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THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
Tobacco blindness is becoming a common affliction. At present there are 
several persons under treatment for it at one London hospital. It first takes the 
form of colour blindness, the sufferers who have smoked themselves into this 
condition being quite unable to distinguish the colour of a piece of red cloth 
held up before them. Sometimes the victim loses his sight altogether. Although 
smoking is to a large extent the cause of the malady, heavy drinking is also 
partly responsible. 
The British and Colonial Druggist of 26th June devotes an editorial to 
“ Colonial Conferences,” having reference to the series of conferences arranged 
for between the leading pharmacists and therapeutists of the old country and the 
colonial exhibitors of plants and drug products now visiting London in connection 
with the Indo-Colonial Exhibition. Our esteemed contemporary makes vigorous 
complaint of the fact that the conferences, up to the date mentioned, had only 
related to the exhibits in the Indian Court, and urges that all the colonies should 
be invited to take part. 
Sir Samuel Davenport has an interesting note upon “ The Olive in South 
Australia” in the British and Colonial Druggist. Says the worthy knight : — 
u The high prizes uniformly acquired at international and intercolonial 
exhibitions in different quarters of the globe, even in an old and eminent olive 
country like France, have confirmed the highest views held of the olive and its 
oil as a local production. In a little brochure on “ Olive Culture,” published, 
in 1877, at the printing office of the South Australian Advertiser newspaper, 
is the assertion that ‘No oil that has ever been sent into the market surpasses 
in quality, lucidity, and creamy delicateness of moist delicious flavour the oil 
that is now produced on the Adelaide plains.’ . . . There being many 
varieties of cultivated olives whose merits for quantity or quality of oil differ, or 
whose rank is held in degrees of estimation relatively to national tastes, South 
Australia has now become rich in the possession of olive stocks of reputation 
secured to or from Malaga, Gibraltar, and Lisbon ; from Cannes, Nice, and 
South of France, vid Marseilles; and from Florence and Bari, via Brindisi. 
Some skilled French pruners of the olive have also been introduced, whose 
labours, and the -instruction they must impart to others, cannot but prove of 
great advantage to the future cultivation and production of the olive. 
The calcareous nature of the soils around Adelaide, and the warm and dry 
climate, assist in bringing the fruit of the olive, as of the vine, to remarkable 
perfection ; whilst, for the benefit of the labourers, as well as of the farmers, the 
olive harvest conveniently follows on the vintage, as the vintage follows on the 
harvest times of wheat and other grains.” 
A late attempt of a Cape Town legislator to introduce a Poisons Bill 
provoked the indignation of local pharmacists, and the senator was induced to 
withdraw the measure, it being agreed that a Pharmaceutical Society should be 
formed that would be representative, and capable of dealing with the subject. 
At the meeting at which this was brought about the Colonial Medical Board was 
vigorously condemned as an examining body for pharmacists, and it was agreed 
to make representations for its reconstitution, so that the examinations should be 
conducted by practical pharmacists. 
The Pharmaceutical Journal of 29th May publishes a letter by Mr. Percy 
Wells on “ Yinum Ipecacuanhse,” which will be viewed with interest by readers of 
Mr. Blackett’s recent paper on the same subject: — “While forbearing to make any 
addition to the comment on the tiresome and roundabout process of the new 
Pharmacopoeia, since the recent correspondence in the Journal shows that it is 
generally unsatisfactory, I trust to show in a few words that the subject is not 
quite exhausted, notwithstanding all that has been written upon it. I may 
