706 
TWENTY-SIXTH ANNIVERSARY 
curred with the expressions it contained, hut feared there were difficulties in its being 
carried out by the Council. He would not have troubled the meeting with any obser¬ 
vations, had not some invidious remarks been made as to the necessity of calling the 
present meeting; as one of those who had been instrumental in memorializing the 
Council to do so, he took entire exception to such opinions, and if the present large 
and influential gathering was not to be ignored, it completely answered such insinua¬ 
tions. The Council would be strengthened by the discussion of that day, and whatever 
the result of their deliberations, he trusted the minority would yield to the views of the 
majority, and strenuously support the Executive in their arduous task. It always gave 
him great pleasure to hear the clear and eloquent remarks of Mr. Edwards, but he could 
not help calling to his notice the observations he made three years ago ; he was then the 
champion of the Society, and, in a most brilliant speech, enunciated the views of the 
Council. Now, alas, with the Council, he had changed, and gave expression to opinions 
which were diametrically opposite. In conclusion, he would read to the meeting some 
of the remarks made by Mr. Edwards in 1864:—“The title of Pharmaceutical 
Chemist is a mark of distinction which is no part of the existing rights of the 
chemist and druggist. If it be said that they should have a voice in the Society 
by which they are governed, the reply is that they are not governed in any way. 
The Society does not control them or regulate their business in any way, and cannot 
do so, under the projected Act. It registers them, and thus preserves every right 
to them, and then shakes hands and has no more to do with them unless they wish 
it; you do not in any way govern them, and surely they cannot claim to govern 
you. It cannot be allowed that they should guide the affairs of a society of which 
they are not members, and to whose advancement they have never contributed a 
shilling. And then to give them the title and privileges of Pharmaceutical Chemists 
would be to break faith with the other class; the Government and medical profession 
and the public would say, ‘You had this trust committed to you twelve years ago, in the 
belief that you would faithfully use it to train up a class of men who should be fully 
qualified for their duties; and believing that you were doing this, we have honoured 
and trusted you, and now you gravely purpose to deceive us all, and while we declare 
that the present state of pharmacy is disgraceful to the country, to admit all these men 
to your highest honours, and actually to dignify them with your scientific title. How 
can we think but with contempt of such a proceeding as this?’” 
Mr. Eeynolds (Leeds) said that the Examined Members of the Society had been 
brought so prominently into the discussion of this question, that, as one of that class, he 
felt justified in saying a few words. Whilst cordially approving of the Bill proposed hy 
the Council, he did not regard as sound some of the arguments put forth in its favour in 
the leader which appeared in the Society’s Journal for May. Thus, he could not admit 
that the public would readily recognise the distinction between a Pharmaceutical Che¬ 
mist and a Member of the Pharmaceutical Society, for the present discussion had shown 
that many of their own members do not understand it; but he supported this measure 
because its object was no less than the primary one for which the Pharmaceutical Society 
was founded, viz. the incorporation of the whole trade, and towards that end the Society 
had been aiming with singleness of purpose for a quarter of a century. Now, as regards 
this object, it was impossible to exaggerate the gravity of that day’s decision. Let it 
be borne in mind that there could be no standing still. They might give up the great 
aim that had hitherto animated their efforts and try to preserve their merely voluntary 
association, but if doing this, a process of gradual extinction would be their fate, whilst 
the State must ere long step in to effect, without their aid, that national organization of 
pharmacy which they had now the apparent opportunity of controlling. He would ask 
those members who were alarmed at the measure of the Council, if that body looked 
like revolutionists; why, many of its members had held their seats for twenty years, and 
if that did not make men conservative, he did not know what would. Depend upon it, 
the Council had made the best bargain they could, and, in order to attain an overwhelm¬ 
ing advantage to the present and all succeeding generations of chemists, they had pro¬ 
perly consented to a temporary sacrifice. Mr. Eeynolds concluded by saying that the 
other Examined Members, residing in Leeds, joined him in supporting the Bill. 
Mr. Morson assured the meeting that all the arguments this day brought forward 
had been fully and repeatedly discussed by the Council. Personally he had no sym¬ 
pathy with those members of the trade who had given no aid in the formation of the 
