THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
631 
The Council have again the satisfaction of commencing their aunual report 
with a favourable financial statement,—a statement which gives ample evidence 
of a healthy vigour in the Pharmaceutical Society, and the estimation in which 
it is held by the trade it represents. On examination it will be seen, that 
whereas, in 1863, the subscriptions and fees amounted to £2715. Is., they were 
in 1864 £3167. 17s., being an actual increase of £452. 16s., or rather more 
than 14‘per cent. Yv r hen it is further noticed that the improvement occurs 
principally in the fees received by the registrar, the satisfaction is increased, 
because it is thereby proved that the one great object of the institution is steadily 
progressing. The advance in the lecture and laboratory fees, although small, 
tends also to demonstrate that the desire for education spreads among those 
who are hereafter to uphold the honour of Pharmacy in Great Britain : that 
they will also exert themselves in supporting the Society which has opened for 
them the road to distinction may be fairly inferred by the greater desire mani¬ 
fested by assistants and apprentices under the Pharmacy Act to connect them¬ 
selves with the Society. In 1863 there were 93 subscribing associates and 66 
apprentices; in 1864, 104 associates and 113 apprentices. 
The attendance at the morning lectures delivered by the professors has been 
somewhat better than in preceding sessions, and the number of students in the 
laboratory, as well as lecture-room, is larger; the financial statement dealing 
with the receipts and disbursements of a year, beginning and ending in the 
middle of a session, does not show exactly the present condition of the school, 
and the Council have much pleasure in stating that the attendance for 1864-65, 
is better than that of 1863-64, although still below the standard hoped for when 
such extensive alterations were made in the laboratories. A much larger class 
might be accommodated, but it cannot be doubted that apprentices now enjoy 
greater opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of the science of Pharmacy in 
the ordinary routine of their business than were afforded formerly; and those 
who are diligent in the use ‘of those opportunities never appear here until they 
come for examination. This school was established to supply a great want, 
and it is satisfactory to find that want less urgent now than it was twenty 
years ago ; its diminution may be in a great measure ascribed to the influence 
of the Pharmaceutical Society, which first drew attention to the unsatisfactory 
condition of Pharmacy in Great Britain, and has since acted as a constant 
stimulus to improvement. That this is not a merely imaginative inference, 
but one drawn from the statistics of the Board of Examiners, is shown by the 
following figures :— 
Candidates for Major Had not Had not 
and Minor Exams, attended Lectures, attended Laboratory. 
1862 .... 75 .... 32 ... . 49 
1863 .... 100 .... 59 ... . 84 
1864 .... 152 .... 89 .... 123 
Now, taking into consideration that the Pharmaceutical Society was instituted 
to advance the qualification of dispensers in the aggregate, rather than indi¬ 
vidually, the demand for examination must be taken as better evidence of 
success than the extent of the school. Still the Council would not for a moment 
relax their efforts to maintain the School of Pharmacy in the highest state of 
efficiency, deeming the outlay of the Society’s money thus incurred a most ju¬ 
dicious expenditure. They trust Pharmaceutical Chemists generally will aid 
them by insisting on a good preliminary education in apprentices. 
In the Report of 1864 it was stated that no applicant had ever appeared for the 
u Senior” Bell Scholarship, and the Council had consequently resolved to grant 
two “ Juniors,” rather than allow half the benefit of the endowment to lie dor¬ 
mant in any one year. At the commencement of the present session a claim 
was put in for the Senior, and so well sustained in the examination by Mr. 
