THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
283 
THE INTERCOLONIAL PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
It cannot fail to be most gratifying to pharmacists throughout Australasia 
to learn that the Intercolonial Pharmaceutical Conference, to take place at 
Melbourne in October next, now gives every promise of proving as successful as 
could be wished. The bringing about of such a gathering is necessarily a 
task of considerable difficulty, and we are well pleased in being able to make 
the announcement that, with the exception of Queensland, all the colonies have 
now signified their intention of taking part in a movement from which highly 
beneficial results to the profession are certain to accrue. The Victorian Society 
has wisely limited its representation to two members, Mr. C. R. Blackett, on 
behalf of the Pharmacy Board, and Mr. Thomas Huntsman, on behalf of the 
Pharmaceutical Society, being selected to do duty for Victoria; and the other 
colonies will be similarly represented. The programme of the Conference will 
shortly be in the hands of the various bodies interested, so that the matters to be 
dealt with w T ill be thoroughly threshed out beforehand, and delegates will be 
positioned to give a representative vote upon questions at issue. The date of 
the Conference gives the Victorian brethren ample means of providing for the 
enjoyment of their visitors, so that this long-desired meeting may be expected 
to prove memorable in the happiest sense of the term. 
POPULARISING THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY. 
In our July issue we were enabled to make the important and gratifying 
announcement that the Pharmaceutical Society of Australasia had remodelled the 
scale of charges hitherto in force in connection with the College of Pharmacy, as 
well as to divide the year into two sessions, instead of one. This departure is 
an immediate outcome of the Government's recognition of the public obligations 
to pharmacy — the vote with which the school is endowed— by means of which the 
Society was enabled to carry out the previously impracticable design of engaging 
the entire services of a lecturer and director. Formerly the session commenced 
in March, and it was impossible for a student, however well fortified, to obtain 
his certificate in less than a year, while the year was lost to him unless his 
attendance at the lectures commenced in the month named. Formerly, also, the 
fees for the session for materia inedica and botany were fixed at eight guineas. 
The price of instruction in these subjects is now reduced by two guineas. A 
reduction of three guineas has also been made in regard to the single subjects, 
materia medica and botany. Highly important alterations have been instituted 
in the practical chemistry section, the hours of instruction having been so extended 
as should greatly assist in enabling students to qualify themselves with the least 
possible delay. A notable feature in connection with the last-named classes is the 
fact that students are now supplied with all necessary apparatus, instead of having 
to provide themselves therewith, and that they can now enter for any period at any 
date. There is an apparent increase in the charges for chemistry and practical 
chemistry, but the increase in the hours of instruction makes the alteration all 
in favour of the student. The effects of this effort to popularise the College 
are already evident in the very considerable augmentation which the classes have 
received by the enrollment of workers in various industrial pursuits who have 
hastened to avail themselves of Mr. A. II. Jackson’s teaching in those branches 
of chemistry applicable to the manufactures in which they are engaged. That 
those immediately interested fully appreciate the benefits which the new scheme 
bestows upon them is, therefore, certain ; and, since every step which has the 
effect of lessening the cost of, and increasing the facilities for, acquiring know- 
