192 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
student who had most distinguished himself in answering the questions just referred to 
was a pharmaceutical student attending Professor Galloway s class in Dublin. 
Mr. Reynolds (Leeds) said that for some years to come this subject would have to be 
kept before them, and at present there were several of its bearings which had not been 
touched upon during the present discussion. The first appeared to be, how far could 
that body which now controlled pharmacy on behalf of the State, viz. the Pharmaceutical 
Society, promote education in the provinces ? So far as London was concerned, he be¬ 
lieved the want was fully met by the School of Pharmacy in Bloomsbury Square; but 
since that was only sufficient for a tithe of those who required education, there would 
still be the wants of the remainder, who must equally face an inexorable Board of Exa¬ 
miners. The experiment to be made at Newcastle-on-Tyne was of the deepest interest 
to them all, but he could not yet feel confidence to follow the example set them. As 
an ex-lecturer on chemistry in a provincial school of medicine, he did not think that the 
estimation of chemistry held by the medical student was very favourable for associating 
him with the pharmaceutical student, nor might such association be desirable on more 
general grounds. Viewing the action of the State with reference to science, they saw 
that it made grants for apparatus, payments for results to teachers, etc. Ought not the 
Pharmaceutical Society to do something of the same sort ? Certainly it ought not to 
initiate provincial schools, for only those deserved help who first helped themselves. 
The provinces were, to say the least, the backbone of the Society - , and he thought that 
provincial museums had a fair claim for aid from the parent Society. 
Mr. Savage (Brighton) explained the new regulations for the Preliminary Examina¬ 
tion of the Pharmaceutical Society, showing that the new state of things consequent 
upon the Pharmacy Act required greater uniformity in the examinations than could be 
attained under the old system. He hoped that the Universities could help them to ob¬ 
tain the educational facilities which they required. The South Kensington classes in 
Brighton were conhned to Art. 
Mr. Schacht replied on the whole question. He commenced by referring to the dif¬ 
ficulties named by Mr. Atkins, but he considered that Clifton and Bristol were not a 
favourable field for his experiment, because they were well supplied with Science classes. 
In smaller places there would not be these competing influences, and therefore he thought 
it ought to be easier to gather a class of from five to ten students. As to the teacher, 
he had tried to place himself on a level with the students as a fellow-student, and whilst 
giving them the best explanations in his power, he had taught them that it was the 
class-book which was instructing them. The number of medical schools in England 
seemed to him to be too few to influence the question very greatly, but he earnestly 
wished success to the exertions of Mr. Brady and their other friends in the north. His 
own experience, however, was completely against allying medical with pharmaceutical 
students, and it was based upon the fact that of five of his own pupils who had 
attended lectures on chemistry at the Bristol School of Medicine, not less than four had 
altered their original purpose, and becoming dissatisfied with pharmacy, had given it 
up. The association of medical with pharmaceutical students for the study of chemistry 
did not appear to him likely to assist the attentiveness of the latter. 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF BUXINE. 
BY DR. FLiiCKIGER, 
HON. MEMBER OF THE BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
(Abstract of Author's paper in the Neues Jahrbuch fur Pharmacie, xxxi. (1869), 257, 
with additional notes.) 
The Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions for July of the present 
year, contains an interesting paper by Drs. Maclagan and Gamgee on the 
alkaloids discovered by them in the wood of the Bibiru-tree, Nectandra 
Podiei , Schomburgk, to which I beg leave to add the following results of my 
examination of the hitherto so-called alkaloid Bihirine . The composition 
