364 
THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
W. S. Gibbons, Bosisto, Johnson, Kruse, Sontel, and Osborne. The publication 
of the Journal was also continued with great spirit bj Messrs. Bosisto and 
Johnson, the three numbers issued during the year (the fourth number having 
for various reasons to he postponed for three months, when a “double*’ number 
was published) containing an excellent variety of useful information, which should 
have rendered it invaluable to the subscribers. 
But, alas! a lukewarm feeling had already begun to display itself— not 
among the workers and thinkers, but among the general body of members whom 
they were zealously striving to serve. The minutes of a council meeting held 
on 22nd October record that, in presenting a progress statement of accounts, the 
treasurer informed the council that several members had already declined 
continuing members, and matters had not apparently improved at the close of 
the year. The second annual meeting was held on 10th March, 1859, and the 
report then presented is scarcely of so sanguine a character as was its prede- 
cessor. Complaint is made that, “from the apathy of some and the removal of 
others, the number of its (the society’s) members is not so great as at the close 
of the preceding year.” The attendance at the periodical meetings and lectures 
“ has not been so good as might have been expected, and it will be for the 
council for the coming year to decide upon the propriety of continuing them 
and regret is further expressed that, “ with few exceptions, the members of 
the society have not availed themselves of the means of communication afforded 
by the Journal .” 
The report, after dealing with the other various operations of the society 
during the year, concludes with an earnest appeal to the chemists and druggists 
in the colony “to come forward and support the society, if not by their 
personal advice and assistance, at least by their subscriptions, and to second 
the efforts made by them to raise the standard of the profession, and also 
their endeavours to prevent the assumption of the title pharmaceutical chemist 
by the ignorant and unqualified, and so not only protect themselves, but also 
confer a very great benefit upon the whole community.” 
In our next issue we shall see how this appeal was responded to. In the 
meantime, to conclude the history of the year under notice— 1858-9— we record 
that Messrs. Blair, Cooper, Thomas (Geelong), and Walton were elected to the 
council in the room of the retiring members, Messrs. F. Cooper, Thomas 
(Geelong), Thomas (Emerald Hill), and O’Connor; and that Messrs. Curtis and 
Long were elected auditors. The balance-sheet showed receipts (including 
balance forward, £71 12s. 7d.) £222 2s. 8d., as against expenses (including £99 
for printing the Journal) £192 10s. 10d., the society thus beginning its third 
year with a balance in hand of £29 11s. lOd. 
NOTES ON THE MANUFACTURE OF ARGENT NIT. 
By Fbbdebick Weight, Lectueeb on Phaemacy, &c., at the Technological 
College, Sydney. 
Having been recently employed in the preparation of large quantities of argent 
nit, I am glad to lay before my fellow-pharmacists a few notes on the manufacture 
of this chemical that, I trust, may prove useful to some of them. 
Having purchased an ingot of silver weighing 1000 oz., I proceeded to 
feather it by fusing in a plumbago pot with a little charcoal to prevent loss of 
the metal by its volatilising, and pouring the molten metal into a cask of water. 
The feathered metal, when dried, showed a loss in weight of 42 grains in this 
instance, but even this trivial loss was partly made up by further scraping the 
crucible. The next step was to submit the metal to analysis, with the following, 
result -.—Gold, *023; silver, 86*887 ; copper, 6*792; lead, 4*981; zinc, 1*317. 
