CONFERENCE OF CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS. ■ 501 
the Pharmaceutical Society. He proceeded to read those suggestions, and also the 
first resolution passed at the Loudon Coffee House. 
IMr. Salter read the third resolution, as follows :—“ That as it regards the fourth 
clause, which runs thus:— 
‘ That all persons registered as chemists and druggists should be eligible for elec- 
tiou to membership to the Pharmaceutical Society, under the bye-laws thereof; but 
they should not by virtue of that membership be entitled to registration as ‘ Phar¬ 
maceutical Chemists,’ that title being strictly kept for those only who pass the 
major examination. They should have the right of nominating and voting for 
members of the Council, but the Council should consist only of members who are 
Pharmaceutical Chemists.’ 
This meeting concurs in the desirability of limiting the title of ‘ Pharmaceutical Che¬ 
mists’ to those who may pass their major examination; but it is decidedly opposed to 
registered chemists and druggists being subjected to election by the Pharmaceutical 
Council as a condition for the exercise of their right to vote upon the election of the 
members of that Council; and it is equally and decidedly opposed to the Council of so 
large a body as the chemists and druggists will be under an Act of general incorpo¬ 
ration being limited to those who are now, or may be hereafter. Pharmaceutical Che¬ 
mists.” 
Mr. Pass said he would make only this one remark: he was sorry to call up any 
unpleasant feelings, but the Council must recollect that there would be a time when 
the founders of this Society, and the gentlemen who were members of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society by virtue merely of registration or their fees, having died out, the area 
of selection for the Pharmaceutical Society would be confined entirely to gentlemen 
who had passed their examination. He was not going to lay down as an axiom that 
science and business aptitude were not always found together, but he did not think 
that in conducting a business society they would go to scientific bodies to select their 
counsellors. Men who had proved themselves business men were, as a rule, far better 
counsellors than scientific men. 
Mr. Mercer, referring to the Bye-laws of the Pharmaceutical Society, objected to 
the use of the wmrd “ eligible,” as applied to members of the trade seeking to become 
members of the Society. Speaking the sentiments of, he believed, every chemist and 
druggist in the country, he asked that the word should be erased, and in its place there 
should be substituted these words—“ that all registered chemists and druggists should 
be members of the Pharmaceutical Society.” 
The President (Mr. Sandfordj said that the resolution just read embraced two ques¬ 
tions, and it would be more convenient to consider them separately. The first was the 
election of members of the Society; the second, the constitution of the Council. Pro¬ 
ceeding to the first he remarked—When we say a man is eligible under Act of Parlia¬ 
ment, we mean that he has a right to become a member, unless we can show very good 
cause why he should not be one. All registered chemists and druggists would be eligible, 
and, being so, would have a right to be elected members of this Society. There was no¬ 
thing objectionable ’ in the word. He remembered when, two years ago, something was 
said about eligibility, their solicitor said, “ Oh, you must consider that word in a very 
different sense. If a man is eligible under Act of Parliament, you have the privilege of 
electing him, but not only the privilege, for it is your duty ; you are bound to elect him. 
You are bound to elect all men who so present themselves. You are bound to proceed ac¬ 
cording to the spirit of the Act.” That is what eligible means, and election does not de¬ 
pend upon mere will or caprice. A man in business at the time of the passing of any pro¬ 
posed Bill, or connected afterwards with the trade as an examined man under the second 
examination, would have a right to admission to membership of this Society. He 
believed the Council of the Society would only be too glad to receive such a man as a 
member. They wanted to increase the number of members, not lessen them. It was 
absurd to suppose they wanted to keep the Society as a sort of club. It never was so. 
He believed that on one occasion a man previously convicted of felony had been refused 
admission, but he supposed the deputation did not want such men as that. There must 
be an election of some kind, and the question was, how was the election to be conducted ? 
A man could not elect himself, and it would be very expensive and troublesome for him 
to have to go all over England and Scotland to canvass the votes of every member of the 
Society. Then, it must be remembered that every member had a voice in the election of 
