264 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
the good of the Society. The Pharmaceutical Conference met once a year, and 
a most pleasant meeting they had lately had ; he did not see why the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society should not have a good conference once a month for the mutual 
interchange of experience and information. The presence of ladies was a neAV 
feature in their meetings, and he thought he should not be carrying out the 
wishes of the gentlemen present if he did not say a word of welcome to them ; 
this was the first time it had been the privilege of any President to give such a 
welcome in that hall. He feared there would not be much to amuse their fair 
visitors, but it was always pleasant to see successful competitors receive their 
prizes. As the classes of students were now commencing their work, Mr. Brady 
had kindly undertaken to deliver an inaugural address. He would probably 
say something of the importance of pharmacy, but the President hoped he 
would not draw so glowing a picture as to tempt ladies into the profession. 
He would not detain the meeting longer, but would at once call on the Vice- 
President, Mr. Evans, to present the report of the Board of Examiners. 
Mr. Evans said the official report had been presented to and approved by 
the Council, and was rather too dry to read in detail, but he would state gene¬ 
rally the result of the examinations. During the past session 58 gentlemen had 
entered for the Major examination, of whom 48 had passed, 23 in honours, 9 
being rejected, and 1 retiring. For the Minor examination 87 entered, 67 
passed (9 in honours), 16 were rejected, and 4 retired. For the first classical 
examination 33 entered, and all but one passed. These results were highly 
satisfactory, and the large number who had passed the Major examination in 
honours showed that gentlemen now thoroughly appreciated the advantages of 
these examinations and well prepared themselves for them. All those who so 
passed were eligible to compete for the highest honour in the power of the 
Society to bestow, the Pereira medal, but he was sorry to say, that out of the 23 
only 6 competed ; if a larger number had entered the lists he felt sure they 
would have done honour not only to themselves but also to the cause of phar¬ 
macy. There were now 1036 gentlemen who had passed the Major examination, 
and 1177 who had received the certificate of having passed the Minor exami¬ 
nation, so that there remained a balance of only 141 of those who had passed 
the first who had not presented themselves for the higher test, and he had no 
doubt that many of these were now preparing themselves for so doing. A 
slight modification had been made in the examinations with regard to botany, 
which was generally found by students a very difficult subject, and it had now 
been decided that it should not be estimated equally with the other subjects in 
which the students were examined, and it would not in future tell so heavily 
upon the resuit. He would, however, remind students of one curious fact, 
which they would do well to bear in mind, that those candidates who had come 
up weak in their botany, had been found correspondingly weak in that most 
important subject, materia medica. This he accounted for in this way, that 
botany being a difficult and dry subject at the commencement, was of great 
service in disciplining the mind and enabling it afterwards to grasp and retain 
facts which it would otherwise have found it more difficult to grapple with. 
The papers sent in by the six aspirants for the Pereira Medal were all of a very 
high character, but those of the gentleman writing under the motto Singulariler in 
spe being far in advance of any of his competitors, the medal was awarded to him, 
and the Council had acceded to the recommendation of the Board of Examiners 
that on this and future occasions the medal should be struck in silver instead of 
bronze as heretofore. For the junior prize of books, five presented themselves, 
the prize being awarded to Mr. Matthew Henry Stiles. Two candidates had 
presented themselves for the Senior Bell Scholarship, which had been awarded 
to Mr. John Moss, and there were six candidates for the Junior Scholarship, 
which had fallen to Mr. John Ingham. 
