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PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY, EDINBURGH. 
Third ,— The Public. The safety of the public is to be found in the respectability of 
the pharmaceutist. The value of the drugs dispensed will vary according to the stan¬ 
dard of character assumed by the vender. But I am not dealing with the question of 
morality, and therefore I need not refer to the abominable practice of adulteration, of 
dispensing old and useless, cheap and inert substances. I suppose it will be readily 
admitted that there are shops—for all druggists are not Pharmaceutical Chemists even 
now—where such trash is sold. It is said that the public refuses to pay remunerating 
prices, and that custom goes by cheapness; and this is held to be a sufficient excuse for 
fraud. Fraud is inexcusable. Pharmaceutical Chemists will surely deny this impudent 
assertion ; they know that in a prosperous country the public will pay for the best of 
everything, and that it will pay for the best of drugs. The drug trade is doubtless 
undermined by ignorant and unscrupulous dealers, as much as the medical profession is 
by quackery, and it is very difficult to get rid of such mischievous parasites. Hitherto 
there has been no legislative measure capable of destroying them, nor is there likely to 
be any, for they are too wily and slippery to be easily held down by law. The remedy 
for both is in the hands of the physician and the pharmaceutist. Make a wide gap 
between respectability and knavery, so wide that the public can see the interval without 
spectacles, and depend upon it the public will discern and turn to the right side. It is 
sad to think how much the poor are cheated in more things than drugs,—heavy rents, 
dear and bad food, dear and scanty clothing. They pay a high rate for every comfort, 
or rather for every discomfort; and they often add to their misery, no doubt, by lavish¬ 
ing their slender means on useless physic. And yet they, if preference is to be given, 
should have the best of everything in their times of sickness, because with them time is 
capital, and whilst they are prostrate their business stands still. Hospitals are a great 
boon to them, and have a strong claim upon those who are able to support them. 
From the highest to the lowest, then, the public reaps the advantages arising from 
the advancement of pharmacy, and it is no less the duty of the public than of the me¬ 
dical profession to second the untiring efforts of the Pharmaceutical Society. An 
opportunity now presents itself. The “Bill for Regulating the Qualifications of Che¬ 
mists and Druggists ” is to be presented to Parliament in the coming session. From 
the date of its operation, if it pass, as is to be hoped, no person will be allowed to com¬ 
mence business as a chemist and druggist for the dispensing of the prescriptions of 
medical practitioners without having passed an examination; or, in the words of the 
preamble :—“ Whereas it is expedient for the safety of the public that persons carrying 
on the business of a chemist and druggist by retail, in the keeping of open shop for the 
compounding of the prescriptions of duly qualified medical practitioners, should possess 
a competent practical knowledge of such business, and to that end, th at from and after the 
date herein named, all persons, before commencing such business, should be duly ex¬ 
amined as to their skill and knowledge, and that a register should be established and 
kept of all such persons,” etc. This measure the public, in its own interest, should sup¬ 
port. That the medical profession will give weight to it is most likely. The ‘ Lancet,’ 
in its opening article of the new year, points to this Bill as one of the prominent features 
of the medical year:—“ The new year promises to bring forth a useful attempt at legis¬ 
lation in respect to pharmacy. The Bill originated by the Pharmaceutical Society de¬ 
serves the support of the profession, and seems likely to meet with favour at the hands 
of the Government.” 
The present position of pharmacy in the United Kingdom may perhaps, then, be 
briefly stated thus:—first, that as a science it has rapidly advanced, and is now attaining 
a highly honourable rank in the circle of medical sciences; second, that as an art, it is 
remarkable for the elegance and utility of its productions, as compared with those of 
the earlier part of the present century ; third, that with respect to those engaged in the 
study and practice of pharmacy, there is in the Pharmaceutical Society a combination of 
power capable of realizing the ultimate desires of the most ardent lovers of their profes¬ 
sion ; fourth, that with respect to the future of pharmacy, it is a matter of deep regret 
that there seems to be no prospect of the Government offering such facilities and en¬ 
couragement for its prosecution as have been followed by most gratifying results in 
foreign countries. 
If, then, the Pharmaceutical Chemist himself, the physician, and the public are all 
interested in the progress of pharmacy, they must be also interested in the means of its 
advancement, and especially in the question:—How is the standard of excellence, so 
