696 
TWENTY-SIXTH ANNIVERSARY 
The last restriction was ohjectionable, and it was argued that all affected 
by the Bill should have a voice in the governing body ; accordingly the 
further proposition was made that men already in business should be eligible 
for the Council, with the limitation that two-thirds of the Council must 
always be Pharmaceutical Chemists. Under this arrangement it will be seen 
that ultimately, i. e. when men in business prior to the passing of the Act shall 
have passed away, the Council must be composed entirely of Pharmaceutical 
Chemists. This being accepted, and a recognition of the vested rights of 
apprentices being made, a Bill was framed accordingly, and submitted to the 
Government. 
Exception having been taken to the admission of chemists already in busi¬ 
ness to membership without examination, a special meeting has been called 
to assemble thi§ day at two o’clock; and the members generally will then 
have the opportunity of expressing their opinion on the question, whether, for 
the sake of obtaining that for which the Society has so long struggled, a 
legislative enactment compelling all men hereafter to submit to examination 
before entering the business, it is not wise to extend the privilege of election 
to all who belong to the class described in the Charter as the persons who 
shall constitute the Pharmaceutical Society, “ Chemists and Druggists who 
are or have been established in business on their own account.” 
Mr. WiGGiN, Ipswich, proposed the adoption of the Report, and remarked that he did so 
with great pleasure, for he considered it very satisfactory on all points, and that it w^as only 
on the last two or three paragraphs there could be any difference of opinion. The 
financial position of the Society was good, and the meeting would observe they had 
been creeping on slowly and by degrees to their present condition. With regard to 
the Council, they ought to give those gentlemen great credit for straightforward con¬ 
duct, and in considering the question of the Pharmacy Bill, he hoped they would be very 
cautious, and not jump to any hasty conclusion. He had come up from the country 
to support those principles on which the Society was founded. In again alluding to the 
report, he observed that it was most satisfactory, and he moved—“ That the Report 
he received, adopted, and printed in the Journal and Transactions.” 
Mr. Lavers (Blackheath), in seconding the motion, agreed that the Report was a very 
satisfactory and liberal one, and he had no doubt, if the resolutions expressed in it were 
carried out, that the future would be prosperous. 
Mr. Waugh observed, that there was an omission in the Report with regard to the 
position that the Journal occupied. He thought it right for the meeting to know that 
although the Society had not a great many members in Scotland, and that she was not 
very profitable to them, yet he could not overlook the fact that the financial success 
of the Journal was due to a Scotch member, Mr. Mackay. At first that publication 
was very expensive to the Society, but Mr. Mackay, with his natural Scotch shrewdness, 
brought the matter before the Council, and urged upon them the course which was 
subsequently taken, and now, instead of being a loss, it had become a profit. He 
thought it might be gratifying to Mr. Mackay to know that the meeting had taken no¬ 
tice of his exertions. 
Mr. Henry Long said, with regard to the statement in the Report that “ it must be gra¬ 
tifying to see that the predicted downfall of the Society by the dying out of its founders has 
not yet come to pass; that examined men. Pharmaceutical Chemists, join in sufficient 
numbers to keep up the present force, and that the increase of Associates and Apprentices 
is reassuring as to the future,” that he considered the trade never was in a better posi¬ 
tion than it was at the present time. He thought one of the great sayings of the late 
Jacob Bell was, that “if you could get one half of the chemists and druggists to emi¬ 
grate, it would be better for the other half that remained,” He was inclined to think 
that the same result had been brought about by a different mode, viz. the numbers who 
were leaving the trade disgusted with it, and the disinclination on the part of the public 
to recruit it by apprentices ; for he did not think the trade was in general favour as an 
investment, that was, he did not think that parents and guardians had any great desire to 
