THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
VOL. VII.—No. XII.—JUNE, 1866 . 
MEETING OE THE MEDICAL COUNCIL. 
The General Council of Medical Education and Registration for the United 
Kingdom commenced its sittings for the present year on Thursday, the 17th of 
May, under the presidency of Dr. Burrows. The President, in his opening 
address, alluded as follows to the forthcoming edition of the ‘ British Pharma¬ 
copoeia.’ u In the Session of 1864 the Council appointed a committee to take 
steps for the preparation of a new edition of the ‘ British Pharmacopoeia,’ and 
during the last Session the Pharmacopoeia Committee made a report to the 
Council, which was adopted. The Council afterwards thought fit to pass a 
resolution which may have led members of Council to suppose that a proof copy 
of the new edition would be in the hands of members one month before this 
meeting of Council, but the Pharmacopoeia Committee did not pledge them¬ 
selves to this effect, and the report from the Pharmacopoeia Committee will no 
doubt give a full account of the present state of that work, and of the causes 
which may have interfered with the realization of the expectations of members 
of Council and the profession.’’ It may be inferred from this statement that 
the Pharmacopoeia is not yet ready for distribution, but we believe we are 
justified in stating that the work is in type, and may be expected to appear very 
shortly, unless some fresh cause of delay should occur. 
The first subject submitted to the Council for its decision was one in which 
our readers will feel much interested. It appears that at the last meeting of the 
British Association the sub-section of Physiology determined to memorialize the 
Medical Council, suggesting to them “ by pecuniary grants aod the appoint¬ 
ment of suitable persons, to undertake investigation into the physiological 
action of medicines.” The memorialists say, “ a few agents, when administered 
in poisonous doses, have alone been made the subjects of such research; and 
whilst the medical effects of even such well-known agents as quinine have been 
admitted for ages, their modes of action are still unknown. Even to this 
moment our knowledge of the action of remedies rests only upon ordinary ob¬ 
servations and general inferences. 
“ The Committee is well aware of the extreme difficulty of prosecuting exact 
physiological inquiries in states of disease, and above all, of the necessity Tor 
devising new modes of investigation ; but bearing in mind recent researches of 
an analogous nature in health, they do not doubt there are physiologists and 
physicians of proved ability in such researches who would be able to devise the 
methods and bring the results to a satisfactory conclusion. 
VOL. vii. . 2 Q 
