426 
MEETING OF THE LIVERPOOL CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS. 
Noble, Blanchard, Mackay, Storrar of Kirkaldy, Mackenzie, Taylor of Musselburgh, 
Aitken, jun., etc. etc. 
Notes of apology from several unavoidably absent were read. 
Mr. George Blanchard was called upon to preside. After a few remarks, he re¬ 
quested Mr. Mackay to explain the object of the meeting. 
Mr. Mackay then stated the purpose for which the meeting had been called, and 
proposed to read the whole Bill as at present in the hands of Sir George Grey, or to give 
an abstract. Those present having unanimously desired that the whole proposed Act 
should be read, Mr. Mackay did so, commenting upon and explaining the various 
clauses. A good deal of question and answer followed, in which several took part, and 
at length, after a full explanation, there appeared to be no objection to any portion of 
the Bill, excepting the clause fixing the age of the assistants at twenty-one years. A 
chemist present thought nineteen would be a more suitable age, and hoped the passers 
of the Bill would make this alteration before it passed the House of Commons. 
Mr. Mackay then moved the following motion :—“ That this meeting approve of the 
Amended Pharmacy Act now before Parliament which has already been fully published 
in the ‘ Pharmaceutical Journal,’ do hereby express an opinion favourable to the provi¬ 
sions of said Bill, and agree to do all in their power towards supporting and carrying 
this measure through Parliament during the approaching session, believing that such an 
Act is desirable alike for the interests of the public at large, as well as for regulating 
and recognizing chemists and druggists throughout the country.” 
Mr. Nicoll, Dundas Street, seconded this motion, and the Chairman having asked if 
there was any amendment, declared the motion unanimously carried, which it was, with 
acclamation; and after a vote of thanks to the President, the meeting adjourned. 
MEETING OP THE LIVERPOOL CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS. 
On Thursday, the 5th instant, an influential meeting of the chemists and druggists 
of Liverpool, Birkenhead, and the neighbourhood, was held in the lecture hall of the 
Royal Institution, Colquitt Street, Liverpool, for the purpose of discussing the provisions 
of the proposed new Pharmacy Act. 
Mr. Sumner, who was called to the chair, opened the proceedings by saying, the object 
of the meeting was to give the chemists and druggists of Liverpool an opportunity of 
expressing their opinion of the provisions of the extended Pharmacy Act, which would 
shortly be laid before Parliament. Perhaps without further preface on his (the Chair¬ 
man’s) part, Dr. Edwards would indicate what the Pharmacy Act was to do for the 
present and the rising generations. 
Dr. Edwards regretted the absence of his colleague on the Council, Mr. H. S. Evans, 
who was detained by domestic bereavement from being present that evening, but whose 
heart was with them in the objects of the meeting. The chemists and druggists, as dis¬ 
pensers of medicine, bad long had under consideration the desirability of associating 
themselves into one distinct and broad phalanx, and consolidating the body, not only 
for the resistance of attacks on the part of any adversaries, but also for the promotion of 
their status in the way of education, and thus rising from the ranks of a mere 
trade to that of a profession. The present movement was one which had not originated 
within their day. Movements had come to them from time to time from without, and 
it was in the first place an aggression from a medical body which caused them 
to associate together for the resistance of an encroachment upon their trade rights, in 
the form of a Bill laid before Parliament by Mr. Hawes. They were then induced to 
form the nucleus of what afterwards took the position of the Pharmaceutical Society of 
Great Britain. 
The United Society had sprung up from a similar alarm, which however had proved 
groundless, and_they took credit to themselves for vanquishing an enemy which had no 
real existence. It was to be regretted that such an attempt had been made to destroy the 
morale of the Pharmaceutical Society as a representative institution. Double societies, 
and double examinations, and double bills, were not likely to forward the general pro¬ 
gress of the body. It had been abundantly shown in the past history of medical 
