The unconstitutional and illegal proceedings of the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society / by William Dickinson.

  • Dickinson, William.
Date:
[1853]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The unconstitutional and illegal proceedings of the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society / by William Dickinson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ceutical Chemists the names of such defaulters. The effect of such clause, if it could be enforced, would be to compel these Members to contribute to the funds of the Society, as long as they carried on business, whether they approved of the Society or not, the mode of conducting its affairs, or the application of its revenue. “ It was originally the intention of the promoters of the Act to admit every individual, already in business, to the privilege of regis- tration.” [Report of a Meeting of the Chemists and Druggists of the counties of Warwick, &c. See Mr. Bell's speech. London : Churchill, 1852, p. 14.] Had this clause been allowed by the Committee of the House of Commons, every Chemist and Druggist throughout Great Britain, would also, by the present Bye-laws, have been called upon to contribute the annual fee of £1 Is. to the funds of the Society, nolens volens, under pain of being struck off the Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists,—a demand they could have successfully resisted. I am perfectly aware that the Society mu°t be supported by an adequate amount of subscriptions, but what I have contended for is, that those funds should be levied in a legal manner. My objections to the Bye-law are twofold. First. That it is illegal. The Council or Registrar has no power to strike the name of such defaulter from off the register of Phar- maceutical Chemists. The 6th section of the Pharmacy Act secures him the privilege of registration, and, once placed on that register, nothing short of another Act of Parliament can disqualify him. Secondly. It is impolitic and ridiculous to publish and make- a Bye-law which is inoperative. You may be placing yourselves in the awkward dilemma of being called upon to put into effect this Bye-law, and find it to be a dead letter. 10. I have also supported, at the general meeting of May last, the suggestions of the members residing at Dover, for making certain other modifications in the then proposed Bye-laws, which are enumerated in the extract from a letter which I shall in due course set forth. I think it highly desirable that the “ balance-sheet ” of the Society’s expenditure and receipts should be laid before the Auditors, at least two months before the annual meeting, and that all the Members of the Society should have the power at all seasonable hours to inspect and take copies of such accounts. The Bye-laws were defective in this, and in other respects ; and as a Member of the Council, equally accountable as yourselves for a proper application of the funds of the Society, I felt bound to afford to every Member of the Society, with whose moneys we are entrusted, an opportunity of knowing how the funds of the Society have been applied, a sufficient time previous to every Annual meeting, to enable him to be prepared to put such questions to us as he might think proper. 11. As to the second charge, I as distinctly and emphatically deny, “ that I have endeavoured to obstruct the business of the Society, by joining in a hostile, or any other, appeal to the Secretary of State, in defiance of the forms of the Charter, line 96 to 101,” or any rule or