June 14, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
999 
$harmamtiuat Journal. 
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SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1873. 
Communications 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 Brem- 
ridge, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square, W.C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, London, W. Envelopes indorsed “Pharm. Journ.” 
THE SOCIETY’S SCHOOL OF PHARMACY. 
The appointment of a Committee to consider the 
suggestions submitted to the Council by Professors 
Redwood and Bentley, in regard to alteration of 
lecture' courses and the fees for attending them, may 
be accepted as an earnest that some steps will now 
be taken towards the realization of that severance of 
the School from the Society which has so often been 
pointed to as an event not only necessary but also in 
some respects desirable under present conditions. 
The resolution by which the Committee was appointed 
had indeed a wider scope than the suggestion of the 
above-named Professors, taking in not only the lec¬ 
tures but also the laboratory ; but it is mainly in 
regard to the lectures that there seems to be most 
urgent need for some modification of the practice 
hitherto followed. 
The extremely low fees charged for attendance at 
these courses of lectures are quite anomalous, and 
though it was no doubt sound policy for the Society 
to continue for a time the fees adopted when the 
School was in its infancy, it must be evident to all 
that when the work of establishing recognition of 
the necessity for special education had been achieved, 
there was no longer any reason for maintaining 
the lecture fees at so low a rate. At the outset it 
was necessary to attract students, and almost to give 
them the means of improving themselves, since it was 
wholly optional whether they did so or not. Under 
such circumstances the funds of the Society were 
well applied in defraying the cost of lectures ; but 
now, when the technical education of pharmacists 
has become a necessity, it is time to stop such a 
course, since the various means by which that neces¬ 
sity is provided for have acquired a value which 
should make them remunerative, or at least self- 
supporting. 
These views in regard to the Society’s lectures, 
which have long been entertained by a few, were 
broached in the Council some years ago, and a dis¬ 
tinct proposition was made, more than once we 
believe, to raise the lecture fees. It is to be regretted 
that this was not done long ago; for in place of a 
single difficulty there are now two which present 
themselves in connection with the subject. On the 
one hand we have complaints that so large a sum is 
absorbed in meeting the difference between the cost 
of lectures at Bloomsbury Square and the fees paid 
for attending them ; while, on the other hand, any 
endeavour to place the Society’s School upon an in¬ 
dependent footing would seem to be rendered impos¬ 
sible until such time as the attendance fees shall 
have been raised to a standard that would make the 
lectures remunerative to the professors. 
The opinions expressed at the late Council Meeting 
and at the General Meeting, as well as on various 
previous occasions, sufficiently justify us in speaking 
of the financial dissociation of the metropolitan 
School from the Society as being both necessary and 
desirable. It is therefore now especially important 
that this School should be made—what every such 
school should be—self-supporting ; and our readers 
will doubtlessly look forward with considerable in¬ 
terest to the result of the Committee’s deliberations. 
THE CONFERENCE OF 1874. 
At page 1001 of the present number will be found 
a discussion which seems to indicate the prospect of 
a break in the periodical recurrence of a gathering 
at once useful and pleasant to all connected with 
pharmacy; unless, indeed, ingenuity is exercised 
meanwhile to devise a remedy for the state of things 
which is said to preclude the Conference from meeting 
in Ireland. Failing this, we may, next September, 
have the President and officers of that body asking 
each other when they shall meet again, like the 
witches in ‘ Macbeth,’ and with as little idea of the 
precise locality as those erratic females. 
Certainly the representations of the gentlemen 
who lately came over from Ireland as a deputation 
to the Executive Committee of the Conference are 
such as to justify the opinion that it is not expedient 
for the Conference to meet in Belfast, or, indeed, at all 
in Ireland, until the pharmaceutical difficulties pre¬ 
vailing in the sister island have been removed. We 
shall probably yet hear more on this subject before it 
is definitely settled. But it will not be out of place 
to express the opinion that it would be eminently 
inconsistent with the objects and principles of the 
Conference to find itself in the position of a bone ol 
contention between two antagonistic parties, and 
compelled to share the regrets of Captain Macheath 
under similar perplexity. 
EARLY CLOSING AT PETERBOROUGH. 
In reference to the subject of a paragraph in last 
week’s Journal, stating that the Chemists and 
Druggists of Hull had determined to close their 
establishments at 7 p.m. (Saturdays excepted), we 
are informed that the Chemists and Druggists of 
Peterborough have unanimously adopted the same 
practice during the last fifteen months, and that the 
arrangement works well, giving general satisfaction. 
The Bank Holidays also are observed in that city by 
all classes of tradesmen. 
