10 PRESENT STATE OF PHARMACY IN ENGLAND. 
the ramifications of which extended throughout the empire, 
and which had the means of creating a sensation, by direct- 
ing the power of the members in one channel when a 
simultaneous effort was desirable, A notion prevailed to a 
considerable extent in the medical profession, that the 
interests of the two parties were at variance, that in order 
to elevate and protect the medical practitioner, it was 
necessary to subdue and restrain the druggist. This pre- 
judice had been handed down during nearly two centuries, 
and the jealousy which existed on both sides, had been a 
bar to any mutual accommodation or dispassionate argu- 
ment between the two parties. The medical journals, and 
even the daily papers were constantly advocating some 
effectual legislative measures, and quoting cases illustra- 
tive of the ignorance and misdeeds of the druggists. 
Although these arguments were frequently one sided, and 
the cases highly colored, they were seldom answered, ex- 
cept, perchance, in an occasional anonymous letter, the 
pungency of which was extracted during its passage 
through the press. Pharmacy stood in a precarious posi- 
tion. Its real representatives — those on whom had de- 
volved the chief responsibility of preparing and compound- 
ing medicines — were caluminated on every hand, and 
threatened with extraneous control and a variety of restric- 
tions. Even their right to dispense prescriptions was call- 
ed in question, and their other privileges were held on an 
uncertain tenure. Yet they possessed no acknowledged 
means of protection or representation, and although they 
were all sensible of the disadvantages of their anomalous 
position, none felt called upon to act for the general welfare. 
In this state of affairs, the bill of Mr. Hawes came before 
parliament, and the druggists suddenly aroused themselves 
from their state of apathy, and arranged a plan of defense 
which proved altogether successful. " 
The course followed by the chemists and druggists, when 
they had gained their primary object, is worthy of all 
