334 
LIVERPOOL chemists’ ASSOCIATION. 
The President then proceeded to deliver the Annual Address:— 
Gentlemen,—Your Council have done me the honour to elect me your President for 
the coming year, and in my acceptance of so great a compliment I assure you I am 
prompted more by my zeal for the prosperity of our Association than by any great abi¬ 
lity 1 possess to further that object. By your kind courtesy, some years ago, I occupied 
this chair, and in that interval the Association has worked hard and made great progress. 
If we look back to the days of which I speak, our numbers were few and our self-help 
feeble; and although it may have been alluded to many times before, we may still be 
allowed to acknowledge our grateful recollection of the generous and efficient help that 
was given us by professors and the medical profession in those early years of our career, 
—an aid which is still afforded when needed. But our own members grew with its 
growth, as if determined to take and maintain a leading position among kindred institu¬ 
tions in provincial towns ; and we may now look back upon its success in the members 
it has reared, and the work they have done and are doing, some here and others spread 
over the globe. There is this also to be said, that from the day of the formation of the 
Society to this day, we have had nothing to disturb one unbroken course of harmony, 
peace, and good-fellowship. 
The little help I have rendered to the Liverpool Chemists’ Association has been more 
than amply rewarded by the kind good feeling manifested towards each other by all its 
members. Encouraged by this, I ask for your cordial co-operation for the Session now 
commenced, as we shall need extra efforts if we are to maintain our position, being in 
the position of a school where at the close of a session the more advanced scholars drop 
off and leave their places for fresh comers. 
As respects the attendance at our meetings, we are, I think, as fairly represented here 
as the other learned societies of our town ; but there are many worthy members who 
could render us essential service, and who, I am sure, would derive more than satisfac¬ 
tion from more frequent attendance with us. Some, I know, are not able ; but for them 
we have, by the accumulation of years, collected in this building a library of 500 or GOO 
volumes, in the selection of which the invariable rule has been to purchase such books 
as were not likely to be possessed by individual members, a revised list of which is 
yearly published with the annual report. This year I hope the library will prove both 
a source of interest to the members, and also a great benefit to the Society, by inducing 
the young members especially to study, so that at our miscellaneous meetings they may 
be encouraged to give practical proof of the benefit v/hich they have derived. I hope 
that these miscellaneous meetings will form a prominent feature in the business of the 
session, on account of the practical suggestions brought forward at them, and the op¬ 
portunity which they afford to those members who may not have confidence enough to 
read a paper. 
New efforts are being made to bring the laboratory classes to a greater state of effi¬ 
ciency, under the personal superintendence of our newly-appointed teacher of pharmacy, 
Mr. Edward Davies, E.C.S. This is one of the special advantages which Liverpool 
offers to those who are to become the pharmaceutical chemists of the future ; and in so 
far as young men avail themselves of present advantages, by so much will they forestall 
both time and expense in meeting the demands which will be made upon them by the 
Pharmaceutical Society, and more especially by the public in general. That public is 
not now satisfied with what it once was, nor will it rest its requirements on the present 
basis; it knows no rest, nor will it give you any, therefore the intelligent and the 
qualified only will have its confidence. It is, however, not enough to become proficients 
in the science of your business; and I use the v/ord business advisedly, somewhat in 
contradistinction to those who constantly call it a profession; you are tradesmen too. 
You may meet with the man of science profoundly learned in the department which he 
has cultivated, and you may more readily find the complete man of business, but a good 
compound of the two is rare. They do sometimes present themselves; the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society has produced them, the Liverpool Chemists’ Association has produced 
them, and so have the societies in other towns. Make them your standard; not content 
with science alone, nor business alone, but seeking a happy union of both. 
Before I close, let me say a few words to you who are principals, upon the subject of 
apprentices. This is a matter which has been brought before you previously, and you 
who most need assistance know most also of the condition into which you are drifting. 
It has grown too much the fashion to ignore the taking of apprentices, and, like other 
