BENLVOLENT FUND DINNER. 
was happy to say, was as popular now as it had ever been; and he felt certain that 
whichever party might be in power, the navy would be kept up in a most efficient 
manner, and that if actually required they would be found to fight their country’s 
battles with the same courage and bravery as had distinguished the service in bygone 
years. 
Mr. Williams briefly returned thanks for the Volunteers. 
Song—“Oh, firm as Oak,” by Mr. Farquharson. 
The President said he had now to propose a toast in which the public were greatly 
interested, viz. the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, and with which the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Chemists were in intimate relation. It was the way of the world to feel proud 
in speaking of rich relations, if they had any, but on that occasion their rich relations 
had not been backward in recognizing them. They were happy in having excellent 
testimony borne towards them by the physicians and surgeons as a body as w'ell as indi¬ 
vidually. The relationship existing between prescribers and dispensers, thanks to the 
Pharmaceutical Society, had been greatly improved, and the more they were educated in 
their profession, the less likely were Pharmaceutical Chemists to trespass on the province 
of the surgeon or physician. He should connect with the toast the names of Dr. Quaiu 
and Mr. Ernest Hart. 
Dr. Quain thanked them most sincerely, on behalf of the College of Physicians, for 
the warm and enthusiastic manner in which the toast had been received. He rejoiced 
most sincerely at the close relationship that existed between physicians and Pharma¬ 
ceutical Chemists, for without them the physician would be helpless. He recognized 
most sincerely the expression used by the President, that by increased education Phar¬ 
maceutical Chemists would be the better able to discharge their important functions, 
and be the less likely to trespass on the profession of the physician. There was in 
educated pharmacy abundant employment for talent, and,he hoped abundant materials 
for reward and success in life. He recognized with sincere satisfaction the efforts that 
were being made by the Pharmaceutical Society to advance the education of pharma¬ 
ceutists, and he sincerely trusted that their efforts would be successful, and that they 
would be supported by the Government and Parliament. If any evidence were required 
of the intimate relationship which existed between the physician and the Pharmaceutical 
Chemist, it would be found in the fact that when the Medical Council required assistance 
to frame a new Pharmacopoeia they sought and obtained it from the Pharmaceutical 
body, in the great knowledge possessed by Professor Kedwood and Mr. Warington. lu 
a few days that book would be before them, and he hoped it would be the means of 
saving the body considerable trouble. The book would be found to contain much that 
was new, and he hoped it would bring back many of their old familiar friends, whilst 
the arrangement would greatly facilitate their labour. 
Mr. Ernest Hart acknowledged the honour that had been done him, in associating his 
name with the toast of the College of Surgeons. He had been called on rather unex¬ 
pectedly to do so, but he must say that he highly appreciated both the honour and the 
manner in which the toast had been received by so numerous and highly respectable an as¬ 
semblage. Every branch of the medical profession must sympathize with the efforts which 
the Pharmaceutical Society had made, and acknowledge the great success the Society 
had achieved in improving the pharmacy of the country, and no one was more sensible of 
it than the members of the Eoyal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. 
Eound—“Yes, Brothers, yes!” 
The President said he had now to propose to them what in such meetings was com¬ 
monly called the toast of the evening, and in so doing said that he felt perfectly cer¬ 
tain that any deficiency on his part in proposing wmuld be more than compensated by 
their heartiness in responding. In proposing the toast of the Benevolent Fund of the 
Pharmaceutical Society, he need not remind them that the establishment of such a 
fund was one of the first objects named in their Charter, and that it w-as to be devoted to 
the relief of distressed members and associates, their widows and orphans. The same 
charter also provided that the Pharmaceutical Society might from time to time set apart 
a portion of their general fund for benevolent purposes ; in the early days of the Society 
that was done to the e.xtent of £1500, but of late years they had not been able to do 
so in consequence of having lowered the annual subscriptions, and of the great demands 
upon the Society for the very high objects for which it was originally formed. The fund 
had therefore to rely entirely on the benevolent feeling of the members, and the result 
