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PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
5. Explain the action of the Siphon. 
6 . Describe Sulphur , its sources, the means by which it is purified, its allotropic modifi¬ 
cations, and its principal combinations with hydrogen and oxygen. 
7. Describe the Pharmacopoeia process for the preparation of Diluted Hydrocyanic Acid , 
showing the decompositions which occur in the process, and the method by 
which the strength of the acid is determined. 
8 . Describe some of the processes by which artificial organic bases are obtained, and 
specify two or three bodies produced by such means. 
The Chairman presented the prize and certificates to the successful candi¬ 
dates with a few appropriate words. 
MATERIA MEDICA AND BOTANY. 
Professor Bentley, in presenting his report touching the Botany and Ma¬ 
teria Medica Class, said that in the year 1842 he was a student of that Society, 
and received the first prize ever given in a school of pharmacy, and he could 
never look back but with pleasure to that occasion when he received it at the 
hands of William Allen, a name well known not only in the field of science, 
but also as a great philanthropist. In the year 1848-9 he made his first report as 
Professor of Botany at that institution, when he was able to speak in the very 
highest terms of the regularity of attendance, the good conduct and diligence of 
the students, and from that time to the present he had uniformly to make the 
same report. On the present, as on former occasions, he had the pleasure of 
saying that the students of that institution, as regarded regularity, diligence, 
and perseverance, bore a very favourable comparison with those of any other 
establishment in London. During the twenty-one years for which he had had 
charge of the Botany Class, the numbers attending it had very largely increased, 
there having been during the past session 132 students. This was a very 
gratifying fact, and spoke well for the spread of scientific education. With 
regard to the prize competition, a good deal of what he had intended to say had 
been anticipated by Professor Redwood. It was generally the case that when 
young men associated together they formed a pretty accurate estimate of each 
other’s capabilities, and refrained from entering a competition in which they 
felt sure they would not be successful in winning the first prize. As he had 
said last year, this was a great mistake, and he had been pleased to find some 
increase in the number of competitors, but still not so much as there might have 
been. He would again repeat, that it. was not the prize itself which was the 
great advantage, honourable as the distinction might be; the great advantage 
was the amount of knowledge acquired by the student in working up for the exa¬ 
mination, and it must be remembered that although there was only one senior 
prize, certificates of honour and certificates of merit were given to all who 
gained a sufficient number of marks. The first prize had been awarded to Mr. 
W. II. Smith, a certificate of honour to Mr. J. Ingham, and a certificate of 
merit to Mr. F. Beasley. There was both a vied voce and a written examina¬ 
tion. In the viva voce the maximum number of marks attainable being 33, one 
had obtained 30, aud the other two 31, whilst of a maximum total of 133, Mr. 
Smith had gained 117, a very high percentage indeed. Of Mr. Ingham, who 
had already taken one prize, he could also speak in terms of the very highest 
praise, aud Mr. Beasley also was well deserving of the certificate of merit. 
The questions were as follows :— 
1. Describe the structure of Epidermal Tissue and its Stomata. 
2 . Describe the physical and chemical characteristics of Chlorophyll. State where it 
is found, the conditions favourable to its development, and the changes which 
it undergoes at different seasons of the year. 
