LEEDS chemists’ ASSOCIATION. 
41 * 
requirements ; that a stranger will invade his dwelling (for the public good), 
and carry off the contents of his dust-bin by authority ; nay, more, that he can¬ 
not even keep a pig within several miles of St. Paul’s without transgressing 
an Act of Parliament. Knowing these things, how can we possibly assent to 
the suxoposition that compelling dispensers of medicine to be qualified for 
their important duty would be reversing “ the whole course of modern En¬ 
glish legislation ?” 
Before closing this letter, I desire to say two or three words in reference 
to the labours of the Committee of the House of Commons on the Chemists 
and Druggists Bills of 1865. I would call your attention xiarticularly to 
these facts, viz. that the Committee examined Dr. A. S. Taylor, Mr. Simon, 
Dr. Quain, Dr. Wilson, and Mr. Mackay; that these gentlemen all agreed in 
recommending compulsory examination, and were favourable to Bill JSFo. 1 ; 
that the Committee declined to examine the President or any other member 
of the Pharmaceutical Society (Mr. Mackay, of Edinburgh, exceT)ted); that 
they did not examine a single promoter of Bill No. 2 ; that the report sub¬ 
mitted to the House of Commons was in great part flatly opposed to the 
testimony and recommendation of every witness. Nevertheless, if Mr. Ayrton, 
or any other honourable Member who served on the Committee, through 
some blundering druggist have croton oil put into his pills instead of pepper¬ 
mint, I venture to predict that as he rises at midnight from the stool of re¬ 
pentance he will renounce, thenceforth and for ever, his faith in the all- 
sufiiciency of the x^rinciple of caveat emptor. Finally, to use a phrase common 
enough to most of us, I believe the case for legislation in reference to pharmacy 
is as nearly on all-fours with the case for the Apothecaries Act in 1815 as it is 
in the nature of things to be,^nd I declare my firm belief that the measure of 
1815 was one of the wisest and most beneficent enactments of the present 
century. 
I have the honour to be. Gentlemen, 
A^our obedient servant, 
B. B. Oeeidge. 
London^ January 5^/q 1867. 
APPENDIX I. 
The following are among the ^Detitionei’s 
Council (Number One) ;— 
Adams, John, F.E.C.S., Surg. to the 
London Hosp. 
Adams, William,E.K.C.S., Pres. Ilarveian 
8oc., and Surg. to the Great Northern 
Hosj). and Orthox) 0 edic Hosp. 
Allison, Scott, M.D., Pliys. to the Con¬ 
sumption Hosj)., Brompton. 
Andrew, James, M.D., Assist.-Phys. to 
St. Bartholomew’s Hosp. 
Anstie, Francis E., M.D., Senior Assist.- 
Phys., Westminster Hos^). 
Aruott, J. Moncrieff, F.E.C.S., F.E.S., 
Surg. Extraordinary to H.M. the 
Queen. 
Ashton, Thomas J., M.E.C.S., Maryle- 
bone Infirmary. 
VOL. VIII. 
in favour of the BiU of the Pharmaceutical 
Baker, William M., M.E.C.S., Surg.- 
Tutor, St. Bartholomew’s Hosp. 
Barclay, A. W., M.D., Phys. to St. 
George’s Hosp. 
Barker,T. A., M.D., Phys. to St. Thomas’s 
Hosj). 
Barnes, Eobert, M.D., Phys. to the 
London IIos^). 
Basham, William E,, M.D., Phys. to the 
Westminster Hosj). 
Bennett, James Eisdon, M.D., Phys. to 
St. Thomas’s PIosp. 
Bentley, Eobert, M.E.C.S., F.L.S.,'Dean 
of the Medical Faculty in King’s Coll. 
Bernays, Albert, Lecturer at St. Thomas’s 
Hosp. 
2 G 
