LEEDS CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
357 
Mr. Sharp seconded the motion, and said that the address was lucid, sympathizing, 
and peculiarly applicable to the present state of things. He urged the associates to join 
the classes in the School of Pharmacy. 
Mr. Shaw supported the vote of thanks, which was heartily passed by acclamation. 
The President responded, thanking the meeting for the kind reception which it had 
given to him, and advising an aggressive action of the Association against the apathy so 
prevalent in pharmaceutical and other matters. 
Second General Meeting, held October 29th, 1868 ; the Vice-President, Mr. Charles 
Sharp, in the chair. 
Donations to the Library of ‘Liverpool Medical and Surgical Report,’No. 2; the 
‘ Chemist and Druggist‘ Proceedings of the Liverpool Polytechnic Society,’ were an¬ 
nounced, and thanks voted to the donors. 
The following gentlemen were elected members:—Messrs. J. H. Pollard, J. Pidgeon, 
and E. Brown. 
The Secretary exhibited some of the specimens of chemicals recently presented to 
the Association by the Council of the Royal Institution. The collection is one of rare 
beauty and excellence, especially in the department of vegetable alkaloids. 
Mr. Murphy proposed a special vote of thanks for this valuable present. 
Mr. Redford seconded the motion, which was carried unanitnouslv. 
Mr. Murphy then stated that the water supply of Birmingham had been recently 
under discussion, and that it had been stated to contain a very large quantity of organic 
matter. In the hot weather one half of the deaths in Birmingham had been due to 
diarrhoea. He had recently analysed a sample of the water, and found only about four 
grains of organic matter per gallon. There was a considerable quantity of alkaline car¬ 
bonate, and he was inclined to attribute the injurious action to this cause. 
Mr. Tate mentioned a case where water from wells near Oxford, which contained 
alkaline carbonates, had caused diarrhoea. 
Mr. Murphy then said that it was stated in all the books on the subject that, in 
making glass from salt, lime, and sand, hydrochloric acid was evolved. He had been 
making experiments, which showed that this view was entirely incorrect. The reaction 
which takes place is that chloride of calcium and soda are formed, and that it is chloride 
of calcium which volatilizes and not hydrochloric acid. 
The President then called upon Mr. Murphy to read the paper for the evening, on 
“Zinc and its Combinations.” 
The author gave a review of the history of the metal, first as combined with 
copper to form brass and afterwards in the free state, together with the opinions of the 
old chemists as to its nature. A description of the English, Belgian, Silesian, and other 
methods of extracting the metal was given, and he expressed an opinion that the low 
position held by England in the zinc manufacture was not due to the want of ore of 
good quality, of which we have plenty, but to the apathy of manufacturers, who do not 
avail themselves of improved methods and modern science. The salts of zinc and-their 
medicinal use were spoken of, and the paper terminated with an account of the part 
which zinc had played in organic chemistry in zinc ethyl, etc. 
A vote of thanks was unanimously passed to Mr. Murphy for his interesting paper. 
LEEDS CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The Sixth Annual Meeting of the Association was held in the Library of the Philosophi¬ 
cal and Literary Society, on the evening of October 23,1868; the President, Mr. Reynolds, 
in the chair. An amount of interest, never previously shown, was evinced, and from 
seventy to eighty persons were present. 
The Honorary Secretary, Mr. Yewdall, read the Annual Report, which commenced 
by recapitulating the subjects introduced at the monthly meetings, during the past session, 
viz. the President’s Address; “Rational Therapeutics,” by Dr. James Braithwaite; 
“ Chemical Nomenclature and Notation,” by J. Chapman Wilson, F.C.S. ; “ Carbolic 
Acid,” by G. Ward, F.C.S.; “The Secretions of the Alimentary Canal,” by T. Scatter- 
