532 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[January 1, IS', 3. 
Tuesday ancl Friday evenings from eight to ten 
o’clock. We believe that this privilege has been 
freely taken advantage of. 
In Scotland, the North British Branch of the 
Pharmaceutical Society has acquired a definite re¬ 
cognition of its position in respect to the Parent 
Society, and a grant of money was made towards 
providing premises and a museum for the more con¬ 
venient carrying out of the examinations. This step 
has been satisfactory to members north of the 
Tweed, and it will doubtless stimulate them to 
increased activity, not only in educational work, 
but also in the cultivation of pharmacy and the 
general improvement of the business. 
The periodical meetings in connection with the 
Society have been held as usual. The Annual 
Meeting in May, was occupied at great length 
mainly with the subject of education ; the Conver¬ 
sazione at South Kensington presented the now 
customary features of attraction, and at the meeting 
in October, to inaugurate the session of the School 
of Pharmacy and distribute prizes to the students of 
the previous session, a very instructive address to 
the students was delivered by Mr. W. W. Stoddart, 
of Bristol. The Evening Meetings have been, in 
regard to attendance and interest, fairly up to the 
average, though there is still much room for im¬ 
provement. The Chemists’ Ball was as successful as 
ever; and there was also the novel feature—connected 
with the visit of provincial members to the metro¬ 
polis in May—of the first Annual Dinner of the 
Society at the Crystal Palace, when upwards of two 
hundred gentlemen connected with pharmacy met 
together with a mutual satisfaction which we hope 
wall characterize many similar gatherings in the 
future. The meeting of the British Pharmaceutical 
Conference at Brighton, in August, was one of great 
interest to the trade, by reason of the important 
discussion which took place upon the education 
question. Several valuable papers on pharmaceu¬ 
tical subjects were also read there. 
In deference to the expressed wish of a majority 
of the Society’s members, the present Council de¬ 
cided at one of its earliest meetings that in view of 
the representative character of its deliberations, full 
reports of the proceedings at their meetings should be 
published in this Journal, and at present there does 
not appear to be any reason to regret that decision. 
While on the subject of the Journal, we take the 
opportunity of thanking those who have been kind 
enough to furnish us from time to time with papers 
containing reports of local occurrences ; and at the 
same time of urging upon our readers, especially 
local secretaries, that they should immediately for¬ 
ward to us information respecting anything happening 
in their localities which is likely to be of general 
interest. We would go further, and say that were 
each pharmacist to contribute an account of such 
fresh experiences in practical pharmacy as came 
under Iris notice, our columns would be snriclied 
with much valuable information. 
The contributions to the Benevolent Band have 
increased during the year, the last week of the year 
having been marked by the receipt of a legac}' of 
£'500, clear of duty, from the executors of the late 
Mrs. Lyon. The disbursements in annuities and 
grants during the } T ear have amounted to £525 1(R. 
In order to carry out efficiently that important provi¬ 
sion of the Pharmacy Act relating to the publication of 
a Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists and Chemists 
and Druggists, the section providing for the sending 
out of registered letters was acted upon ; the result 
being that in October the Registrar published a list 
of upwards of one thousand names of persons who 
had failed to reply and a notice that they would be 
struck off the Register unless they communicated 
their proper addresses before the 31st December. 
Of this number, we understand that COO have failed 
to comply with the requirements of the Act, and that 
their names will consequently be omitted from the 
Register now in the press for this year. 
In respect to infringments of the Act relating 
to the sale of poisons, some complaints have 
been made, apparently upon the assumption that 
only the Pharmaceutical Society could prosecute for 
the sale of poisons by unqualified persons, and that 
the Executive was in this particular indifferent 
to its duties. Both these assumptions are in¬ 
correct, for any person is competent to prosecute 
who can prove a breach in the provisions of the 
Act; moreover, we are informed that while every 
case which has been brought under the notice of the 
executive of the Society has been attended to, it has, 
in several instances, been found, after considerable 
trouble and expense, that they would not bear the 
test of a prosecution. The position of widows under 
the Act has also been discussed and illustrated fey 
what was claimed to be a particularly hard case. 
It was felt, however, that as the law had to be 
dealt with as it stood, the best way to meet the diffi¬ 
culty was for chemists and druggists to consider and 
act upon the actual terms of the Act; and with the 
object of securing that end several articles in this 
Journal were devoted to the subject. It may be re¬ 
marked that the duties of Local Secretaries in re¬ 
spect to carrying out the Pharmacy Act, as well as 
in other matters, appear in some places to be imper¬ 
fectly understood, and it would be well if some clear 
definition of them could be promulgated. 
In May last, statistics were published in this 
Journal of the cases of accidental poisoning that had 
occurred since the passing of the Pharmacy Act in 
1868. These statistics afford the best answer to, 
and take away all excuse for, the sensationalism and 
vague generalities upon the subject previously in¬ 
dulged in to some extent b} r the newspapers, and 
more especially by the medical press, which ought 
to have been better informed as to the real facts of 
