THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
YOL. Vlir.— No. XII.—JUNE, 1867. 
PHAEMACEUTICAL LEGISLATION. 
The difficulty which stood in the way of the new Pharmacy Bill a month ago 
has been removed, and we hope no further objections will be found among those 
who, if it pass into law, will be affected by it. 
It was no easy matter for the framers of this Bill to produce a measure which 
should be satisfactory alike to all parties, and the mere mention of the conces¬ 
sion of certain privileges set those who were in possession, as well as those who 
were not, to consider their value. An abstract consideration of this kind would 
naturally increase the divergence between the two classes, making one more 
anxious to obtain, the other less willing to give, and we cannot therefore be alto¬ 
gether surprised at the protest raised against the 19th clause of the proposed 
Act. We gladly hail it too, as acknowledgment of the value of the Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Society ; and it may be construed inferentially as a testimony to the wis¬ 
dom and good faith with which the Council have hitherto performed their duty. 
But an abstract consideration was not all that was required on this occasion. 
Added to the question of “ What are my privileges f it should be asked, “ Abr 
u'hat purpose was the Society^ from which I receive them^ estahlished, and how can 
that purpose he best accomplished f ’ Now, to those who conduct the affairs of the 
Society this latter question must always be present, and an answer drawn from 
their failure to pass a Bill in 1865, fully accounts for the undoubted liberality 
with which they propose now to deal with “ outsiders.” 
Foremost in the recorded aspirations of the founders stands the desire to ad¬ 
vance Chemistry and Pharmacy, by the education of those who should practise 
the same, and chief among the means of accomplishing that end, the union of all 
Chemists and Druggists in one Society. Various circumstances, chiefly per¬ 
haps the want of an appreciation on the part of the public of the necessity for 
such a measure, prevented Jacob Bell from obtaining compulsory powers in his 
Act of 1852, and the Society has had to work long enough on the voluntary 
principle to establish such a position as makes its membership valuable. In 
doing this, it has brought the profession of Pharmacy more prominently before 
the public than it ever was before ; it has sent educated Pharmaceutists into all 
parts of Great Britain to teach their neighbours that it is important that dan¬ 
gerous medicines should be compounded only by careful hands, and At has 
thereby paved the way for an enforcement of its original claims. The advance 
in general education has done much to assist in this matter. Patients now know 
more of the nature of medicines than they did formerly ; science, in isolating the 
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