6 PRESENT STATE OP PHARMACY IN ENGLAND. 
and interest excited amongst the chemists and druggists of 
London by this measure, that more immediately brought the 
Pharmaceutical Society into existence, and the history of 
this Society since 1841, is in reality the history of Phar- 
macy in England. 
In February, 1841, Mr. Hawes brought forward the Bill 
before alluded to for the reform of the medical profession, 
which appears to have originated chiefly with the apothe- 
caries, or general practitioners, and which contained clauses 
injuriously affecting the interests of the chemists and drug- 
gists. The chief of these was aimed at the habit of pre- 
scribing at the counter, or recommending doses of medicine 
in simple cases, and for suggesting the propriety of a dose 
of calomel or rhubarb, or from motives of humanity to 
dress a wound; this bill rendered the pharmaceutist liable to 
$100 penalty, recoverable by suit, or imprisonment in lieu. 
Mr. Farmer, of London, having noticed the objectionable 
features of the bill, called a meeting of his special profes- 
sional friends, who determined to publish a general call for 
a meeting to consider the subject, and take measures to 
defeat or modify the bill in its obnoxious points. 
On the 15th of February, 1841, a general meeting took 
place, in which the most distinguished and influential 
chemists and druggists of London took part. Resolutions 
were passed deprecating the objects of the bill, requesting 
its mover to postpone the second reading for one month, 
and appointing a large committee to watch its progress, and 
adopt such measures as were wisest in the case. 
The committee succeeded in the object of their appoint- 
ment, by first causing the modification, and then the with- 
drawal of the bill, by a flood of petitions. 
The union of feeling among druggists in all parts of Eng- 
land based on the correspondence of the central committee 
at London, formed a very admirable platform on which to 
erect a society designed to be co-extensive with the king- 
dom. It was, in fact, during the frequent meetings of this 
