure to the efforts of the 
Pharmaceutical Society—to rely on their prescriptions 
being faithfully and properly dispensed ; and he hoped, 
therefore, they would give pharmacists plenty to do. 
It was true that prevention was said to be better than 
cure, and, therefore, sanitary questions now occupied a 
prominent position, but even in that work chemists were 
always ready to give their aid. In conclusion he alluded 
to the recent illness of the Prince of Wales, and to the 
unremitting care and attention of his medical advisers, 
which, he said, was equally bestowed daily and hourly 
by thousands of men who looked for no honour or re¬ 
ward for their labours beyond that of a good conscience 
and the gratitude of those who entrusted their lives to 
their care. He begged to couple with the toast the 
name of Dr. Leared. 
Dr. Leared, in responding, said the profession for 
which he had the honour to speak, was a great and 
glorious one, notwithstanding everything that could be 
said against it. Alluding to a recent article in a weekly 
journal, which put the question whether the world would 
not have been as well or better if there had never been 
either physicians or physic in existence, he remarked 
that a similar question had been put with reference to 
the members of a cognate profession—the Church ; and 
there was not the least doubt that if the cynical scrawler 
who wrote that article were taken ill himself, he would 
soon enough run to a physician, get a prescription, no 
doubt with the cabalistic marks upon it to which ho 
alluded, have it dispensed, and take the medicine with 
the full expectation of getting better. He believed an ago 
of therapeutic science and discovery was at hand, and 
that in the future,(more than ever, the hearty co-operation 
of zealous, educated pharmacists would be required. 
Dr. Greenhow proposed “ The Pharmaceutical 
Society of Great Britain,” not simply as a matter of 
form, or because he had been requested to do so, but with 
all his heart, and from a thorough knowledge and ap¬ 
preciation of what it had done. The Society was ori¬ 
ginally a voluntary association, but upon it had now 
devolved by Act of Parliament a very onerous duty, in 
which every member of the public was interested, viz. 
of preparing such regulations as should ensure the proper 
education of all future chemists and druggists, and of 
testing the fitness of candidates for the duties they were 
to undertake. And he would venture to say, with a full 
knowledge of the facts, that no society could have carried 
out these duties with better judgment or more prudence 
and skill; in fact, the system of examination was as 
near perfection as it was possible for anything human 
to be. He believed the Society had a great future before 
it, for division of labour was the order of the day. There 
was a day, not so far distant, when the apothecary and 
the grocer were one and the same, and a little further'back, 
surgery and shaving were practised conjointly. These in¬ 
congruous callings had now been separated, and he fore¬ 
saw the time when the public would learn that a chemist 
and druggist with the qualification of the Pharmaceutical 
Society was thoroughly competent to prepare their medi¬ 
cines, and would rather have them prepared by such 
men than in the surgery of a private practitioner,—a time 
w r hen medical men would be only too glad to disem¬ 
barrass themselves from the irksomeness of preparing 
medicines, and would seek not for the profits of trade,, 
but for a proper remuneration for skill and service ren¬ 
dered. He begged to name Mr. Mackay in connection 
with the toast. 
Mr. Mackay said the Society had now existed many 
years, but from its formation but one object had been 
kept in view, viz., the advancement of pharmacy, and 
he need not say how well it had fulfilled its mission. 
He had had put into his hand a curious piece of evidence 
as to the wonderful change which had taken place in 
the prices of drugs and pharmaceutical preparations. It 
