704 
TWENTY-SIXTH AXNIVEESAEY 
Jacob Bell, was about to be realized, when, behold! outside opponents having been 
silenced, an enemy rises within the camp, and the present meeting was called to destroy 
the Bill. He believed the whole antagonistic feeling arose from an error in judg¬ 
ment. Gentlemen who had passed their examination seemed to think that all their 
money and time had been expended in purchasing an empty title. He most emphati¬ 
cally denied such an assumption, and asked whether there was a single gentleman present 
who had so small an opinion of his own individual influence in society as to imagine 
that, if his next-door neighbour were to put up, in letters a foot deep, “ Member of the 
Pharmaceutical Society,” that, as a natural consequence, all his customers w'ould forth¬ 
with desert Ms establishment to flock his neighbour’s door ? He felt bound to confess 
the absence of all such fear in his own mind. Members present said it was the honour 
of the Society of which they were jealous. He (Mr. Vizer) was sorry to differ from that 
opinion, and, although unable to read the “ inner man,” was still of the opinion that it 
w'as the and not the Society’s welfare, at the bottom of the present agitation. He 
trusted members would, in considering the question, look more to the future than to to¬ 
day. Those gentlemen who originated the Society, and spent their time and money in 
its promotion, derived no personal advantage, but we were now reaping the fruit of 
their labours; so to-day members might not personally receive benefit, but future gene¬ 
rations would, and rejoice over what we were now engaged in advancing. While sup¬ 
porting the Bill, he made an exception to the latter part of the 19th clause, by which 
assistants and apprentices were to be admitted to equal privileges with persons already 
in business. He considered this a step too far, involving an almost unlimited period 
before the Act would bear the smallest fruit. He felt satisfied the Council would 
be willing to concede this point, restricting the privileges of that clause to per¬ 
sons actually engaged in business at the time of the Act passing, and the interests of 
assistants and apprentices being provided for in some other way. Mr. Vizer concluded 
by appealing to the liberal feelings of members in support of the amendment moved by 
Mr. Collins, by which the “ keystone ” to the arch, whose foundation had been firmly 
laid by the ever-honoured Jacob Bell, should be at once and for ever fixed, and the entire 
trade united into one common brotherhood. 
Mr. G. H. Weight, in allusion to a remark from Mr. Abraham, of Liverpool (that he 
knew a druggist who sold cleaning-stones, and hoped the Society was not going to ad¬ 
mit such men), drew attention to the fact of country druggists being compelled to sell 
articles not kept by London druggists, and quoted a case of an examined member of the 
Society, in a country place, selling silver-sand, which did not, in Mr. Wright’s opinion, 
at all detract from the said druggist’s fitness to dispense prescriptions. He hoped they 
would not judge a man’s intellect by what he sold. 
Mr. Hbnky Long supported the amendment, for whenever an Act was passed, the 
principle of vested interest must be respected, and the deferring legislation, which was 
what was most to be desired, would only increase the evil by increasing the numbers to 
be admitted. He advocated a little liberality. 
Mr. Pedler said he thought the question a very serious one, and it would, in his 
opinion, be folly to ask for a Bill in a divided state. He pointed out to the meeting the 
great difficulty there was in obtaining a Bill, and again urged the necessity of a cairn 
consideration of the question before them. He was inclined towards Mr. Abraham’s 
views, and he asked the meeting not to be too hasty in deciding against those views. 
Mr. Mumbray (Richmond) said he thought it very unfair to the Pharmaceutical 
Chemists to allow the outsiders to come in without having to go through any of the exa¬ 
minations, etc. It was all very well to say that there was a vast difference between the 
terms “Pharmaceutical Chemist” and “Member of the Pharmaceutical Society,” but if 
these men were let in, what was there to prevent them from placing over their shops 
“ Pharmaceutical Chemist” ? and suppose they placed over them “ Member of the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society,” the public would not understand the difference. 
Mr. Edwards (Hartford) said, apart from all personal considerations, the meeting could 
not exaggerate the importance of the conclusion that was to be come to that day. He 
could ask them to concede something, because he had to concede something in consenting 
to the Bill. It was not exactly the Bill he wanted, but he thought it would be wise on 
their parts to abandon all opposition. He thought the meeting were forgetting that the 
Society was not to continue the same as it was,—it was to be a new Society, which would 
affect every one in the kingdom. It had up to the present been open to any one to say 
