THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
YOL. V.—No. VI.— DECEMBER 1st, 1863. 
OUR EVENING MEETINGS. 
The Evening Meetings of the Pharmaceutical Society were, among the earliest 
arrangements of the Institution ; the very Society itself may be said to have 
been founded at such meetings, when a few honest and earnest men of our 
order deemed the time ripe for an effort to elevate Pharmacy in Great Britain 
to the rank which it had long occupied in other countries. 
If we turn back to the early pages of our Journal, we shall see how high an 
importance was attached to the periodical gatherings of Pharmaceutists for the 
friendly discussion of subjects which might be suggested in the ordinary occur¬ 
rences of their every-day experience; how it was dreaded that u the charm of 
novelty and stimulus of fashion ” ceasing to exert their influence, the members 
might u gradually relax in their zeal , the supporters one by one fall off, and that 
which commenced with a blaze , end in smoked 
At the end of twenty years it behoves us to consider well the influence these 
meetings have had in advancing the objects for which they were designed ; the 
interest which has been displayed in them by our members hitherto; and our 
duty for the future. 
First, then, the effect produced; and in estimating it we must look back to 
the views and expectations of our founders, and the condition of tilings at the 
outset. The effect desired was undoubtedly the advancement of Pharmacy by 
Pharmaceutical Chemists , and as a necessary consequence the improvement of 
chemists individually, and the elevation of their status collectively. We find 
in an article published in the Journal of January 1, 1843 :—■ 
u The subjects which generally claim the attention of the Society on these 
occasions, are those which are calculated to elicit practical information, and to 
lead to improvements in the processes daily employed by the Pharmaceutical 
Chemist. We have, until lately, enjoyed no opportunity of comparing our 
ideas on these subjects; we have had but little scientific intercourse with each 
other ; and while every other branch of the medical profession has been pro¬ 
vided with an arena in which new £acts could be promulgated, and new theories 
discussed, the Pharmaceutical Chemists have left their province in the hands of 
others, and neglected those means which might have enabled them to improve 
their position in the profession, and keep pace with the advancement which has 
been making around them.” 
The Pharmacopoeia is spoken of as the text-book of the chemist, with every 
process of which he must be familiar, possessing more practical knowledge of 
the advantages and difficulties of its manipulations than anybody else ; “ and 
VOL. v. 8 
