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THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
The Central Hoard of Health and local boards* officers are now empowered 
to enter bakers’ premises at any time they choose to make an inspection of them. 
Previous to the sanctioning of this act by the legislature only a policeman with 
an order could enter these premises, and there was no means of detecting the 
use of alum, etc. 
The following are the fixtures for the quarterly examinations Preliminary 
examination, 1st March; materia medica, botany, and chemistry on the 2nd 
and 3rd March ; practical pharmacy, 4th and 5th March ; modified, 4th March. 
Ten days’ notice of the intention of a candidate to present himself must be 
given in every case. 
The time allowed for receiving applications for appointment to the position 
of agricultural chemist to the Department of Agriculture expired on Thursday, 
the 11th February. Twelve persons have offered their services, and the Minister 
of Agriculture will as soon as possible make a selection and submit it to the 
Public Service Board. Mr. A. N. Pearson has since been selected for the position. 
Mr. William Bowen, the esteemed president of the Pharmaceutical Society 
of Australasia, leaves for England, via America, on the 25th March, and will 
carry with him the good wishes of a large number of his fellow -colonists for a 
pleasant time in the old country, and a safe return. We understand Mr. 
Bowen proposes to be absent about twelve months. 
Mr. M‘Alpine’s classes in practical botany and biology at the Ormond 
College will be carried on this year as they were last year, and the class 
in practical chemistry will probably be divided, so that one-half may meet 
during the day and the other in the evening, but in all cases the college lectures 
are arranged so as not to interfere with the attendance at the University classes. 
According to common rumour in Wangaratta, Mrs. Stevens, who stands 
charged with the murder of the farmer Plum, has previously murdered one of 
her husbands, and has tried to murder another. At any rate, her last husband 
turned her out of his house, and when she sued him for maintenance, he swore 
he had detected her attempting to poison him. A former husband complained of 
spasms in the stomach for some time before he died. 
The election for the four vacant seats in the Council of the Pharmaceutical 
Society of Australasia will take place on the 10th March, and ballot papers must 
be received “ before ” 10 a.m. on that day. The following are the candidates nomi- 
nated Messrs. William Bowen, Melbourne; Stephen Michael Dalton, Prahran; 
Rawson Parke Francis, South Melbourne; John Clarke Jones, Richmond; William 
Young Nelson, Windsor; and Henry Thomas Tompsitt, Hawthorn. 
A letter of thanks has been addressed by the Minister of Mines to Mr. 
R. L. J. Ellery, the chairman of the board which recently reported upon the 
use of nitro-glycerine compounds in mines, and the best means of rendering 
innocuous the fumes arising from their combustion. Mr. Levien recognises the 
careful and exhaustive nature of the inquiries conducted by the board, and states 
that, as far as possible, the department will at an early date give effect to 
its various suggestions, which are now under his consideration. 
From an exchange we learn that some of the American co-workers with Dr. 
Asa G-ray in the science of botany made his seventy-fifth birthday, on the 18th 
November last, the occasion of the presentation of a silver vase in testimony 
of their esteem. According to Nature the vase, which is eleven inches 
high, and stands on a low ebony pedestal, is artistically decorated with American 
plants, prominent among which are G-rayia polygaloides, Shorlia galicifolia, Aster 
bigelovii, Solidago serotina, Lilium grayi, and Rudbeckia speciosa. 
