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BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
sfcinct with, wonder ; but let it ever be borne in mind, that this is the result of 
the most exact, unceasing, and plodding application. 
For this reason botany may be accepted as a mode of training, taxing the 
memory (as it does) to the fullest extent, and involving, as the Linnean Trans¬ 
actions demonstrate, no small amount of scholarship. 
We are glad that its claims have been so ably advocated by the Medical Dean 
of King’s College. Fie has made out his case, a matter of special importance to 
those Pharmaceutists whose early education may have been a shade neglected, 
and who may wisely and healthfully interrupt their indoor occupations with 
botanical research. 
We congratulate our Society on these annual Conference gatherings, which 
supplement but can never supplant the school. The latter has to teach ; the 
grand mission of a Conference is its stimulating influence. Men of all shades 
of opinion meet together, they separate with more kindly sympathies, and often 
with quickened interest in their several pursuits. A friendship founded on 
mutual esteem is the strongest link that can bind one man with another. 
To us, as pharmaceutists, an association like this British Conference is spe¬ 
cially of value. We live too much in our own circle,—good, possibly, but con¬ 
tracted. These visits to various localities create new thought, widen our social 
instincts, and force us into fresh channels of endeavour. 
And when, months after, the millstone which grinds our daily bread rolls 
round and round, and by the pressure of petty but inevitable circumstance the 
fine gold of the excelsior life grows dim, we think of our late bright intercourse 
with fellow-workers, of their earnest aspirations, and of their kindly welcome, 
and so w r e again take heart. 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
Again a year has passed, autumn has succeeded to summer, London is deso¬ 
late, and “ town ” has betaken itself, as is its wont, to the country. Meanwhile, 
science has held its carnival in the commercial centre of the east of Scotland, 
and wflth almost unexpected eclat. If the British Associates are not happy in 
the retrospect of the week they have so lately spent in Dundee, it can only 
arise from the proverbial condition of the “ morrow after the feast.” The pre¬ 
sence of an unusually large number of men whose names are household words 
wherever science is revered ; the mental pabulum provided for those who 
attend lectures and sectional meetings ; the excursion arrangements, and the 
enthusiasm and abundant hospitality of the residents,—have more than counter¬ 
balanced drawbacks inseparable from a meeting so far north, and in a locality 
so difficult of access. The programme was full and varied ; the general prepa¬ 
rations musD have been admirably designed and were efficiently carried out. 
Norwich, the chosen city for 1868, must look well to its laurels, following in the 
wake of so great a success. 
But pharmaceutists, always interested, from the very nature of their calling, 
in the proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 
have, during the past years, had a new and special inducement to attend its 
annual gatherings, from the fact that the British Pharmaceutical Confe¬ 
rence has held its meetings at the same place, and nearly at the same time. 
The decision which made it the rule of the “ Conference ” to accompany the Asso¬ 
ciation was undoubtedly wise, for the advantages of such a link in a scientific 
point of view, and still more in the numberless local attractions held out 
during a British Association meeting, have been hitherto important elements 
in its success. Of this the meeting just held in Dundee is a fair example. 
