130 
THE CHEMIST AND DEUGGIST OP AUSTEALASIA, 
May 1, 1887. 
seyeral members who are even now opposed to this extension 
of time, and when the question is gone into in June an ani- 
mated discussion will no doubt ensue. 
Cektificates of Membership. 
Our Society is making rapid strides. We are now contem- 
plating the issue of certificates of membership. Up to the 
present time the receipt from the hon. treasurer for sub- 
scription and entrance fee paid to him, together with a 
notification from the hon. secretary, have been considered a 
sufficient guarantee of membership, but now that the 
membership will not be so local as before it is necessary to 
have a more imposing and official document. 
An item of interest to those students studying for the 
preliminary ” is the fact of the alteration of times for 
holding this examination. Last year the examinations were 
held on the 15th July and 15th December. The Council have 
altered those dates to the itieelxs in April and October, but 
to meet some students now preparing it has also been decided 
to hold a “ supplementary” examination during iiext July. 
The date for holding the preliminary this month (April) is 
the 28th instant, and I understand the Council have decided 
to add to the Latin translations, passages from Virgil’s iEneid, 
it being optional with the student which of the two passages 
he shall take. This addition will be included in the future 
preliminary examinations, and commences with the exami- 
nation this month. The Council have thought fit to include 
Virgil in order that our examination will be in keei)ing with 
the British, as it is the desire of this Society to follow” on the 
lines of the parent Society as far as it is possible. This 
action will have the effe(?t of placing our preliminary on an 
equal footing -with the Victorian and New South Wales 
examination. The two latter until now% as was pointed out 
in the article on “ Australian Pharmaceutical Examinations ” 
in your last issue, were the only ones that had /^i7h/ adopted 
the British scheme in their preliminary. This gradual as- 
similation of the examinations is simply carrying out a portion 
of the resolution carried at the late conference relating to the 
subjects to be included in the i>reliminary, viz., “ Same as 
required by the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.” 
Damage to a Shop Window. — The window of the phar- 
macy belonging to Mr. 0. B. Lower, chemist, Parkside, w'as, 
on February 24th broken, through the carelessness of a tram 
conductor. It appears the conductor had a parcel of news- 
papers to deliver to Mr. Low”er, but instead of stopping the 
car to do so, threw them while in' motion, w'ith the intention 
of landing the parcel at the door, but instead of that, missed 
his aim and broke a piece of ifiate glass in the w'indow mea- 
suring about 5 feet by 2 feet, but fortunately missed the carboys. 
Accident.— On March 30th Mr. Joseph Parker, chemist, 
King William-street south, w”as driving in a buggy in Currie- 
street, when a led horse backed into the trap and jerked Mr. 
Parker out of the conveyance just at the heels of his horse. 
His son, who was sitting by his side, was also throw’n out. 
They ^Yere soon rescued, and neither was the worse for the 
spill. 
Mr. F. E. Grundy, late manager for Geyer and Co., has 
started in premises in a good position directly opposite 
the Bank of Adelaide, King William-street. Mr. Grundy ; 
describes his business as “ The Medical Dispensary.” 
The two suburban businesses at Parkside, those of Mr. H. 
Clayton and Mr. W. H. Baker, have been amalgamated, Mr. 
Clayton having sold out to Mr. Baker, who removes his own 
stock from the present premises to those of the former. Mr. 
Clayton, I understand, intends devoting his whole time to the 
pursuit of art. 
^ Medical men are evidently feeling the effects of “ dull 
times.” I notice one suburban gentleman of this calling is 
making and packing “chlorodyne ” in Is., 2s., 3s. Gd., and 6s. 
bottles. The preparation is described as Dr. ’s 
Chlorodyne,” and is stated to be “ superior to that of the best 
known makers.” Chemists are invited to take a stock “on 
sale or return.” What is the medical profession coming to ? 
The Telephone and Infection. — A letter has recently ap- 
peared in one of our daily papers, written by a city chemist, 
in which the writer draws tlie attention of those using tele- 
phones to the danger of infection from the indiscriminate use 
of public instruments, and suggests that a supply of a weak 
solution of carbolic acid in water be kept handy, to enable the 
mouthpiece to be cleansed before use. 
The Council of the Adelaide University have resolved to 
admit women as medical students on the same conditions as 
males. 
Lectures on Botany by Professor Tate at the University, are 
for the future to be delivered in the afternoon instead of even- 
ing during the second and third terms. Evening lecture fees- 
are still only to be charged. 
