THE rHAllMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
VOL. VIIL—No. XL—MAY, 1867. 
THE ADMISSION OF MEMBERS TO THE PHARMACEUTICAL 
SOCIETY. 
A jjreat question seems to be agitating tUe Society just now as to tHe de¬ 
sirability of conceding the privilege of membership to other than Pharma¬ 
ceutical Chemists under the proposed extension of the Pharmacy Act. 
The proposition is treated by some as entirely new, and the Council are 
charged with having exceeded the power entrusted to them by their consti¬ 
tuents in framing a Bill under which men on the register of “ Chemists and 
Druggists ” may be elected members of the Society ; it is said that a meet¬ 
ing of the whole body should have been convened to express an opinion on 
the subject. On the power of the Council it is but necessary to refer to 
the special meeting held in 1864, and perhaps to incidental mention of the 
matter in the annual meetings which have been held since that time. Not 
only was full power to act given, but the greatest liberality to outsiders 
was enjoined. Correspondents of this Journal have complained that the 
Council fell short in their offer in 1865, and that the great benefit which 
would arise from a union of all members of the trade, and the institution of 
a compulsory examination for all men who should hereafter enter it, w^ouldbe 
a full equivalent for greater concessions ; some have even argued that there 
should be no distinction between present Pharmaceutical Chemists and the 
outsiders. The Council, as trustees, have had no easy task to perform, and 
according to present appearances their difficulties are not yet over. 
A requisition has been sent to the Council to call a special general meeting, 
and a day has been fixed accordingly for the discussion of the provisions of 
the Bill. 
The two letters which appeared in our last number, the one from a “ Major 
Associate,” and the other signed “ John Mills,” may be taken as a statement 
of the grievance. 
They both start with a false assumption ; namely that “ memhership is the 
highest degreegrantedhy the Pharmaceutical Society.” They might quite as 
reasonably assert that when a Fellow of the College of Surgeons is elected to 
the Council of that body he takes a new and higher degree in his profession. 
By the Charter, the Pharmaceutical Society consists of three sorts of per¬ 
sons, “ Ji'femhers shall he Chemists and Druggists loho are or have been esta- 
hlished on their own account “ A.ssociates shall he Assistants to Chemists and 
DruaqistsApprentices.” For want of any better mark of distinc- 
VOL. VIII. 2 T 
