52 
LIVERPOOL CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
of business, ‘ tablespoonful ’ has accidentally been written instead of ‘ teaspoonful ’ by the 
dispenser. Directions have also been written occasionally which were not quite so 
legible as might be. Bottles containing mixtures and liniments are also very liable to 
have their labels partially defaced by the carelessness of the nurse in pouring out their 
contents. In all these cases a reference to the directions in the prescription would ob¬ 
viate any difficulty. I am not aware that any sufficient reason can be advanced against 
the general adoption of the practice. I may observe that it is becoming much more 
frequent than it was formerly, and several eminent physicians and general practitioners 
do it invariably. I have seen it somewhere stated that it is an advantage to have a pre¬ 
scription written entirely in Latin, so that in these days of cheap travelling and in¬ 
tercommunication with foreign countries, it might with equal facility be dispensed in 
any part of Europe ; but practically, this facility would in no manner be interfered with. 
As I have mentioned to you on a former occasion, the great object which this Associa¬ 
tion has in view is the raising of the qualification of the rising generation of chemists 
and druggists ; and this I hope will be steadily kept in view, and that our labours, how¬ 
ever humble, will be directed to one common object, namely, the happiness and prospe¬ 
rity of the nation at large. Since the commencement of the session, I am glad to 
observe that two Societies, identical, I believe, in their object and constitution with this,, 
have been inaugurated with every prospect of success, namely, one at Leeds, and the 
other at Nottingham ; and I should be glad to see other important towns following in 
the same path. It would prove one of the most efficient means of strengthening and 
forwarding the object of our national exemplar, the Pharmaceutical Society, which has 
laboured anxiously, earnestly, and not unsuccessfully for upwards of twenty years in 
promoting the education and welfare of the chemists and druggists of Great Britain, and 
which Society it should be our duty and pleasure to support by all the means in our 
power. It has rendered good service to the cause of pharmacy, and is destined, at no 
distant day, to be the lever by which the chemists and druggists of this country are to 
be raised to an educational status equal to that of the pharmaceutists of the greater 
part of the continent of Europe, and to that social position corresponding to the respon¬ 
sible duties they are called upon to perform. 
Science, during the past century, has done much for us, but there are hidden mines of 
knowledge which have yet to be opened, worked, and applied for the benefit of mankind. 
In this age of progress what mighty changes have taken place, and mostly the result of 
scientific skill; and many of the most important are more or less the result of chemical 
investigation. I was interested a short time ago by seeing an old flint, steel, and tinder- 
box, that had seen good service many years ago, but which now had been consigned to a 
quiet existence,—comparatively speaking, neglected, but not forgotten, for the owner 
appeared to value them as relics of bygone days ; their services, however, have been su¬ 
perseded by one of the triumphs of chemical science, namely, the ordinary friction- 
match,—an article that every member of the civilized world will value for its utility and 
convenience, and the great loss of which we could form only a slight conception by being 
carried back for a few months to things as they were thirty or forty years ago. Also 
our cities and towns, and even some of our villages, notwithstanding the periodical de¬ 
parture out of our sight of that great luminary from whence all light, whether natural 
or artificial, directly or indirectly proceeds, are now brilliantly lighted up during the 
night, and form a strange contrast to what we are told existed half a century ago. Many 
other results of chemical skill, both in connection with medicine and the arts generally, 
might be mentioned. The land, which formerly yielded a good return of the fruits of 
the earth which administer so much to our comfort and actual existence, has, by the aid 
of agricultural chemistry, been made to yield her increase in greater abundance; and 
also by the aid and adaptation of chemical knowledge to mechanical appliances, the labour 
which in years gone by required so many weeks is now accomplished in as many days, 
and this at an immense saving of human as well as animal life ; and the fact now de¬ 
monstrable that the combustion of one pound of coal properly applied being equivalent 
to one day’s work of a man, in certain descriptions of labour, has been of incalculable 
value to the comfort both of man and of the brute creation. We have our steamboats 
constantly ploughing the Atlantic from shore to shore,—a thing considered impossible 
not many years ago. We have our railway system like a network over the kingdom, 
contributing to the comfort and celerity of travelling, and opening up mines of wealth, 
both in the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, in this and many other coimtries of tho 
