466 
THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
A good deal of routine business was also disposed of preliminary to the retire- 
ment of the present board from their duties. 
The success of the Conference lately held in your city and the certainty of 
reciprocity having been arranged, and requiring only a few technical difficulties 
to be removed before being an accepted fact, is a matter of great satisfaction to 
all concerned. There can be no doubt that the new board will earnestly endeavour 
to give effect to the resolutions adopted by the Conference, and thus bring the labours 
of the delegates to a satisfactory conclusion, so far as this colony is concerned. 
In an address recently delivered to the students of the Pharmaceutical 
Society of Great Britain, Sir Henry Acland, president of the General Medical 
Council, thus referred to the proposed research laboratory : — “ This is not the 
occasion, nor am I entitled, to speak in detail on the future of an institution 
of this kind. But it is clear that among the dangers of our time is the 
multiplication of tools of doubtful temper, and the flooding the already over- 
stocked armoury of medicine with useless weapons, to the distraction of students 
to the injury of true physic, and the vexatious overloading the stores, and 
increasing the labour of the practical dispenser and druggist. To the many 
honourable manufacturers of chemicals to whom the medical profession, as 
well as retail pharmacists throughout the country, are greatly indebted for the 
purity, elegance, and value of many of their preparations, such an institution 
will be a protection against the less cautious dealers in the common market. 
I know no method by which the Medical Council might more usefully advance 
the progress of the Pharmacopoeia, one of its most important duties, than by 
aiding research in this laboratory. It will also have a just claim on the large 
Government grant which is given annually to a committee, including, among 
its members, representatives of the Royal Society in every department of 
biological progress, as well as the presidents of the Medical Council, and of 
the colleges of physicians and of surgeons of England.” 
Dealing in his address with the question of an International Pharma- 
copoeia, Sir Henry made some very gratifying references to colonial pharmacy, 
which will prove of special interest to our readers: — “It is a source of regret 
that no steps have been taken to obtain representatives from India, the 
Dominion of Canada, and Australasia, to co-operate in England directly in 
future researches connected with the Pharmacopoeia. This would seem more 
desirable and reasonable, as, by a recent Act, colonial and foreign practitioners 
are to be entered upon the Medical Register after the present year. The 
Medical Council is not likely to depart from the course it has adopted with 
so much success of allying itself with representative members of the Pharma- 
ceutical Society. On this body, by law, devolves the responsibility of educating 
and qualifying the future pharmacists of Great Britain. It has always shown 
energy and administrative capacity in the development and fulfilment of this 
important and national obligation. It is a special privilege to be able to 
express this sentiment in the presence, as I am informed, of two distinguished 
pharmacists of Australia.” Sir Henry Acland has no sympathy with the 
contention that modern pharmacists are being over-educated, and that the 
highly-educated pharmacist will interfere with the functions of medical prac- 
titioners. “ Experience and observation show,” he observed, “ that this is a 
fallacy arising from a mistaken reading of the past. The uneducated and 
ignorant step in where better men will not interfere. Moreover,” he added, 
