LIVERPOOL CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
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appeared.” I wish I could think that the work was being universally followed ; hut as 
far as I can hear, in many places it is not. In the words of a correspondent, “ the style 
of doing things is rather old-fashioned, the Brit. Pharm. being almost a dead letter.” I 
need not point out, what you know so well, that prescriptions travelling from an old- 
fashioned to a new circle of pharmaceutists, or vice versa, may become seriously changed 
in composition, as in tinct. aconiti, in liq. ammonise acetatis, liq. morphiae, ung. prsecip. 
alb., syr. sennse, etc. But it is surprising to me that intelligent men should ignore 
the manifest improvements of the new regime, as in the infusions which are ordered 
variously to be made, some with cold, some with tepid, and some with boiling water, and 
generally to stand for shorter times, so as easily to be made extemporaneously without 
loss. The desirableness of adhering strictly to the prescribed forms, and not resorting 
to other methods, cannot, I think, be questioned. 
Since the subsidence of this commotion, we have had a still greater on the matter of 
legislation. Hopes were entertained of our business being elevated and improved by an 
enactment which should confine the dispensing of prescriptions to examined men. Very 
great efforts were made by the Pharmaceutical Society, throughout the country, to secure 
the passing of such a measure, but for the present, as you know, with no satisfactory re¬ 
sult. The principles of free trade have been thought to be in opposition to the desired 
restrictions in dispensing. And so the matter rests ; and perhaps, as we say of railway 
accidents, until a score of directors are killed, no effective remedies will be found, so it 
may require some pharmaceutical catastrophe to cut off a few magnates, ere we can 
hope to find new views prevailing on the subject in influential quarters. One thing 
however remains, viz. much valuable evidence taken on the subject. 
I cannot help remarking the spread of institutions like our own. They are beginning 
to appear in many of the large towns, and to mark, I hope, a new era in our history. 
Very little cohesion is generally thought to be possessed by our faternity, but rather 
that a repellent force drives its particles asunder. Cheering signs, however, are afforded 
that this state of things is fast vanishing, and more brotherly and cordial feelings taking 
its place. Union is strength, generally progress, certainly is happier than isolation or 
antagonism. No feature of present progress is more remarkable than the Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Conferences, the third of w r hich has just been held at Birmingham. Elicited by 
that organization, the attention which is being paid to Pharmacy, and the advancement 
of our art generally, is very remarkable. If the establishment of the Pharmaceutical 
Society ushered in an epoch in our annals, the Conference does another, and before 
long we may hope to see its benefits felt widely throughout the kingdom. The pleasure 
of attending the late meeting in Birmingham, to those who had that privilege, must 
have been very great. I cannot refrain from pressing upon you the duty of attentively 
reading the opening address of the President, Mr. Henry Deane, because, as the editor of 
the Pharmaceutical Journal says, “ like everything that emanates from Mr. Deane, it 
demands and will repay a careful perusal.” Speaking of the social position of Pharma¬ 
ceutical Chemists, he says, “ The love of truth must not be confined to science, and pur¬ 
sued merely in the desire for gain, although we have an undoubted right to live by our 
labour, ingenuity, and skill, yet the idea associated with it must be extended to every 
relation of life. We must be reliable men, of unflinching integrity and honour, whose 
words must be our bond, and whose lives must accord with our profession; and, while 
resolved to be well paid for our labours and responsibilities, and while to meet the de¬ 
mands of an exacting public we must necessarily exert our ingenuity to devise something 
new, whereby we may avoid being left behind in the great struggle for existence, let us 
beware that we do not trench on other men’s grounds or fields of action ; let us strive to 
do unto others as we would have them to do unto us. There is no trade or calling, with 
which I am acquainted, that is so capable of a high development as that we are privi¬ 
leged to follow. Some of the greatest and most honoured men in Europe have been 
chemists and pharmaceutists, keeping open shop for the sale of their commodities and 
the dispensing of medicines. I allude to such men as Godfrey Hankwitz, Luke Howard, 
William Allen, and John Bell, in England; Pelletier, Guibourt, Fordas, and others, in 
France; Scheele, in Sweden, and in Germany a host of names, all of whom will be 
handed down to posterity, for generations to come, as benefactors to society and fit asso¬ 
ciates of princes. What these men have done, we also can, in some degree at least, 
emulate ; and, by following earnestly such examples, do all that is needed to induce the 
world at large to accord to us the position we seek. But if, in an unhealthy and ques- 
