636 
THE TWENTY-FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF 
Council, it was but right that he should say they had all been present on every occasion 
when their services were required, and they had most efficiently discharged their duties, 
and if the Society was more indebted to some than to others for their attendances, they 
were much indebted to Mr. Edwards and Mr. Mackay, to the latter of whom they were 
indebted for the great reduction that had taken place in the cost of the Journal. In 
fact, they were greatly indebted to the two Mr. Edwards, for the valuable and vigilant 
attention they had paid to the interests of the Society. The mover of the adoption of 
the Report had said that it was very desirable to insert in our Bill certain portions of 
the United Society’s Bill, but there was, as there always had been, great difficulty about 
the matter. Now the question of poisons had never been solved. It had been often 
mooted there, but no one had been able to solve it. Many persons had been poisoned from 
drinking excessively of gin, but to suppose that Government would pass a special enact¬ 
ment with regard to the sale of gin, was absurd. 
Mr. Collins said Mr. Savage had mentioned fourteen meetings of the Council during 
the year. They were only monthly meetings, and he was not aware there were more 
than twelve months in the year. 
Mr. Flux (Solicitor) asked to be permitted to address the meeting. Time, he assured 
them, was very pressing with reference to the Bill before Parliament, and the Council 
were then waiting to hold another meeting in order to decide upon their course the 
following day before the Select Committee. He wished to inform the meeting that he 
could from experience state that the attendances of the Council were fallacious, and 
could not be relied on as a test of the work done. And if they knew, as he did, how 
much time the Council devoted to the affairs of the Society they would be truly 
astonished, and if they were to do as lawyers do, charge for their attendances, the 
Society would have such a bill to pay that they would never be able to meet. He 
wished to bear his testimony to the attendances of those gentlemen of the Council who 
lived at great distances from London. During the past year the claims on the members 
of the Council had been without precedent. He had had to communicate with them on 
numberless occasions, and he did not know an instance in which he could not do so 
when necessary and in which he did not find their time most willingly given. Instance 
the present Bill, Mr. Black, one of the members for Edinburgh, being on the Select 
Committee, he (Mr. Flux) considered it necessary for the support of the Bill that Mr. 
Mackay should appear before the Committee. He telegraphed to him, and at great 
personal inconvenience he was in the House of Commons on Thursday last, he had re¬ 
mained in town ever since, and would again go before the Committee the following day 
at great sacrifice of his business time. Then, again, Dr. Edwards stood in precisely the 
same position. Hecame to town last week, but as his engagements required him to return 
home he did so, and he was again in the committee-room on the following Monday and 
had remained in town ever since. They had now wasted nearly half an hour about 
what had come to be a fallacy after all. He entreated them to stick as closely as they 
could to the business of the day, and allow the Council to adjourn to the Council-room 
and dispose of the important business that must come before them that day. 
Mr. Collins complained that it was irregular for the Solicitor to give them such 
advice. It was not allowed in other societies. 
The President said that Mr. Flux first asked permission to address them. He 
thought it might now be desirable that he should state to them how the Bill stood 
in Parliament. There had been two sittings of the committee. At the first meet¬ 
ing they had to prove that legislation was necessary, and that they did to the perfect 
satisfaction of the committee. On the second occasion, certain medical men were 
called, who proved that the Society’s examinations were efficient. After they have dis¬ 
posed of Bill No. 1, the committee will proceed with Bill No. 2 (the United Society’s 
Bill). On Monday last, a rather important member of the select committee suggested 
that the Council should have a conference with the promoters of the Bill No. 2. The 
Council assented to it, and it took place that morning at half-past nine o’clock ; two 
gentlemen and the secretary of the United Society having come there for the purpose. 
The conference lasted till eleven o’clock, and the end of it was that they proposed as a 
sine, qua non that all Chemists in business should be admitted on the passing of the Act 
to the register of Pharmaceutical Chemists. The other matters were merely arrangements 
of details less liberal than those in No. 1 Bill. The great point made by the deputa¬ 
tion had not been sufficiently considered by the Council, but after that meeting the 
