THE PHARMACY BILL. 
477 
carried into effect. The Pharmaceutical Society might possibly have done more 
than has been done, but it should be remembered that it has had to encounter 
much (at least passive) opposition and indifference from the trade generally, 
and lias in too many instances received only a half-hearted support from many 
of its own members. Nevertheless, it has gained such a position and so much 
influence, that connection with it is becoming every day more sought after, and 
the title of Pharmaceutical Chemist is beginning to be looked upon as an indi¬ 
cation that the person using it has passed an examination to enable him to do 
so, or, at least, that he has had several years’ practical experience in the business. 
Were an Act to be passed admitting all in the trade to be members,—and all 
must, if any —there could be no exceptions,—the ground already gained would 
be entirely lost; the non-pharmaceutist would not be elevated to the position 
of the pharmaceutist, but the latter would be dragged down to the level of the 
lowest class in the trade, and the man who has passed the most stringent ex¬ 
amination would have nothing to distinguish him in the eye of the public from 
the most ignorant shopkeeper who has put a blue bottle into his window and 
calls himself druggist. Would such a result be desirable, or would it be just ? 
It is true that many of the members are only so by “ paying for the privilege,” 
but their number is annually diminishing, and the majority of them are at least 
equal in position and attainments to non-members of the same standing ; be¬ 
sides, it should be remembered that they are the men who founded the Society 
and for many years were its principal supporters, and that when the Society 
was established there could only be one course adopted, viz. to admit as mem¬ 
bers all who w 7 ere fn the trade and chose to offer themselves,—just as the United 
Society does now. 
It is much to be regretted that any of our examined members should approve 
of or sanction the sneering language used by other parties in speaking of our 
older and non-examined members, seeing that had it not been for them the 
Society would never have been formed, or at least continued, and that without 
their money, which is made a reproach to them, the examinations could not 
have been brought into practical effect. I would rather say, give all honour to 
those men who for twenty years and more, without any prospect of advantage 
to themselves, have furnished the means and appliances whereby w r e have been 
enabled to prosecute the studies necessary to pass our respective examinations ; 
they surely are entitled to our respect, and have earned a right to any privilege 
the Pharmaceutical Chemists may possess, and ought never to be spoken of with 
the scorn and contempt too often used. 
I think it was quite right, and good policy, for a limited period after the 
passing of the Pharmacy Act, 1852, to admit those who were then in business, 
without requiring them to pass an examination ; because in those early days 
many had scarcely heard of the Society, or at any rate had had no opportunity 
of joining it before examination w r as made the condition of admission, but they 
certainly did not expect that it was to confer any great privilege, and numbers 
of them dropped off after two or three years, when they found that there w r as 
“ nothing to be got by it.” But the case is very different now, the Society has 
gained a position of such influence as to make it an advantage to be connected 
with it; and these people all want to be Pharmaceutical Chemists. 
I cannot see that the non-members have any right to complain, or any reason 
to feel aggrieved, because the Society does not propose to admit them as mem¬ 
bers, seeing that when membership w r as of comparatively little advantage and 
brought no privilege, they despised and rejected it, and refused either to contri¬ 
bute to its support or add to its influence by joining it, and I cannot admit the 
justice of their claim to be admitted, as one may say, “ duty free ” now, when 
membership brings some privilege and influence. 
I have no wish to disparage the non-members nor to underrate their influence,- 
VOL. VI. 2 M 
