THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
255 
Messrs. Abraham, Kebble white and Brothwood are to be complimented upon 
their praiseworthy efforts to serve the society, and when there are so many promi- 
nent men willing to serve as councillors, it is well to consider the advisability of 
creating more seats, in order to have the benefit of the experience and services 
of more of the defeated gentlemen. 
The institution of lectures for students, and the preparation of apparatus for 
practical work at the examinations, is a step in the right direction, and it is to 
be hoped that systematic study will be insisted on, and that the candidates will 
be called upon to show skill in manipulation, as well as to prove that they are 
blessed with a retentive memory. On more than one occasion a compulsory 
curriculum has been hinted at, but this is deemed to be somewhat premature, 
and the trade is not prepared to submit to such an ordeal. 
Business has been very quiet and money scarce during the past month, but the 
effect of the general rain, and advance in the price of wool, may be expected 
to shortly make itself agreeably felt. 
At a meeting of the Chemists and Druggists* Association of New South 
Wales, held on the 2nd ult., it was announced that the register had benefited 
to the extent of twenty-one new members since the meeting reported in our last 
issue, so that the Association would seem in a fair way to prosper. 
A preliminary meeting of the members of the Royal Society was held on 
22nd ult., apropos of the proposed resuscitation of the Sanitary Section. This 
project has been heartily applauded in the Sydney Press, and it was very 
gratifying to find that a representative, if not a large, audience had accepted 
the committee’s invitation to consider the matter. The meeting, which was 
presided over by Sir A. Roberts, was characterised by unanimity and earnest- 
ness, and an influential committee was appointed to prepare rules, &c., for the 
direction of the Section. As has been pointed out, sanitation is one of the most 
important studies in a new country, and it would be difficult for the Society to 
find a field of enquiry to which attention could be more profitably directed. 
At the subsequent general meeting of the Society, held on 7th inst., the 
establishment of the Sanitary Section was formally announced. The literary 
contributions presented at the meeting were : — “ Further Additions to the Census 
of the G-enera of Plants hitherto known as indigenous to Australia,” by Baron 
Yon Mueller, and “ Notes on Improvements in the Construction of Reflecting 
Telescopes,” by Dr.jF. B. Kyngdon. 
At the North Shore Pioneer Industrial Exhibition we saw an interesting 
exhibit from the Patent Asphaltum Company, where the various stages of pro- 
gress from the crude article to the asphaltum candle is shown. 
At a general meeting of the New South Wales branch of the British Medical 
Association, held on the 2nd inst., the discussion of the subject, “The Abuses 
-of Narcotics,” drew forth some remarks interesting to pharmacists. Said Dr. 
Ciubbe : “ One of the questions to be considered in relation to the abuse of 
narcotics is, Where do the public get the drugs ? The fact is that they get the 
preparations direct from the chemists. Well, the chemists ought not to continue 
to supply customers with the drugs when they found that the persons who 
applied for them repeatedly and regularly sought to obtain them in rather large 
quantities. When it became apparent to the chemists that their customers were 
addicted to using large quantities of the preparations of morphia and opium 
they should cease to comply with the demand made. He thought that this 
branch of the Medical Association should take some action in the matter.” And 
Dr. Power instanced a case in which a patient “ continued to take a medicine, 
which contained a narcotic, nine months after it had been prescribed. It had 
