59G 
PHARMACEUTICAL LEGISLATION. 
of the members knew nothing of the practice of chemistry, and they knew less of the 
first principles of chemistry, but still they were styled Chemists and Druggists, and 
they put up their names as such over their shop-doors. To obviate such an unhappy 
state of things the Pharmaceutical Society was instituted, and the object of this Society 
was to elevate the character, and to educate a better class of men for the business of 
Chemists. The Pharmaceutical Society has done that, and it deserves well of the coun¬ 
try. The honourable Member who opposes this Bill, I mean the honourable baronet, 
the Member for Westminster, who has introduced another Bill under the same title, 
says that the Pharmaceutical Society is not now in such a prosperous state as it formerly 
was, inasmuch as the members once numbered over 4000, and that now they have 
dwindled down to about 2300. 
Sir J. Shelley.— Yes, from over 4000. 
Dr. Beady.— Now, when the Pharmaceutical Society was first established, when it 
first came under the protection of the law, many highly respectable gentlemen who 
were Chemists and Druggists joined the Society ; but as years have passed away, those 
gentlemen who had given their assistance in instituting the Society have gradually 
ceased to be members, and now the Pharmaceutical Society is composed of a body of 
men whose knowledge of chemistry will enable them to compete with any other similar 
body in the world. (Hear, hear.) I think that a Society composed of 2300 such mem¬ 
bers is a glorious array. But what is the United Society of Chemists and Druggists ? 
Why, it is composed of all sorts of men, from Harper Twelvetrees down to certain 
ladies, and it also comprises clerks and apprentices ; and all persons who sell drugs, and 
even mere boys, are members of that Society. Men of education and standing in the 
profession do not belong to it; they are not among the members who compose the 
United Society. The late lamented Member for the City of London (Mr. Western 
Wood) was a member of this United Society, but he was not a Chemist and Druggist, 
and the same may be said of many others—they have been solicited to allow their names 
to appear, and they have accordingly become members of the Society. If one went 
through the list of names he would find many names 'of persons who are in no way 
connected with the drug trade, and if all these were deducted from the calculations of the 
honourable baronet, he would find the United Society dwindle down to almost nothing. 
I think the Bill of the honourable and learned gentleman will give security to the 
public ; that is the great feature of the Bill, and I think it will have the effect of ele¬ 
vating the Chemists and Druggists, and the dispensers of medicines throughout this 
country; it will have an effect upon the different branches of the medical profession. 
To say that a man should be allowed to keep open shop for the sale of drugs, and not 
to know a sentence of the Latin language, and not to know whence drugs came, and 
not to know how to dispense medicines, and if decomposition followed, not to know 
how that arose, is monstrous. All this appears to me to be a warning that something 
should be done, and that persons so deeply ignorant should not be allowed to mix medi¬ 
cines without a previous examination. This country is in fact far behind Ireland, for 
m Ireland there has for many years been a magnificent Society, and no man is per¬ 
mitted in Ireland to dispense medicines or medical prescriptions unless he has previously 
undergone a most searching examination, (hear, hear,) and that examination provides 
for the safety of the people of Ireland. That Society has educated and elevated a great 
many persons in Ireland who now follow the business of Chemists and Druggists, but 
the existence of such a society in Ireland is far less necessary in proportion to the popu¬ 
lation than it is in this country. (Hear, hear.) Believing that a Bill of the kind intro¬ 
duced by the honourable and learned Member for Suffolk is absolutely necessary, I shall 
give it my entire support. I may at the same time observe that the complicated Bill 
which has been introduced by the honourable baronet, the Member for Westminster, 
could never be carried into operation in its present shape. It is a Bill which professes 
to be one for registration, and it also professes to be one for the regulation of the sale of 
poisons and medicines of that nature, combined with regulations for the sale of drugs 
generally; but it should be remembered that the United Society is essentially a trading 
body, while, on the other hand, the Pharmaceutical Society is not a trading body. (Hear, 
hear.) The United Society is, I say, a trading body, and they want to get into their 
hands the power of allowing the sale of drugs, and of managing those who carry on the 
trade,—a monopoly which this House will not sanction, but which, if they did sanction, 
would be highly detrimental to the interests of the public. If the honourable baronet 
