TIIE TWO SOCIETIES. 
503 
-could be induced to subscribe for the objects stated. Not only Chemists, 
but their shopmen and apprentices were actively canvassed all over the coun¬ 
try, and besides those in any way employed in the drug trade, tradesmen 
employed by druggists, but not themselves connected with the trade, were 
often induced to give something to the concern and forthwith were dubbed 
Members. In the second year’s report, after much touting through the 
country, the amount reported to have been received in subscriptions, dona¬ 
tions , and members' fees, was altogether £430. 17s. 10 d. This was the 
amount received in 1862, and reported at the annual meeting held in 1SG3. 
A large proportion of this was paid to the Benevolent Fund, and the greater 
part of it, as far as one can judge from a very obscure statement of ac¬ 
counts, was subscribed for that special object, and much of it either by 
wholesale Druggists, or by persons having no claim to the title of Chemist 
.and Druggist,—such as Western Wood, Esq., M.P.; William Edwards, Esq.. 
St. Paul’s Churchyard, dealer in patent medicines; Francis Newbery and 
Sons, dealers in patent medicines ; Thomas Holloway, Esq., Temple Bar, 
quack doctor ; Beaufoy and Co., vinegar makers ; Bowerbank and Sons, dis¬ 
tillers ; Crosse and Blackwell, Italian warehousemen, etc. If we take half 
the sum announced as representing the subscriptions of members or members’ 
fees, we shall still have about the same number of eight or nine hundred as 
the outside of the numerical strength of the Society, made up of all sorts of 
persons. The last B-eport was presented in 1864, and it represents the “ sub¬ 
scriptions, donations, and members' fees,—town and country," to have been 
£447. 14^. 2 d. In this case again we are left in doubt, as before, as to how 
much consisted of subscriptions and how much of donations. If we were to 
deduct from it all that is specially reported as donations, there would be very 
little left for subscriptions. It is quite obvious that it was not all subscrip¬ 
tions, and most probably much less than half of it was such, so that we are 
still left with about the same, or at any rate not a larger number of subscribing 
members, if we calculate them from this datum. The real fact of the matter is, 
that although the agents of the Society have been most active in hunting over 
the country for recruits, enlisting them on any terms, the only condition to 
membership being a payment of 5s., with the prospect of relief from the 
Benevolent Fund held out as an inducement to subscribe or give some small 
donation, yet the largest amount collected in any year has been considerably 
under £500. If, as the representatives of the Society say, they are a more 
numerous and influential body than the Pharmaceutical Society, let us know 
who and what they are P What are their principles, and how have they jus¬ 
tified them? What are the conditions of membership, and how far have 
these conditions been fulfilled ? 
The Society have an office and a paid agent, who is most active in his voca¬ 
tion, and is very badly paid out of the two or three hundred a year he is able 
to collect in subscriptions ; they have also a list of names which they are very 
fond of talking about, but do not like to show, and beyond this they have 
absolutely nothing to refer to, either in work done or preparation for work 
to be done. Even their tardy recognition of the importance of making pro¬ 
fessional qualification the basis of pharmaceutical legislation was not spon¬ 
taneous, but was adopted from expediency, as will be seen from the following 
resolutions passed by the Manchester Committee in October, 1862 :— 
1. “ This Meeting regrets that the praiseworthy exertions made by the 
Executive Committee of the United Society of Chemists and Druggists, to 
get the clause exempting members of the trade from serving on juries, were 
not crowned with success.” 
2. “ That in the opinion of this Committee, the principal cause of failure 
arose from the difficulty of defining, to the satisfaction of Her Majesty’s 
Government, the qualifications of a Chemist and Druggist.” 
