54 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



pects, but the other matters upon which I 

 have touched seemed to me of greater 

 importance. Let me say, however, 

 briefly, that I think the record of this 

 Conference has been eminently an honor- 

 able one, and that it has fulfilled, in a 

 high degree, the functions for which it 

 was called into existence. The story is 

 written in the Year Books, and another 

 phase of it is engraved in the hearts and 

 memories of many of us who have been 

 members almost from the beginning, and 

 who have attended a large number of its 

 meetings. It has added to our knowl- 

 edge, enlarged our experience, and 

 broadened our intellectual grasp of phar- 

 macy; and last, but not least, it has been 

 the means of bringing together, introduc- 

 ing' to each other, and cementing friend- 

 ships between men who practice a com- 

 mon avocation in districts as wide apart 

 as Inverness and Cornwall. In this lat- 

 ter function the excursion on the last day 

 has played no inconsiderable part. 

 Amongst the critics of the Conference 

 there are some persons who affect to 

 sneer at the excursion as if it were sheer 

 frivolity, and was at variance with the 

 avowed scientific objects of the Confer- 

 ence. I beg to differ, and to claim for 

 the excursion day a very high place in 

 the work of the Conference. It affords 

 the opportunity, as no other arrangement 

 could do so well, for men to meet ; and I 

 am quite sure that my own experience is 

 by no means singular when I tell you 

 that many, very many, of the best friends 

 I have in pharmacy were first known to 

 me through the opportunity of one of the 

 Conference excursions ; and further I 

 could not exaggerate to you the benefit 

 which I have received from the numerous 

 conversations and informal discussions 

 which always takes place on these days. 

 But it is with societies, as with individ- 

 uals, they tend to decay, and already, 

 more than once we have the alarm : the 



Conference is on its last legs ! I do not 

 believe it, as I feel sure it fufils a purpose 

 in the realm of pharmacy which is too 

 important for the Conference to be left to- 

 decay, and if we neglect the trust which 

 has been handed down to us, our succes- 

 sors will revive it. I would ask every 

 member of the Conference to get, at least; 

 one other member to join, and I do not 

 think he can use a stronger argument 

 than that, apart from the opportunity of 

 attending and taking part in this annual 

 scientific gathering of pharmacy, the 

 Year Book, which he will receive, is 

 worth many times the subscription. The 

 Year Book of Pharmacy should find a 

 place on the desk of every chemist and 

 druggist in this land. In it he will find 

 abstracts of papers from a larger number 

 of sources than he can possibly consult 

 for himself, and many of these papers 

 may be of great value to him 



There is no occasion to disguise the 

 fact that we do not get as many or possi- 

 bly as good papers sent to the Conference 

 as we should like, but when we consider 

 the needs of a weekly press and the num- 

 ber of small societies which absorb in the 

 aggregate a large number of papers, our 

 experience need cause us neither surprise 

 nor alarm. I should like, however, to 

 ask many of those who are doing original 

 work and writing papers in connection 

 with pharmacy to consider whether there 

 is any place so suitable for them to be 

 read as at these meetings. 



The authors may feel certain of a larger 

 audience to listen to their papers and a far 

 more capable set of men to discuss them 

 than can be found at any other time or 

 place. In provincial towns the papers 

 are read to a iew local men, and the dis- 

 cussion is taken part in by fewer still, 

 and even at the monthly meetings at 

 Bloomsbury Square the discussions have 

 a great tendency to fall into the hands 

 of very few men. However capable 



