LEEDS CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 479 
vent its general use. He then asked members to give their experience with regard to 
keeping the poison registration book, especially in cases of preparations of opium. 
Mr. Symes said that many chemists keep a nostrum book, in which they enter any 
medicines which they prescribe themselves. He thought that it was a pity that if a 
chemist made a cough syrup, containing syrup of poppies, it must either be labelled 
poison or made a patent medicine, and said that the Pharmaceutical Council were igno¬ 
rant of the requirements of a country business. 
A general discussion ensued on the question of poison registration, especially with 
reference to paregoric, syrup of poppies, morphia lozenges, etc., in the course of which 
the President stated that, to his own personal knowledge, death had been caused in four 
cases by paregoric. 
Mr. Alexander Frazer then read, “ Notes on Some of the Preparations of the 
British Pharmacopoeia.” 
Several members joined in the discussion of the paper, and a vote of thanks was cor¬ 
dially passed to Mr. Frazer. 
LEEDS CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The Third Meeting of the Session was held on the evening of December 16, 1868, at 
the Philosophical Hall, the President, Mr. Reynolds, in the chair. 
Mr. Entwisle was elected a member. 
The Hon. Sec., Mr. Yewdall, reported donations of books to the library from Messrs. 
Griffin, of London, and the President, and a number of volumes purchased by a special 
subscription of the members, were also laid upon the table. 
Mr. Harvey then gave an address, entitled, “ Thoughts on the Past and Present of 
Pharmacy,” in compliance with a request made to him by the Committee of the Asso¬ 
ciation. The address was especially directed to the Associates, and the following is an 
abstract of some portions of it:— 
Mr. Harvey said that it was forty years ago since he entered the ranks of the 
chemists and druggists as an apprentice, and then the only technical training that 
existed was the result of contact with their daily work. Further, those who entered 
upon business on their own account, trusted for success to steady conduct, application, 
and “ business habits,” and not to any accurate knowledge of drugs or the sciences 
treating of them. Under this state of things, the hours of business were long, viz. from 
7 a m. to 9 p.m. As to courses of lectures, there were none corresponding to the present 
courses on chemistry, but it is noteworthy, that a popular and amusing course of lectures 
upon that science was commonly given by some itinerant lecturer during each winter. 
Of course these were not the sort of science useful to a chemist’s apprentice, and little 
more could be hoped from them than the arousing of a thirst for knowledge which 
might be slaked at other streams. Experimental chemistry, as a means of self- 
improvement, was a very different thing then to what it now is, for the apparatus to 
be used was cumbrous and too costly for the pocket of an apprentice ; but now a new 
regime has been inaugurated, and it is mainly by our own work that the whole of the 
dispensing chemists in Great Britain have been gathered into one body, henceforth to be 
recognized by the State. Happily, this reform has been accomplished chiefly by our 
own efforts, but had it been forced upon us by the demands of society, acting through 
the Legislature, we should have had no right to complain, for surely society may require 
the proper qualification of those intrusted with an essential department of the heal¬ 
ing art. 
Our body has been invested with the privilege and responsibility of self-government, 
and, happily, self-government and free election prove, in the long-run, the most suc¬ 
cessful. Such an arrangement is consistent with the tendencies of our national cha¬ 
racter. 
Mr. Harvey enlarged upon this topic by reference to and contrast with the paternal 
systems of many Continental states, giving interesting particulars of his own experience 
in the south of Russia last year. 
The relations of the Pharmacy Act to the principle of free trade, were then consi¬ 
dered. The soundest principle may be rightly subject to regulation. Personal freedom 
