T1IE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
029 
standing aloof which may have actuated many good men in our trade; the 
Society was then, and is now, but a voluntary one ; the “ cui bono ? ” question 
might not be so easily answered before Pharmaceutical Chemists were declared 
necessary for the Government services, were recognized and consulted by the 
higher medical authorities, and were exempted from jury service ; nevertheless, 
I say, although these men have not shared with us the heat and burden of the 
day, I think, for the sake of bringing all into union, and securing a compulsory 
examination hereafter for dispensers, it would be wise in us to receive them 
liberally. There is the one title granted by Parliament to what I may call the 
founders of the Society, and to those who have passed the Major examination—- 
the title of Pharmaceutical Chemist—that I think should be zealously guarded ; 
it is a “ vested interest,” and as much entitled to respect and reservation as the 
vested interest in the drug trade of those men who may be in business at the 
passing of the Act; but if it be possible to give all men, registered under the 
Chemists and Druggists Act, a voice, and thereby an interest, in the registering 
board, I consider it would be wise and politic to do so. 
I may tell you that on this very morning the Vice-President and myself have 
had an interview with the promoters of the “ Chemists and Druggists Bill, 
No. 2.” It was suggested to us by a most influential member of the Select 
Committee of the House of Commons, who felt that time might be saved by 
such a meeting, and indeed time is now important, for it is generally under¬ 
stood that the present Session of Parliament will be a short one. And, gentle¬ 
men, I may remind you that all, or at least very many of you, may aid 
in forwarding our Bill. You have all representatives in Parliament; call 
on them, make them understand that the Pharmaceutical Society does repre¬ 
sent the chemists and druggists of Great Britain more fully and perfectly 
than any other association. If we were to believe all we hear said on that 
subject, we should be driven to the conclusion that as soon as a man became 
incorporated with us he ceased to be a chemist and druggist, losing all interest 
in matters of trade, and becoming at once a mere votary of science by some 
refiniug process ; that our learned professor perhaps had at last found the 
philosopher’s stone, whereby he could convert the baser metals into gold. 
Gentlemen, we all know that the baser metals are England’s wealth, and 
in like manner the good, sound, practical Pharmaceutical Chemist—chemist 
and druggist if you will—maintaining the credit of his cloth throughout the 
length and breadth of the land, is the type of the class we desire to develope. 
There may be brilliant examples cropping up now and then in our school, men 
who would have had no incentive to progress, no opportunity of rising from the 
common level but for this institution. We are proud of them ; but they are 
exceptions only. I have always thought that the Great Exhibition of 1851 pro¬ 
duced its greatest good not by bringing brilliant genius to the surface, but by 
its more quiet effect of introducing high art into common things, and so im¬ 
proving the taste of the whole population. No one, I think, can have failed to 
mark the change in English manufactures since 1851. And so, on a small scale, 
has the Pharmaceutical Society, by bringing its members into communication, 
and an honourable rivalry with each other, advanced the whole body, but not 
elevated them beyond their proper position. 
Gentlemen, there are no strictly Pharmaceutical subjects for me to bring 
before you this morning, and if there were, I feel that for the moment our atten¬ 
tion is so completely absorbed by what I may call the political affairs of our 
community that other matters would be deemed out of place, and that even 
now perhaps I may have trespassed too much on the time of the meeting which 
would have been better occupied by others. We will therefore, if you please, 
proceed to business, which our Secretary will commence by reading the Report 
of the Council. 
