PHARMACEUTICAL LEGISLATION. 
of the labourers in the field of Pharmacy. Throwing all special pleading aside, 
and putting it in its simplest form, the present Bill proposes nothing more nor 
less than the following :— 
1st. All the present chemists and druggists in business to be registered, and 
to have all of their existing rights and privileges, as before. 
2nd. Members of the Pharmaceutical Society, and Pharmaceutical Chemists, 
to enjoy their chartered rights and privileges as at present. 
3rd. Chemists and druggists’ assistants actually employed as such before the 
passing of this Act, to be registered as Assistants under the Pharmacy Act, with 
power to commence business without examination. 
4th. The Benevolent Fund is to be open to all, that is to say, past Members 
and Associates'of the Society, Pharmaceutical Chemists, and registered chemists 
and drugo-ists. 
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5th. After the first day of January, 1865, no person to commence business, 
unless he shall have received a certificate or certificates of qualification, from the 
Examiners of the Pharmaceutical Society, either as a chemist and druggist, or 
Pharmaceutical Chemist. 
A more just and liberal measure to suit all parties could not I think be possibly 
devised; no reasonable man could desire anything more. The Pharmaceutical 
Society is the recognized head of the profession of Pharmacy in Great Britain, 
it obtained its Charter, its Act of Parliament, its exemption-from-jury privileges, 
and will without doubt obtain this proposed Act. 
I look upon the measure as one that chemists and druggists of all grades, whe¬ 
ther members of the Society from its foundation, Pharmaceutical Chemists by 
examination, or simply chemists and druggists, should strive hard to get passed 
into law ; no stone should be left unturned, no means left untried to effect this 
desirable object, as it is for the common good of all. One great cause of the 
success of this measure will be, that there is no reasonable ground of opposition 
to it. It does not, like the proposed Medical Bill, inflict an injury, either 
directly or indirectly, upon any section of the trade, on the contrary, all exist¬ 
ing rights are respected and guaranteed ; hence all reasonable source of opposi¬ 
tion (which by the bye would have strangled any measure in its birth) ceases to 
exist. 
It has been supposed and stated by some that a formidable opposition would 
arise to it, on account of its not proposing to open the doors and admit the 
“ outsiders ” to the title and privileges enjoyed by its examined and other mem¬ 
bers, but this opposition, which is more imaginary than real, is so obviously un - 
just and unreasonable, that it may well be thought little of or cared little for ; 
I affirm that the Council dares not, even if it would , to so deliberately breads 
faith with the Government, the JMedical Profession, the public, and lastly and 
more important than all , the examined members. An opposition would then 
arise, and I for one should be glad to see it, such as never has been felt in 
17 Bloomsbury Square before. 
The Society is composed of three different classes:—1. The founders, a body 
worthy of all respect and consideration as the pioneers of progress in Pharmacy 
in this country. 
2. Those members admitted previous to the Pharmacy Act coming into 
force; and— 
3. The examined Pharmaceutical Chemists, a body of men that stand high 
in the profession of Pharmacy, and who without any compulsion have nobly spent 
their time and money, studied their profession, aud honourably taken its highest 
qualification. 
Now I ask on what reasonable grounds can the “ outsiders ” who, to say the 
least of it, have done nothing for the Society, and oftentimes much against it, 
on what grounds, I repeat, can they reasonabl)\expcct to be admitted to the title 
