THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
VOL. V.—No. V.—NOVEMBER 1st, 1SG3. 
TITE BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
In a former number of this Journal, at page 58 of the present volume, we 
published an address, signed by a considerable number of the members of the 
Pharmaceutical Society, and some others, inviting their pharmaceutical brethren 
to join them at a Conference to be held at Newcastle-on-Tyne at the time of the 
meeting of the British Association there. The Conference has met, and its pro¬ 
ceedings were fully reported in our last number; but as the reasons which 
have led to the formation of this new Association have not yet been very fully 
discussed, we propose to offer a few observations upon the subject here. The- 
proposition for the formation of this Conference originated with provincial 
members of the Pharmaceutical Society, and it appears to have been designed to 
meet what was felt to be a provincial want. When Lord Bacon said, u Every 
man is a debtor to his profession, from the which as men do of course seek to 
receive countenance and profit, so ought they to endeavour of themselves, byway 
of amends to be a help and ornament thereto,” he certainly did not limit the 
application of the axiom to residents in the metropolis. The opportunity of 
meeting for scientific purposes and for the cultivation of friendly feelings is no- 
less desirable among provincial pharmaceutists than it is among those who reside 
in London. Means are provided for having such meetings in London, and in 
some of the larger provincial towns, but there has hitherto been felt to be a 
want of suitable opportunities for bringing into active operation the latent or 
cultivated talents of men who have made pharmacy their study and their 
profession, but who, from their isolated positions in the provinces, are deprived 
of the stimulating influence of scientific association with men of their own 
calling. These men cannot come, or do not come, to London to join in the in¬ 
vestigation and discussion of subjects affecting the interests of pharmacy. They 
feel shut out from communion of thought with their fellows, and lose the in¬ 
terest they would otherwise experience in the progress of scientific inquiry. 
It is not merely with reference to pharmacy that the prejudicial influence of 
provincial isolation has thus been felt. Similar effects have been experienced in 
other departments of science, and it was with the view of affording a remedy 
upon a broad scale for such effects that the British Association for the Advance¬ 
ment of Science was instituted. Other associations have also been formed upon a 
similar basis. Thus the meetings of the Social Science Congress are held from year 
to year in different parts of the country, like those of the British Association. Sc> 
in like manner the British Medical Association, the British Archaeological As¬ 
sociation, and other associations, meet in the provinces with the view of stimu- 
YOL. Y. P 
