April 5, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
739 
®hc parmamtficiil Journal. 
-♦- 
of reciprocating the cordiality, so universally shown 
hy their provincial brethren, at the various meetings 
of the Pharmaceutical Conference. 
SATURDAY , APRIL 5, 1873. 
Commu nications for this Journal, and boohs for review, etc., 
should be addressed to the Editor, 17, Bloomsbury Square. 
Instructions from Members and Associates respecting the 
transmission of the Journal should be sent to Elias Breji- 
ridge, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square, W.C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, London, W. Envelopes indorsed “Pharm. Journ. 
OUR ANNIVERSARY. 
It is now within six weeks of a year since it was 
our pleasing duty to record an event which then for 
the first time constituted a feature of the Society’s 
annual gathering, though novelty was far from 
having been the only attraction it presented. We 
refer to the dinner at the Crystal Palace. At the 
time we ventured to apply to it the name u annual, 
on account of the very great satisfaction it gave to 
those who were present, and the generally expressed 
desire that it should be kept up as a periodical 
reunion of all those engaged in the drug trade who 
are able to be in London at the Society’s Anniversary 
Meeting. 
We are induced to draw attention to this matter 
now, since the time is close at hand, and also because 
we have recently heard many inquiries as to what is 
being done in arranging for the annual dinner. We 
think, therefore, that it would be opportune to 
suggest that those who entertain the desire to see 
the annual dinner successfully carried out this year 
should at once enter into communication on the 
subject and take decisive action to that end. A 
considerable amount of work is involved in making 
the arrangements necessary for the purpose, and it 
will doubtless be in the memory of those who shared 
in last year’s festivity, that this work was on that 
occasion generously undertaken single-handed. To 
that circumstance, indeed, is to be ascribed, not only 
the success then achieved, but also the inauguration 
of the annual dinner ; and, remembering this, the 
thought may naturally occur to many, that this 
year’s arrangements cannot be left in better hands 
than those of the Honorary Secretary of last year. 
But a second thought will as surely suggest that 
such an opinion can only be regarded as an in¬ 
stinctive compliment, and that it would be unreason¬ 
able, as well as ungrateful, to expect a repetition of 
the services rendered on that occasion by Mr. Car- 
* 
TEIGHE. 
Probably the most convenient course would be 
for those desirous of co-operating in the matter, to 
communicate with Mr. Bremridge, with the view 
of holding a meeting for the appointment of a com¬ 
mittee, and we would especially urge upon the London 
members of the trade to embrace this opportunity 
THE GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL. 
The medical parliament has met, and has occupied 
a whole week with discussion rather than business. 
We shall try and estimate the results of its delibera¬ 
tions presently, but we cannot help drawing attention 
to the extreme verbosity and wanton interruption 
indulged in by its speakers. To read the reports 
of its meetings in our medical contemporaries 
one would almost fancy oneself perusing the rheto¬ 
rical encounters of a debating society, so crude is the 
language, so confused the tenor of debate, so petulant 
the recrimination. Some three-quarters of an hour, 
for instance, were wasted over Sir William Gull’s 
expression of astonishment “ at the course taken by 
Dr. Alexander Wood and Dr. Andrew Wood, 
who, he thought, must have some arriere penseef 
The unfortunate imputation at once brought the 
Drs. Wood to their feet ; indignant reclamations 
followed. Sir Dominick Corrigan, with a truly 
Milesian pugnacity, joined in the fray, which, by the 
time he sat down, had acquired the proportions of a 
regular “ Donnybrook.” Meanwhile the President 
sat as helpless as his counterpart in the French 
Chamber during an “ interpellation ” by Gambetta. 
Unless the “medical parliament” mend its ways, it 
will achieve an unenviable notoriety, and its meet¬ 
ings will have the same sort of attraction for the 
public as a Fenian demonstration in Hyde Park, or 
the Zoological Gardens at feeding time. 
bed haec hactenus. The subject of most interest to 
our readers in the Medical Council’s transactions was 
its adoption of the report of the Pharmacopoeia 
Committee, recommending, first, a reprint of the 
present Pharmacopoeia, with such improvements as 
may be requisite; and, second, an Appendix embody¬ 
ing information as to medicines, whether newly- 
introduced or newly-prepared. We have already 
expressed our conviction that the Pharmacopoeia 
should not be recast, or even modified, at too rapidly 
recurring intervals—a reprint, supplemented by an 
Appendix, being all that is required for the pharmacist 
and practitioner alike. Meanwhile the Committee 
might do worse than reconsider the doses ot the 
more potent medicines as they are laid down in the 
present Pharmacopoeia. A medical contemporary 
remarks, with apparent justice, that in the case of 
solution of strychnia and tincture oi nux vomica, lor 
instance, less than the largest doses prescribed by 
the Pharmacopoeia do certainly produce decided 
physiological effects. 
Of smaller interest to our readers, was the pro¬ 
longed discussion on the so-called “ Conjoint Scheme, 
by which a fusion of the various, and often compet¬ 
ing, examining boards is sought to be effected. The 
Scotch members, it seems, consider their examining 
