346 
THE BENEVOLENT FUND. 
Journal again and again, he has cast off the true duties pertaining to his origi¬ 
nal title ; they have devolved by the mere progression of the division of labour 
on dispensing chemists, who have now as much need of an educational training 
for their occupation as had the apothecaries of fifty years ago. Between 1815 
and 1865, so rapid has been the advance of science, that it may be almost said 
to equal the vast distance between old Quincy and Jonathan Pereira ! Of the 
responsibility thrown on dispensers by modern changes they can best appreciate 
the weight; they know well the anxiety which besets them day by day lest 
their employes should overlook an accidentally excessive dose; so potent are 
the remedies now in use that the fractional part of a grain of some of them 
may carry death instead of health to an unfortunate invalid. And again, so 
much is the knowledge of the power of the modern virulent poisons now popu¬ 
larized, that the mere retailing of drugs becomes every day a more dangerous 
occupation—an occupation requiring full knowledge of their power and proper 
purposes on the part of the seller, and a vast amount of clear judgment and dis¬ 
crimination lest he should be imposed on by persons desiring to obtain them for 
criminal or suicidal purposes. 
That chemists generally are now alive to these things is proved by their 
willingness, and almost anxiety, to be placed under legal compulsion as to edu¬ 
cational qualification, as the apothecaries were in 1815. We have ample oppor¬ 
tunity of measuring this feeling by the returns sent up by the Local Secretaries 
of the Pharmaceutical Society in approval of the proposed Bill for the regulation 
of chemists and druggists ; those returns are signed not merely by Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Chemists, who, being on safe ground themselves, might be regarded as pre¬ 
judiced witnesses, but also by men entirely unconnected with the Society. 
Looking through such returns as have come in, and the reports of some meetings 
which have been held to discuss the subject, we see striking instances of this ; 
thus at Canterbury every chemist in the place has signed in favour of the Bill; 
at Leicester all signed but one, the paper having 43 signatures ; at Brighton 45 
dispensing chemists have signed out of 52, and besides these, 31 assistants have 
also signed, and in Manchester 116 names are attached to the memorial, and 
of that number only 37 are the names of Pharmaceutical Chemists. 
That we are on the eve of attaining our long-desired object—the object for 
which our Society was established and has consistently worked, we have no 
doubt; and it will be a singular coincidence if that object should be attained 
exactly half a century after the Apothecaries Act, which may be called its 
prototype. 
Let this then cheer us on our work ; let there be no disunion, and success is 
certain. There is no injustice or oppression, nay, there is even positive protec¬ 
tion for chemists and druggists already in business. The Apothecaries Act 
left men then in practice “as they were; 1 ’ our Bill proposes to advance the 
interest of the present race at once by registration ; and all would alike benefit 
by the enactment that in future no ignorant persons should step in to nibble at 
the loaf, which is none too large for those who must and ought to be fed from 
it. We have this advantage, that the voice of the public is with us, and especi¬ 
ally the voice of the medical profession. 
THE BENEVOLENT EUND. 
The Council have determined to make a vigorous effort on behalf of the 
Benevolent Eund. In another part of this month’s issue will be found the 
revised regulations. These have been carefully considered by a Special Com- 
