PRESENT STATE OF PHARMACY IN ENGLAND. 
5 
even hamlets and villages were not free from its influence." 
A committee was appointed, funds subscribed, parliament 
petitioned, but no act issued from that authority bearing on 
the interests of the druggists. 
This movement of the apothecaries in 1794, appears to 
have been the primary cause of the combination of interests 
among the chemists and druggists of London, and may be 
looked upon as the germ radical of the Pharmaceutical 
Society, which association, however, did not come into ex- 
istence till half a century after. 
Quieted, but not satisfied, by their ill-success in 1794, the 
apothecaries again manifested their feeling by causing a bill 
to be introduced into Parliament in 181 3, containing several 
clauses extremely objectionable to chemists and druggists, 
which was met by a general meeting of the latter, on the 
4th of March of the same year. The committee appointed 
on this occasion, of which the late William Allen was chair- 
man, acted in the most energetic and efficient manner. 
Funds were collected, an active correspondence established 
with their brethren in other cities of England and Wales, 
counter-petitions showered in on Parliament, which course 
soon exhibited its influence by the complete withdrawal of 
the offensive clauses, and left the chemists and druggists a 
much more united and consequently powerful body, than 
they were before, although as yet no bond of incorporation 
held them together. From this time, until 1S39, no very 
important movements in reference to the English pharma- 
ceutists occurred. Tn the last named year, a committee of 
the House of Commons was appointed to institute enqui- 
ries in relation to the medical profession, with the view of 
reforming abuses, revising existing laws, &c. The exten- 
sive evidence collected by this committee, when nearly 
ready for publication, was destroyed by fire, but sufficient 
information was retained to enable the committee to bring 
in a bill for the registration of medical practitioners, &c. ? 
commonly known as Mr. Hawes' Bill. It was the feeling 
