OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
691 
luce at Nottingham. Some of you had the pleasure of hearing it, but all, at 
least, have had the opportunity of reading it, and must confess that while Mr. 
Ince elevates the science he no less endeavours to improve the man. A careful 
study of that paper, gentlemen, would make such pharmaceutists as we should 
be proud to welcome to membership of this Society. 
My term of office has been long enough to embrace the rise and fall of a 
Pharmacopoeia. I remember that on the first occasion of addressing you from 
this chair, I mentioned the issue of the Pharmacopoeia of 1864, and perhaps I 
congratulated the Society on the fact that we had been invited to assist in the 
compilation of that work. It was a book from which great hopes were enter¬ 
tained ; practical men had been employed on it, and the medicinal preparations 
^f London, Edinburgh, and Dublin were assimilated. All seemed to promise 
well, and its almost universal condemnation has been a cause of great disap¬ 
pointment ; doubtless there was reason for adverse criticism, but I cannot help 
thinking that so much general prejudice was excited against it in the beginning, 
that that Pharmacopoeia has never had a fair trial. Of this fact I can speak 
with great certainty, namely, that pharmaceutists have been placed in a most 
uncomfortable predicament, not knowing whether prescribers wished their medi¬ 
cines to be compounded according to P. L. or P. B. The law bade us use the 
latter,—a kind of common understanding kept us to the former. I think, gen¬ 
tlemen, we should now do our best to establish the forms which have been pub¬ 
lished in the present month by the Medical Council; and when I say that, I 
would not presume to dictate to prescribers, but I know practically that when 
a prescription is handed to a dispenser, which has already been made up else¬ 
where, one of his first considerations is, “ Which Pharmacopoeia is used by Mr. 
So-and-so?” Both may be justifiable, but he is naturally anxious that there 
should be no variation even in the flavour of a mixture to shake his customer’s 
confidence either in him or his neighbour. Should it not therefore be a rule 
with us, unless any instruction to the contrary appear on the prescription, 
loyally and faithfully to adopt the new order ? 
Gentlemen, you will bear with me, I know, at the end of my unusually long 
terra of office, if I congratulate myself—and I congratulate you no less—on one 
most agreeable circumstance which has occurred recently,—I mean our dinner 
in aid of the Benevolent Fund. You will recollect that when our good old friend 
Thomas Herring was with us at these annual gatherings, he never failed to pro¬ 
pose a dinner. When he was taken from us, another good friend took up the 
cause,—need I mention Mr. Orridge ?—he urged us to spend our money not only 
for the good that it would do to the recipients, but for the increase that it 
would bring to our income, to enlist the sympathy of those who could give, as 
well as relieve the wants of those who needed. I would not have you suppose 
that the Council had ever been backward in granting relief from this fund ; on 
the contrary, every worthy applicant had been assisted, but Mr. Orridge was 
anxious to commence granting annuities. Gentlemen, he was quite right, and 
I cannot help thus publicly thanking him, and thanking you too, who so nobly 
responded to the call in February last. 
You cannot tell with what misgiving I took my place at the head of your 
table on that evening, or with what thankfulness I left it when assured by the 
happy faces around me and the noble contribution made to the Benevolent 
Fund, that my inability as a Chairman had not been allowed to mar the object 
of our meeting. 
The Secretary will now read the Report. 
The Financial Statement having been previously published, it was resolved— 
“ That the Financial Statement be taken as read.” 
