THE ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 
101 
the answers thereto having been written by the candidates, in a given time 
under proper supervision, are to be forwarded to, and estimated by the Board. 
We presume, as this ordeal is to test the general, and not the technical education 
of a youth, that the certificates heretofore recognized, of certain duly constituted 
examining boards, will still be received, but for lads who do not possess such 
certificates we think the new proposition a good one. Too much importance 
can scarcely be attached to the early education of apprentices, and we hope to 
see the day when no chemist will sign articles with a youth who has not pre¬ 
viously passed the Preliminary Examination of the Pharmaceutical Society. 
On one point we would venture to offer a word of advice to the Council. The 
distance from London which is to exempt a candidate from personal attendance 
at Bloomsbury Square is put down as ten miles. Surely in these days of rapid 
and inexpensive travelling there can be no difficulty to a parent in sending his 
son ten or even twenty miles for the purpose of passing an examination on 
which so much in his future career may depend. The same remark applies to 
the provinces. It is of the utmost importance to intrust the superintendence of 
these proceedings to men of high standing in their districts; by such a pre¬ 
caution only will these examinations, however little the superintendents may be 
concerned in them actually, retain their proper value in public estimation. 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL CONPERENCE. 
The meeting of the Conference at Exeter has proved in every way a satis¬ 
factory one. The attendance has been about equal to that at former gather¬ 
ings of a similar sort, and the matter which has come under discussion has 
been both abundant and interesting. These meetings are obviously calcu¬ 
lated to do a great amount of good, and the cordial reception given to the 
members from year to year in the different parts of the country visited shows 
how generally the objects of the Conference are appreciated. The bringing 
together of men who are engaged in similar occupations, and inducing them 
to discuss topics of common interest in connection with their trade or profes¬ 
sional pursuits is an important step towards the improvement of their rela¬ 
tions to each other and to the public. Meetings of this description have long 
been established among chemists and druggists in the metropolis and in many 
provincial towns, but it remained for the Pharmaceutical Conference to bring 
the metropolis into closer communion with the provinces and the provinces 
into closer communion with each other. That this important service is be¬ 
ing satisfactorily performed by the Conference their proceedings at Exeter, 
a report of which will be found in another part of this Journal, affords ample 
evidence. Our readers will be glad to learn that they may confidently look 
forward for the appearance, at no distant period, of a ‘ Year-Book of Phar¬ 
macy ’ as one of the fruits of the Conference. 
THE ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 
The unparalleled success which attended the Great Exhibition of 1851 
induced a belief that it was the precursor of a long succession of similar 
displays, and although this may not be fully realized, yet springing from the 
tangible results of that first attempt of the sort in this country, we are now 
promised a modified reproduction of it as an annual exhibition. The Royal 
Commissioners, who are the guardians of the large fund which has accumu- 
