101 
the remaining two were out of the range of practical 
accuracy in every respect. 
In concluding, it may be of some importance to mention 
that in the dispensing of these prescriptions, in the large 
majority of cases, and generally in the more respectable 
shops, no questions were asked of the purchasers, and no 
remarks made, but in some cases, and especially in those 
shops of a lower class, questions of rather an impertinent 
nature were asked ; in one, not only was the patient’s name 
demanded, but the name of the medical man who pre- 
scribed ; and in another instance the druggist actually 
refused to dispense a prescription containing 10 grains 
doses of quinine sulphate on the ground that the dose was 
excessive, and one who did dispense it remarked that the 
dose was a strong one. The bearing of these facts on the 
relative position of the physician, patient, and druggists, 
although of much importance, especially to the medical 
profession, does not come within the scope of my paper. 
In conclusion I must express my best thanks to our 
assistant, Mr. Percy J. Winser, for the painstaking and 
accurate manner in which he had helped me in this 
investigation 
MICROSCOPICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SECTION. 
February 14th, 1876. 
Charles Bailey, Esq., in the Chair. 
Mr. E. W. Nix, M.A., was elected a Member, and Dr. John 
Roberts an Associate of the Section. 
Mr. Percival, through Mr. Rogers, exhibited specimens of 
a new British moss— Hypnum nitidulum (Wahl), belonging 
to the sub-genus Plagiothecium — found by him and Mr. 
Whitehead on June 8th, 1868, at Penneghant Gill, Craven, 
