LIVERPOOL CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
49 
as that of former sessions, and from this circumstance we may gather that there still 
exists in the minds of our members and associates an interest in our Society, and a de¬ 
sire for the acquisition of further information on subjects connected with our profession. 
In reviewing our proceedings during the past eight months, I find that several important 
subjects have been brought before our notice ; one of the first being that of Petroleum. 
This article, as all of you are aware, is not new to commerce, but one which has been 
known and collected in various parts of the world for many years, but the recent disco¬ 
very of its existence in such great abundance in the United States of America and 
Canada has given to this oil an importance in a commercial point of view which must 
command the attention both of importers and consumers; and considering the im¬ 
mense area over which it exists, we may certainly calculate upon an almost unlimited 
supply for many years to come. In a recent official American document, it is stated that 
the district in the States and Canada over which it is found in greater or less abundance 
is more than 50,000 square miles. Immense quantities have been imported into Liver¬ 
pool during the past year, and from its position we may expect that this town will be 
the principal port of entry into the United Kingdom. 
Some little annoyance was felt on its introduction in quantities twelve months ago, 
in consequence of the unpleasant smell of some of the cargoes, especially those from the 
springs in Canada ; and during last summer loud and very general complaints were made 
in reference to the nauseating effects arising from the oil wherever it was stored, and this 
was so offensive and so detrimental to the health and comfort of the inhabitants in some 
districts, that law proceedings had to be instituted, in order to abate the nuisance; but 
since that time greater care has been taken in storing the crude oil, so as to prevent leak¬ 
age, and the apparatus and arrangements for its purification have also been considerably 
improved, added to which a large quantity is now imported in a purified state : so that 
from all these circumstances it is to be hoped that nothing will in future interfere with 
the free and liberal supply of an article which, like its congener coal, has been aptly de¬ 
signated the concentrated or consolidated sunshine of former epochs of the word’s his¬ 
tory, and which is now to be made use of, especially by the poor man, in producing an 
artificial sunshine—though far inferior to the original—around the hearths and homes 
which, alas! in too many instances the rays of the great luminary are permitted to enter 
only to a very limited extent. A number of other papers followed in due succession, 
and on the last occasion of our meeting, three weeks ago, we were favoured by Dr. 
Nevins with a highly interesting lecture on the Cultivation of the Cinchonas in India ; 
and from the manner in which he brought the subject before us, every one, I feel assured, 
must have been much gratified. It is a matter of national and even world-wide import¬ 
ance, seeing that quinine has so firmly established itself as one of the most valuable re¬ 
medies of the materia medica”; and that hitherto, Peru and the adjoining countries have 
been the only sources from which we have received our supplies of the bark from which 
this article is procured. 
And I may here remark that botanical subjecis have scarcely had their fair share of 
attention during the past session ; however, I trust that this branch of our education will 
receive due consideration by our younger friends during the summer months. 
You have been already informed that the prize usually given by the President of this 
Association to the pharmacy class has been offered this year for competition to botanical 
students ; and I think I need not remind you that an intimate knowledge of this science 
should be enjoined upon every one before undertaking the very responsible duty of a, 
Pharmaceutical or Dispensing Chemist, and more especially of those whose duty it is 
to purchase the various vegetable remedies of the materia medica from the cultivators 
and importers. Dr. Thomson, in his Dispensatory, when speaking of Helleborus niger , 
says that sometimes the roots of Helleborus viridis, Adonis vernalis , Trollius europceus, 
Actcea spicata , Astrantici major , Aconitum neomontanum are either ignorantly or fraudu¬ 
lently substituted for those of the Black Hellebore; hence the necessity for being able 
to guard against the substitutions. But independently of the necessity of such a quali- 
cation, I think that botany is one of those branches of natural science which must com¬ 
mend itself to every one from the pleasure which is derivable from its pursuit. It has 
often occurred to me that our teachers of botany would be more successful in inducing a 
greater love of the science, were they to commence each course of lectures in a more po¬ 
pular and practical manner, and gradually take up the more difficult and to a novice less 
interesting part, namely, the minute structure, elementary tissue, microscopical examina- 
