294 
THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
Nineteen thousand out of the 20,000 copies of the last edition of the British 
Pharmacopoeia having been sold, a re-issue has been ordered. The cost of produc- 
tion of the last edition is stated at £2713 8s. 5d., and the receipts at £3534 13s. 
7d., leaving a balance in hand of £821 5s. 2d. 
The Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions of 3rd July publishes the 
paper on “The Indigenous Vegetation of Australia, with special reference to the 
Eucalypti,” read by Mr. Joseph Bosisto, M.P., at one of the conferences at the 
Indo-Colonial Exhibition on 28th June. 
The Pharmaceutical Journal of 19th June gives pride of place to an 
editorial on our “ Proposed Intercolonial Pharmaceutical Conference.” The article 
commences “ Those pharmacists who had the pleasant privilege of listening to 
the earnest words spoken by xVLr. Joseph Bosisto, when acknowledging a toast at 
the recent annual dinner of the members of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great 
Britain and their friends, will remember how favourable an account he was able 
to give of the progress of organised pharmacy in Victoria during the last few 
years. Scarcely a decade has elapsed since, in 1876, the first legislation on 
pharmacy in that colony took place, but that time has sufficed under its influence 
to evolve among other things a school of pharmacy affiliated to a university, and 
handsomely subsidised by the legislature. About the same time New South Wales 
obtained a Poisons Act, and of the other Australasian colonies New Zealand 
followed with a Pharmacy Act in 1880, and Queensland in 1884. Western Australia 
apparently has not yet got beyond a Poisons Act, under which the sale of certain 
scheduled poisons is limited to persons licensed by the police magistrates, and 
we believe that a similar condition obtains in South Australia, whilst in Tasmania 
the pharmacists are just now endeavouring to promote legislation. Although, 
however, the existing Pharmacy Acts resemble one another in many respects, 
and are all more or less based upon the Great Britain Act of 1868, there are 
points of difference which are also capable of being intensified by the manner 
in which the provisions are carried out. When, therefore, after a time, the 
passage from one colony to another of persons possessing pharmaceutical qualifi- 
cations under these Acts raised the question as to whether and how far a 
certificate or diploma could be made recognisable by pharmacy boards other than 
that by which it was issued, it became evident that the answer would depend 
very much upon the possibility of an arrangement being made as to the adoption 
of a uniform standard in the various examinations.” A history of the endeavours 
which have been made to bring about a conference of the colonies is then given, 
and the article concludes : — “ It will be seen that these propositions fairly cover 
all the topics upon which an agreement appears necessary, and if the conferenct 
be as large and representative as its promoters anticipate, and is able to come 
to an agreement on the essential 'points, it can hardly fail to have an important 
and beneficial influence on the future of pharmacy at the antipodes. In this 
country, too, we shall wait with interest for the result, since, notwithstanding the 
distance which separates Australasia from the home country, the aspirations of 
pharmacists there and here are identical and their interests are closely allied.” 
Urine-testing is, and very properly, receiving considerable attention just now ; 
few indications are of more importance in diagnosis. According to L. Jolly 
(Journ. de Pharm. et de Chem.), if urine be mixed with about 10 per cent, of 
Fehling’s solution, and boiled, the following are the indications to be noted : — If 
fluid remains clear and blue, the secretion is healthy. Decolorisation, with light 
fiocculent ppt., shows presence of a peptone. Grape sugar is shown as the liquid 
•changes to an orange tint with deep orange ppt. With equal parts of urine and 
Fehling’s sol. the mixture turns green if excess of uric acid or urates be present, 
and the proportion of phosphoric acid is evidenced by a slight or abundant 
