404 
LIVERPOOL CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
and was convinced great good would arise from the carrying out of the great desideratum, 
local examinations. 
In reply, Dr. Edwards explained the course the Council had taken to ascertain the 
desirability of holding local examinations, and while the evidence collected was in the 
main favourable to the change, it was insufficient to warrant the Council in moving- 
further in the matter than to appoint on the Board of Examiners a number of gentlemen 
from the great industrial centres of the country, thus preparing the machinery for action so 
soon as a sufficient requisition was received from provincial candidates for examination. 
Mr. Mercer expressed dissatisfaction with this reply, and intimated he would renew 
the subject on a future occasion. 
John Abraham, Esq., then opened a discussion on the British Pharmacopoeia, com¬ 
mencing with the weights and measures, and commenting seriatim on the various changes 
in the Materia Medica. After a lengthened discussion, in which Drs. Nevins and Ayrton 
and several members took part, it was resolved to adjourn the meeting until Thursday 
evening, the 18th inst., at 8 o’clock. 
CONVERSAZIONE. 
The members and friends of the Association held a Conversazione on the 14th of Janu¬ 
ary, at the Royal Institution. The doors were opened at half-past six o’clock, p.m., and 
in the course of a little more than half an hour about three hundred ladies and gentle¬ 
men had arrived, and were soon occupied in viewing the various subjects of interest 
which had been collected for the occasion in various parts of the building. 
A large number of philosophical apparatus, works of art and manufacture, including 
mechanical figures, new timekeepers, some very beautiful photographs and stereoscopic 
✓ views which attracted much attraction, and other interesting objects were exhibited in the 
museums, the whole of which, together with the gallery of art and museum of economic 
science, were thrown open to the company. Several members of the Liverpool Natural 
History and Microscopic Society, and the Microscopic Club, very kindly attended with 
their microscopes and exhibited numerous interesting objects. 
Mr. Carr, of Birkenhead, exhibited his newly-invented drug-grinding machine, with 
which several members expressed themselves well pleased, especially with regard to its 
portability. 
Mr. T. J. Moore, by the permission of the Free Library and Museum Committee, ex¬ 
hibited some very interesting additions which have recently been made to the Free 
Public Museum, and these included a large specimen of the sun-fisli, five feet in length, 
captured off the south-west coast of England; a fine specimen of the reindeer, one of a 
pair from Norway; two large sponges, called “ Neptune’s Goblets,” from Sincapore ; 
twelve models of Plindoo and other natives of Bengal; models of ichthyosaurus, plesio¬ 
saurus, iguanodon, etc.; specimen and cast of pterygotus of large size from the Upper 
Ludlow lock, Lesmahagow, known to quarrymen as the “ seraphim portions of the 
skull, jaw, and dermal plates of trematosaurus, a labyrinthodont reptile allied to that 
which produced the footprints at Stourton quarry; the skull, jaws, and other bones of 
a large specimen of the great fossil cave bear, from Arriege, in the south of France, one 
of the extinct species contemporary with prehistoric man ; and fishes from America, im¬ 
ported by Capt. Mortimer, Associate of the Literary and Philosophical Society of this 
town. Not the least interesting objects were six of the new Dircksian phantasmagoria, 
illustrating the marvellous optical illusions constituting “ the Ghost,” as produced in the 
c Spectre’ drama. These were exhibited by Messrs. Ilorne and Thornthwaite, the manu¬ 
facturers, through the courtesy of Mr. Henry Dircks, C.E., the inventor. There was also 
a larger one which Mr. FI. S. Evans, the honorary secretary of the Chemists’ Association, 
had had constructed. This attracted much attention, and considerable difficulty was 
experienced by visitors in getting near it, on account of so many desiring to see the phan¬ 
tom, In the course of the evening Mr. Evans explained the principle of the production 
of the illusion, in the large lecture-room, by means of a coloured diagram. 
At half-past seven, the chair was taken in the large lecture room, by Mr. Shaw, the 
President of the Association, who expressed the gratification which he felt at seeing so large 
an audience, and was especially pleased to find that they were honoured with the presence 
of a very, considerable number of ladies, remarking that the large attendance that evening 
was evidence of the continued and increasing vitality of the Chemists’ Association. After 
acknowledging the obligation of the council to several kind friends who had contributed 
