31ay 3, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
865 
§Iutrmaa'utical Journal 
- + - 
SATURDAY , Jfif 3, 1873. 
Communications for this Journal, and looks /or 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 Brem- 
ridge, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square, W.C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, London, W. Envelopes indorsed “ Pliarm. Journ.” 
THE THIRTY-SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
On tlie first page of this week’s Journal will be 
found the official notices in reference to the Anni¬ 
versary Meetings of the Pharmaceutical Society for 
1873. The Annual General Meeting of the members 
of the Society is to be held on Wednesday, May 21, 
at eleven in the forenoon, when the Report of the 
Council for the year will come under the considera¬ 
tion of the meeting. Until it is published, speculation 
us to what topics for discussion may be found in it 
would be useless, though probably the Council will 
see fit to follow the precedent of last year by order¬ 
ing a copy of the Report to be sent to each member 
previous to the Annual Meeting. One subject, how- 
over, will doubtless appear in it,—the admission of 
women as members of the Society,—and this will 
be certainly one of the subjects discussed at the 
Annual Meeting, since Mr. Hampson has given a 
notice of motion that raises the whole question. 
Should the Bye-laws which have now been under 
•consideration at two meetings of the Council be con¬ 
firmed at its meeting next week, a Special General 
Meeting of the members will have to be held at the 
close of the Annual Meeting, for the purpose of con¬ 
sidering, and, if thought proper, confirming and 
approving such new or altered Bye-laws as may be 
submitted by the Council. 
The Conversazione will, by the kind permission of 
the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, 
again be held in the South Kensington Museum, 
and it is, as usual, to take place on the evening of the 
same day as the Annual Meeting. Tickets of admis¬ 
sion may be obtained by all Members, Associates, 
and Apprentices or Students of the Society ; and 
in order to obviate unnecessary trouble, a ticket has 
been sent to each member residing in London. Any 
other person connected with the Society, or Regis¬ 
tered Chemist and Druggist, will have a ticket for¬ 
warded to him upon application to the Secretary at 
17, Bloomsbury Square. 
With regard to the Annual Dinner in connection 
with the Anniversary, which is to take place at the 
Crystal Palace on the evening of the previous day, 
we are requested to say that the tickets are now 
ready, and may be obtained from the Honorary Se¬ 
cretaries or any of the Stewards. A list of these 
gentlemen was printed in these columns last week, 
and is repeated in the advertising section oi the pre¬ 
sent issue, with the addition of a few names which 
were then inadvertently omitted and a list of the 
Committee. 
THE ADULTERATION ACT IN RELATION TO 
CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS. 
The action now being taken throughout the coun¬ 
try under the Adulteration Act has given rise to a 
number of questions relating to the business of the 
chemist and druggist ; and we have received numer¬ 
ous inquiries from provincial correspondents as to 
the scope and operation of the Act. A letter of this 
kind will be found in the “Correspondence” columns 
of the present number, and we must confess that it 
raises a question of some difficulty. So far as the 
wording of the Adulteration Act goes it might per¬ 
haps be maintained that it does not apply to cases 
such as that mentioned by our correspondent any 
more than to cases of substitution, which have been 
supposed to be placed entirely outside the provisions 
of the Act by the definition therein given of adultera¬ 
tion as being either the mixture with any articles of 
food or drink or any drug, of any injurious or poison¬ 
ous ingredient or material, or of any other substance, 
with intent fraudulently to increase their weight or 
bulk. But though this may be a technical defect in 
the framing of the Act, we are disposed to consider 
that the sale of articles sophisticated by substitution 
or of inferior strength, would certainly be contrary to 
the spirit as well as the intention of the Act. 
It may, however, be pointed out that the Phar¬ 
macy Act renders it a punishable offence for any 
person to “ compound any medicines of the British 
Pharmacopoeia except according to the formularies of 
the said Pharmacopoeia and although the term 
u laudanum” is not in fact a pharmacopoeia term, it 
is still so widely understood as indicating the tinc¬ 
ture of opium of the Pharmacopoeia that we should 
feel much doubt as to the safety as well as the pro¬ 
priety of deviating from the formula therein pre¬ 
scribed. 
EXTRA-OFFICIAL PHARMACEUTICAL HONOURS. 
We quote the following extra-official utterance 
from a Staffordshire newspaper which has been 
kindly forwarded to us by a correspondent:— 
“ Mr. -, son of Mr.-, of -, passed on Tues¬ 
day the examinations of the Pharmaceutical Society of 
Great Britain, gaining two certificates of merit and highly 
complimented in chemistry.” 
To those familiar with the conditions of the ex¬ 
aminations it will be evident that certificates of merit 
are not granted as stated, but the name and address 
that we suppress appear a considerable way down 
in a recent Minor examination list. We quite agree 
with our correspondent that such an “impudent 
fabrication ” deserves exposure. 
From the News Repertorium fur Pharmacie we 
learn the twenty-fifth anniversary of the connection 
of Dr. Fresenius with the Chemical Institute and 
Laboratory at Wiesbaden is to be celebrated in the 
early part of May by a festival, at which many of his 
former students will attend. An influential com¬ 
mittee has been formed to make suitable arrange¬ 
ments, at the head of which is Professor Neubauer, 
for many years a colleague of Dr. Fresenius. 
