462 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS, 
[December 14,1372, 
thought I attach too much importance to this; but, 
has it not been a curse to this business for many 
years, a bar to enlightenment and progress, the 
spoiler of social and home comforts, and a barrier 
which impedes the progress of associations such as 
this ? . When will men of pharmacy merge their 
petty jealousies, forego their inordinate desire for gain, 
and regulate their hours of employment more in ac¬ 
cordance with Nature’s laws rather than according 
to the arbitrary and absurd ones which they have 
prescribed for themselves ? I believe there is in every 
individual a certain amount of energy,—different 
in different individuals of course, but in all there is 
this energy, partly mental, partly physical, partly 
active, partly passive,—and that a great portion, if 
not the whole of this active force, is transmutable. 
Just as a given quantity of motive power might be 
developed as heat, light or electricity, so this active 
energy is capable of being put forth either as mental 
or physical force. If you exhaust all this active 
force in physical development, or if you squander or 
trifle it away, where do you find power to cultivate 
the mental capacity ? You might draw, it is true, on 
the latent energy; but this done too often, health is I 
impaired. I should like to see our hours of business 
nearer to those of the merchant at his office, say 
from nine to six at the most, and during those hours 
should like to see business done as a merchant does 
it. None of that important time should be lost, the 
amount of work accomplished by any one individual 
would be little less than if extended over the larger 
number of hours, but the expenditure of energy de¬ 
cidedly so. 
Well, gentlemen, when the day arrives that this 
is accomplished, what a large amount of time and 
energy we shall have at our disposal, and how much 
might be expected from us! Surely there will then 
be no grounds for Dr. Attfield charging our students 
with superficial cram. Cram you always will have 
if you choose to call it so, but if what is crammed is 
retained so as to be useful, cram as much as you 
like. The professor is doubtless correct when he 
says that the bulk of the students in the present day 
aim merely at passing the examinations, and do not 
study purely to gain knowledge. If we consider 
for a moment who they are that constitute the 
bulk of those presenting themselves for examina¬ 
tion in the present day, we shall see that they 
entered the business never expecting to pass an 
examination at all. The present long hours of busi¬ 
ness only leave these young men very little time in 
which to prepare for the examinations. After they 
have done with these, we can still hope that some 
prosecute their studies for the love they bear towards 
them. 
With all due deference to those who have been 
pushing forward educational schemes, it implies 
want of faith in the progressive condition of tilings 
which they have been instrumental in bringing 
about. There is a time to be active, and there is 
also a time to be passive. Two or three years hence 
tilings will have approached nearer their proper 
level; then, and not till then, shall we be able to 
fairly judge of what is necessary to be done for 
education. We are told that competent men get 
plucked,—that incompetent men pass the examina¬ 
tions ; and the only reply seems to be “ that the 
time is too short to examine in.” Well, why not 
give more ? It is surely unfair to send a mail away 
half examined, when he pays well for it. 
I anticipate, too, the day is not far distant when 
we shall all more fully value our time. . I could say 
much on this point, but my friend Mr. Delf so tho¬ 
roughly exhausted the subject in a paper which he 
read before you some time since, that to add thereto 
would be superfluous. In: the future, too, we can 
hope that some of the provincial associations will 
give us some better evidence of tlieir 1186111111688 . 
Liverpool is considered to stand amongst the first of 
these—but does it ? Is there the same difficulty 
amongst other associations, in getting papers for the 
evening meetings ? We have a good library; but 
(with a librarian none too well paid) it costs about 
fourpence per volume per annum for each that is cir¬ 
culated. We have an excellent museum; but it is a 
rare thing to find any one in it. A school of phar¬ 
macy ; but where are the pupils ? Are these signs 
of a healthy condition ? Can we not hope for some¬ 
thing better ? 
We could wish, too, that the Pharmaceutical Con¬ 
ference would make some real progress; that its 
numerical strength were not the chief evidence we 
have of its progressive condition. It publishes a 
good Year-Book, and I should be pleased to see its 
proceedings form a more important feature in that 
volume. Some of the papers read at the annual 
meetings are good, some are trash. Just fancy a 
man reading a paper for the purpose of explaining 
that whenever tinct. ferri perclilor. is ordered he 
always uses the liquor! 
Finally we reach Bloomsbury Square. There, as 
I have said, we have a grand institution, and good 
professors, and at the head of all the Pharmaceutical 
Council. 
You remember the Executive Committee of the 
Chemists and Druggists’ Society, and you also re¬ 
member the old Pharmaceutical Council, embracing 
men whose names have become, if not household, 
certainly pharmacy words with us; men whose 
judgment we esteemed ; men in whom we had con¬ 
fidence that, whilst they were at the helm, the ship 
would sail safely. Now, I speak with all due defer¬ 
ence to the present Council, but I feel that I am 
speaking the truth when I say that it too much re¬ 
sembles the Executive of the Chemists and Drug¬ 
gists’ Society—too little the old Pharmaceutical 
Council. Do not misunderstand me. There were 
some good men in the former body; but, as a whole, 
they were loosely strung together; uncertain in their 
action; they did not represent pharmacy of the first 
class ; and tliis I maintain a governing body like the 
Pharmaceutical Council ought to do. 
IODIZED ALBUMEN AND IODIZED ALBU¬ 
MEN WITH FERRIC CITRATE.* 
Professor Luigi Guerri, of Florence, has been 
studying the question whether it be possible to em¬ 
ploy the white of egg to prevent the decomposition 
of ferrous iodide, and to obtain a combination which 
should contain one part of iodine to five parts of 
oxide of iron. In order to investigate the action of 
iodine upon albumen, Professor Guerri saturated it 
with dilute phosphoric acid, collected the liquid, 
evaporated the solution of albumen to 3° Beaume, 
and afterwards added finely divided iodine, obtained 
by precipitating tincture of iodine with water. This 
# From ‘L’Union Pharmaceutique/ vol. xiii. p. 289. 
