376 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [November 9.1872. 
sands of a shallow, shifting, and time-serving expediency ? 
May I ask, has the great hody of our trade less 
pressing duties than these of your Council ? Cannot 
our pharmaceutical organization claim that all of us 
whose interests are identical should he united in one 
clanship for our general good, and thus afford to the 
Pharmaceutical Society that grand support which should 
he coextensive with the duties it is called upon to per¬ 
form in connection with the advancement of the interests 
of our calling ; that, like Antaeus who, giant though he 
was, sprung with renewed vigour from touching his 
mothor earth, the Pharmaceutical Council shall find its 
strength augmented each time it comes into contact with 
that constituency to the favour of whose suffrages it 
owes its existence. I trust our numbers will so increase 
that ere long, at our Council election, the last elected will 
receive more votes than were lately given to Messrs. 
Hills and Schacht. In thus forming an organization 
equivalent to our numbers, and the representation of our 
political strength, we are doing citizen’s duty, inasmuch 
as that aggregate hody politic called the State is hut a 
confederation of numerous yet well-defined interests 
similar to ours; and no one can suffer wrong without 
causing dissatisfaction and discontent, and thus weaken¬ 
ing at least one part of our national edifice. And is not 
internal disintegration the forerunner of the dissolution 
of a State F You have many of you no doubt asked of 
yourselves half diffidently the question—“Will Eng¬ 
land’s sun ever set ? Will her astounding prosperity 
develope the germs of her decadence ? ” The future 
historian may write of her as of Troy, “Anglia fuit;” 
the sites of her cities may be traced in ruins as of 
Nineveh, or of Tadmor in the Desert. Your harbour 
may be again choked up by the silting sands, and your 
commerce dwindle down to the produce of your sea 
fisheries, under the hard laws of the future though un¬ 
born oppressor of your race. No man can penetrate the veil 
of the early future in the struggle for supremacy among 
peoples, still less can he pierce that wall of adamant 
that shuts out the far future from mortal ken. But of 
this there is no doubt, England will retain her fame if 
each man performs his personal, corporative and political 
duties. It behoves us thus to be educated, to give form 
and force to our public opinion, and thus add our share 
to a prevailing internal contentment. 
Gather then round the Pharmaceutical Society in 
your numbers, support it in your strength, that what is 
now an institution of this country may descend to our 
successors as a sanctuary in which have been preserved 
inviolate the privileges of our guild. 
It is. self-evident that such an union must lead to 
beneficial and all-important results; to the removing of 
the commercial anomalies which still hang about our call¬ 
ing, to our becoming the only dispensers of medicine by 
legalizing the practice adopted by our most eminent 
physicians and surgeons and universally followed by the 
medical profession on the Continent and in America ; to 
improved conditions of entering and following our trade, 
that a higher tone may prevail and a juster equiva¬ 
lent for education and responsibility be secured; whilst 
the scope for our energies directed by a more systematic 
training, will be enlarged by the additional wants 
created in our manufactures, the requirements of the 
State or our municipalities in analysing, and by the 
increased demand for teachers, contributors to scientific 
literature, or examiners in our own society, etc. 
These are not shadowy but substantial results, that 
can be worked for by our co-operative corporation. In 
difficulties that would tempt us into discouragement, in 
a tardiness that may mortify expectation and make the 
heart sick, play out your part with your northern tenacity 
of purpose, allow your individual interests to be in¬ 
terwoven into one organization, like the harmonious 
blending of colours in your native tartans. Words 
uttered in many previous addresses you have adopted, 
and they are now watch-words of our society. The 
President of the Pharmaceutical Conference, Mr- 
Brady, fires our ardour by giving us the secret of his 
own indomitable energy in speaking to us the word 
“thorough.” Mr. Ince has pointed out the difficulty 
and the object in the phrase, “ Strive to succeed.” Our 
neighbour, Mr. Mackay, has described in eloquent words 
how excellence has been and is to be attained. And 
what can I contribute ? Nothing of my own; but I ask 
you in working out the future of the Pharmaceutical 
Society, and your future, to read attentively the few 
lines in which the poet summarizes the dangers of a hero 
about to found institutions that have survived to our 
day, and whose labours were to give birth to a noble and. 
conquering people :— 
“ Multum ille et terris jactatus et alto 
Yi superum, ssevse memorem Junonis ob iram, 
Multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem, 
Inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum 
Albanique patre 3 , atque altse mcenia Romse.” 
Gentlemen, I have said what you have hut too- 
patiently heard, and I hasten to conclude. We have 
communed on the duties of the present, the expectations 
and hopes of the future. On parting I utter not a bar¬ 
ren wish, but my confidence that you will realize your 
utmost hopes and highest ambition. I would fain be¬ 
lieve there exists a bond of sympathy between my¬ 
self and you in whom rest the future hopes of phar¬ 
macy ; that you will in cultivating the field of science, 
as in the commercial duties of your lives, hold firmly the 
handles of the plough of industry, and press its blade deep 
into the soil, that its treasures and rewards may be har¬ 
vested. You will cast no look behind you, neither 
divert to the right or to the left. For a Being, sublime 
in wisdom, supreme in power, who has imbued you with 
the delight of existing and given you immortality as 
your birthright, has placed before you the polestar of 
a glorious future lot, and, if you rightly seek to reach it,, 
will ever be ready to prosper you in your course. 
At the conclusion of the address, on the motion of 
Mr. Currie, seconded by Mr. Kinninmont, the lecturer 
was awarded a hearty vote of thanks. 
Mr. Eairlie then, in the name of the association, begged 
that Mr. Betty would allow his address to be published. 
This was seconded by Mr. Frazer, and agreed to. 
Mr. Currie intimated to the meeting that he had some 
thoughts of forming a class for apprentices and others- 
for the study of the old Edinburgh and the present 
British Pharmacopoeias. After some discussion it was 
agreed that a meeting of council should be held on an 
early date, when Mr. Currie’s proposal should receive- 
full consideration. 
A hearty vote of thanks having been accorded to the 
Chairman, the meeting dissolved. 
MIDLAND COUNTIES CHEMISTS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
The first monthly meeting of the session 1872-3 was 
held on Friday, November 1 st, at the rooms in the- 
Quadrant, Birmingham; Mr. T. W. Holdsworth in the 
chair. 
Mr. J. Bower Williams, A.P.S., read a paper entitled 
“ Notes on Dispensing,” in which he pointed out several 
difficulties in dispensing pills, mixtures, etc., which had 
come under his observation. Mr. Williams alluded to- 
the inutility of ordering non-officinal preparations, as- 
exemplified by the following— 
P> Morph. Mur.gr. j. 
Bals. Copaib. ' . . . * 5y* 
Syr. Tolutani . . . . % ss. 
Decoct. Glycyrrhiz. Fort ad 3 viij. 
On the question of the right of dispensers to alter pre¬ 
scriptions, he instanced the following as one presenting, 
some little difficulty— 
