908 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[May 17, 1873. 
Student, or has otherwise for three years been practically 
engaged in the translation and dispensing of prescrip¬ 
tions. 
“ Persons who have passed the Minor Examination at 
least three months previously may be admitted to the 
Major Examination, and all other persons desirous of 
passing the Major Examination may make application to 
the Board of Examiners for special leave in that behalf.” 
THE BELL AND HILLS FUND. 
Few of our readers in town or country will have 
forgotten that in 1869 the presentation of fifty guineas 
to the Pharmaceutical Conference by Mr. T. H. Hills, 
in his own name, and in memory of Jacob Bell, 
was accompanied by a suggestion that the sum of ten 
•'guineas should be applied for the purchase of books 
for the chemists’ library at Exeter Those who have 
taken part in, or watched the proceedings of the 
Conference in subsequent years will know that the 
Executive Committee has, since that time, sought to 
give further effect to Mr. Hills’ desire to promote 
pharmaceutical education, by making a present of 
books of the same value to the chemists’ library in 
each town visited by the Conference. In this way 
the Fund had, in course of time, been nearly ex¬ 
hausted, when Mr. Hills last year, with characteristic 
generosity, supplemented his former gift with the 
sum of .£200 (four Russian Bonds of <£50 each). 
At the Brighton meeting of the Conference it was 
unanimously decided, after previous consultation 
between the Executive Committee and Mr. Hills, 
that the grant of a sum of <£10 for books to any 
local association in towns where the Conference met 
should be continued out of the interest arising from 
these bonds ; and that the Executive Committee 
should from time to time, but not oftener than once 
in three years, decide when one-fourth of the invest- 
<sL.«-ivL,X Lo cokl out, and also rUrMp. upon the 
appropriation .of such income, from principal and 
interest, by granting sums in aid of original research 
■or for the cultivation of pharmaceutical science. 
In our report of the proceedings of the Executive 
Committee of the Conference (p. 916) (reference is 
made to a cncular that has been issued in reference 
to the appropriation of this fund and the rules by 
which it is to be governed. The plan adopted is the 
same as that of the British Association, which has 
successfully promoted the accomplishment of much 
valuable work. The sum available during the next 
three years will be about <£80, and on the 20th of 
this month the Committee will be prepared to receive 
applications for grants in aid either of any original 
research members of the Conference may desire to 
undertake in connection with pharmacy, or of the 
repetition of experimental work which might seem 
to require further corroboration or inquiry. 
These applications must lie addressed" to the Ex¬ 
ecutive Committee through the Secretaries of the 
Conference. They are to be accompanied by full 
particulars as to the proposed investigation and 
estimates of cost. In other respects the general 
conditions and rules laid down by the British Asso¬ 
ciation in regard to grants have been adopted. 
We trust that this scheme will be efficacious in 
contributing towards the doing away with that lack 
of original contributions to the progress of pharmacy, 
which is not only in itself a reproach to the followers 
of the art in Great Britain, but also tends to place 
them in a disadvantageous light as compared w r ith 
the pharmacists of other countries. 
TRADE MARKS’ REGISTRATION BILL. 
Now that the new Adulteration Act makes it 
especially desirable both for manufacturers, retailers, 
and for the public that there should be some trust¬ 
worthy criterion of the genuineness of various com¬ 
modities of daily use, the utility of trade marks for 
that purpose must be evident. But unfortunately 
trade marks have hitherto had no legal status, though 
the right to use them has always existed; and though 
by the Merchandize Marks Act the piracy of a trade 
mark, known in the market, is made an offence, as 
well as the false application of any genuine or forged 
mark, it is in any case necessary to show an intent 
to defraud. 
It is only recently, by the decisions of the Courts 
that any property in a trade mark has been recog¬ 
nized, and even now the exclusive right to its use 
depends on its notoriety, while in any suit or prose¬ 
cution it is still necessary to prove, not only the 
exclusive use of a trade mark, but also the period 
during which such use has continued, as well as its 
notoriety in the market. Frequently it is also 
necessary to prove that a purchaser has been deceived 
by the wrongful use of a mark. 
The registration of trade marks as proposed by the 
Bill, of which we gave an abstract last week, would 
give the wanting statutory status, w r ould prove owner¬ 
ship and furnish a record of the period of use, besides 
being in itself evidence of notoriety. 
Such registration would give a trade mark, as 
such, an immediate legal character from the time of 
its first employment. The reference which it is in¬ 
tended that each trade mark shall bear to the register, 
would furnish at once the means of verifying the 
title of the person using it, and thus furnish direct 
evidence of the right to use, of the user, the notoriety 
of use, the exclusiveness of that right, and the pri¬ 
orities of employment by either of the several 
litigants. 
The proposed Bill would also settle several other 
questions relating to trade marks and to the articles 
to which they are applied, such as their place of 
manufacture, the persons responsible for their manu¬ 
facture, as well as for their genuineness and cha¬ 
racter. 
Moreover, it would facilitate the prevention of 
piracies of British trade marks abroad : for although 
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