The following local firms intend to exhibit at the Jubilee 
Exhibition : — The Adelaide Chemical Works, mineral acids 
and other chemicals ; C. C. Cross, Gawler, medicines ; F. H. 
Faulding and Co., Adelaide, pharmaceutical exhibits ; J. W. 
Birks, Port Adelaide, patent medicines of own manufacture. 
The Northern Territory Times of April 2 states that the 
local bailiff and chemist, Mr. Woods, was missed from his 
establishment on March 31. One of the creditors obtained a 
warrant and a special bailiff, and followed the ship “ Rapido” 
out of the harbour with the s.s. Zulieka. Although the captain 
admitted that the defaulter was on board, the most careful 
search failed to discover his whereabouts. 
y 
THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN PRELIMINARY EXAM- 
INATION. 
To the Editor of The Chemist and Druggist of Australasia. 
Sir, — Your correspondent, “the accomplished scientist,”' 
whose strictures upon the Australian Pharmaceutical Societies 
you publish in the current number of The Chemist and Drug- 
gist of Australasia, has paid me a very pretty compliment 
in his criticism upon the English portion of the Preliminary” 
Examination paper of the South Australian Pharmaceutical 
Society. The compliment is the more genuine because it is 
certainly unintentional, but it is of the less value because of 
the small know'ledge which the writer seems to have of the^ 
subject he criticises. His words are: — “The first of the- 
preliminary examinations of the Pharmaceutical Society of 
South Australia was held in the middle of last year. Perhaps 
liberal allowance ought to be made for a first effort, bnt the- 
English of the English paper is not all that could be desired. 
Question IV. starts with ‘ What is meant by strong and weak 
verbs’? the logical answer to which would be — everything, 
that English verbs can mean. The real question that the 
examiner wished to ask is correctly put in the next English 
paper in December — ‘What is the distinction between 
“ strong ” and “ weak ” conjugations of verbs ’ ?” The fact is- 
that previous to the first examination last year, I was fur- 
nished with a volume of the Pharmaceutical Journal and 
Transactions, London, in order that the South Australian 
examinations should be on a par with those conducted in 
Great Britain, and so it will be found that the first question 
stated above was copied from x^age 358 of the Pharmaceutical 
Journal of October, 1880, viz., ‘What is meant by strong and 
weak verbs ? ’ ” Then, in December, knowing the value of the- 
question, but not having the former question before me to 
cox?y from, I set, indexiendently, a similar question, in the 
form which ax^pears to be acceptable to your correspondent, 
viz., “What is the distinction between ‘strong’ and ‘w'eak* 
conjugations of verbs?” From the remarks of the critic, it 
would appear that I was led astray in giving the question as. 
put by the “amateurish” College of Precex^tors of London, 
but my own December form question he decides to be the correct 
one, and so his encomium might feed my vanity, but that his 
oi^inion is utterly worthless, and proceeds from deficiency of 
knowledge. The x^hrases “strong verbs” and “ weak verbs ” 
are quite correct, and “strong conjugations” and “weak 
conjugations ” are not wrong exxMessions. 
Dr. Morris, in Historic Outlines of English Accidence, uses 
the terras “strong verbs” and “weak verbs” fifty times at 
least, both in his text and running titles, but I doubt if he 
uses the exxM’ession “strong conjugation” or “weak conju- 
gation” at all; and, similarly, in his introduction to 
Chaucer’s Prologue (Clarendon Press Edition), Mason, an 
authority, I think, second to none, uses the terms “strong 
conjugation” and “weak conjugation” chiefly, but the 
names, “strong verbs” and “weak verbs,” are to be met a 
dozen times in his excellent English Grammar. In Earle’s 
Philology of the English Tongue, the invariable terms are 
“ strong verbs ” and “weak verbs.” Oliphant, in Standard 
English, speaks often, but only of “ the strong verb ” and 
“ the weak verb.” Skeat, in his introduction to Piers, the 
Plowman, writes “ strong verbs ” and “'weak verbs.” So, 
then, the testimony of some of the best modern philologists 
is against your correspondent, and I only refer to writers 
whose works I have in my own little library. Your “ Scien- 
tist ” would not object, x^robably, to the x>hrases, “regular 
verbs ” and “ irregular verbs.” These obsolete and absurd 
titles rest upon superficial inflexional differences, but no one- 
