362 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[November 9,1872. 
in 18G9, to draw up an international pharmacopoeia, 
the object of which would be to establish uniformity 
in pharmaceutical preparations all over Europe. 
Among the active workers in this enterprise are 
mentioned Signor Cantini, Naples; Herr Fliickiger, 
Berne; M. Planclion, Paris; Herr Schneider, 
Vienna; Dr. Thudiclium, London; and M. Trapp, 
St. Petersburg. The notice further states that the 
work is progressing, but is not yet finished. 
When I first read this statement I thought it 
might possibly refer to the work that was brought 
under the notice of the Congress at Vienna, and I 
applied to Dr. Thudichum for further information 
on the subject. 
Dr. Thudichum has kindly consented to attend 
here this evening, and to explain the general cha¬ 
racter of the work on which he is engaged. There 
are two or three questions connected with the pre¬ 
paration of such a work which appear to possess 
sufficient interest to members of the pharma¬ 
ceutical body to justify their introduction here. 
Thus, for instance, it would be interesting to us to 
know what language the work is intended to be 
published in; how the question of weights and 
measures is to be dealt with, whether quantities 
are to be represented by reference to specified 
weights, or simply by the use of proportional num¬ 
bers : and whether the book, when ready, is in any 
way to be used in the manner proposed b}*- the 
Societe de Pliarmacie of Paris, with the view of 
eliciting the opinions of medical men and pharma¬ 
cists as to the best processes for the preparation of 
medicines. 
The primary idea involved in the proposition for 
having an universal pharmacopoeia is that all medi¬ 
cines bearing the same names should be of the same 
strength and composition in whatever country they 
are used. This is the first and most important ob¬ 
ject contemplated. But there are other objects 
which are more immediately susceptible of accom- 
plisliment. While the medicines used in different 
countries differ, a work describing them all, and 
comprising formulas for the preparations included 
in the various authorized pharmacopoeias, would 
afford a comparative view of the pharmacy of diffe¬ 
rent nations, the study of which would be beneficial 
to those using the work. Such a work would also 
afford to pharmacists the information they require in 
dispensing foreign prescriptions. The two last 
named objects may be realized at once, while that 
first named can only be carried into effect by slow 
degrees. 
I believe we are entitled in this country to the 
credit of having made the first successful attempt to 
abolish the anomaly of the co-existence among 
people of the same nation, of authorized processes 
for the preparation of medicines bearing the same 
names but differing in strength or composition. 
Germany has recently followed our example b} r 
establishing one uniform standard in the place of 
several standards for the composition of medi¬ 
cines used in that country. Sweden, Denmark 
and Norway have gone even a step further, and 
have attempted, although as yet with only par¬ 
tial success, to effect the assimilation in strength 
and composition of the officially authorised medi¬ 
cines of the three nations, thus establishing a sort 
of international standard. 
All this evidently tends toward the adoption of a 
universal pharmacopoeia with the primary object 
realized ; and although it may be a long time before 
the difficulties in the way of superseding our na¬ 
tional pharmacopoeias by such a work can be over¬ 
come, if they can be at all, the adoption of the 
means best calculated to bring about that result 
appears to present collateral advantages which ought 
to insure its being put into operation. 
No doubt can be entertained as to the desirability 
of having such a work as that described at the 
Vienna meeting in 18G9, and if the work now an¬ 
nounced, and of which Dr. Thudichum is one of the 
editors, has similiar objects, and is likely to super¬ 
sede the other, we should be glad to have some 
more definite information with reference to it. It is 
with a view to the attainment of that result that I 
have introduced the subject here this evening. 
[The discussion upon this paper is reported at p. 370.] 
LORD GRANVILLE AND THE BISHOP OF WIN¬ 
CHESTER ON THE OXFORD LOCAL EXAMINATIONS. 
The distribution of prizes and certificates in connec¬ 
tion with the Ramsgate centre of the Oxford local 
examination, took place on Tuesday, October 29th. The 
report showed that 44 candidates out of 99 were entitled 
to certificates and 8 to prizes. 
After the distribution, in the course of some remarks. 
Lord Granville said that of late years he had been 
intimately connected with the London University, 
and he w r as proud of the progress that institution 
had made both as regards numbers and in extending 
the curricula of education in this country. He could 
not forget, however, that he had spent two very 
pleasant years of his life in the older University of 
Oxford, where he graduated at nineteen, perhaps too 
early. It was most agreeable to him to assist at a 
distribution of prizes consequent upon the examination 
instituted with such success by that old university 
upon a system which at the time he was an undergradu¬ 
ate would have been difficult, if not impossible. If they 
looked at the report, at the number of subjects included 
in the examinations, and at the names of the candidates, 
who, he was informed, belonged to almost every possible 
creed in that district, they would see the liberal manner 
in which the examinations were carried on, and that they 
owed a debt of gratitude for the course the old university 
had taken. He believed that these examinations were of 
use in almost every possible way. They gave a great 
stimulus to the interest taken by parents in the education 
of their children, enabled them to form a judgment as to 
how and where their children could be best educated. 
With regard to the teachers themselves, he believed 
they would all agree with him that in their work of 
teaching they received most valuable lessons from the 
examinations, as they showed them the faults of their 
modes of teaching. It was the examination which 
taught a boy to know his own deficiencies and when he 
succeeded better than anything else could do. Unless 
they brought these things to some sort of test, they were 
not sure whether they had knowledge or not, and there 
was no test more sure than that of being examined by 
capable and intellectual men, thoroughly versed in the 
subjects, who did their best to ascertain, not whether a 
boy was merely crammed, but really understood what 
he had studied. 
The prizes given by the committee of the local centres 
for London, Finchley, Streatham Hill and Southwark 
were distributed on October 30, in the Theatre of the 
London University, by the Bishop of Winchester. His 
Lordship, after expressing the pleasure he experienced 
in distributing the prizes, said if the great universitiee 
of the land w r ere to do the work for which they were 
founded, they must reach the different ranks of society 
and of education to an extent which of late years these 
