150 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[August 20,1S79. 
to ascertain whether a person coming before them in 
reference to any case is or is not legally qualified 
to practise pharmacy. 
That this is not sufficiently attended to we have 
frequent occasion to notice, and we think it desirable 
for the general credit of the trade, to call especial 
attention to the matter. As will be seen in another 
part of the Journal, a person who has no place on 
the Register lias recently been convicted of obtaining 
goods under false pretences, and he is described as a 
“ chemist.” This case affords an illustration of the 
readiness with which titles, improperly assumed, are 
recognized without further notice or inquiry, and we 
can scarcely be considered unreasonable in express¬ 
ing the hope that in future both public officials and 
editors will avail themselves of the means afforded 
by the “ Register” for preventing impostors from re¬ 
presenting themselves as belonging in any way to 
the pharmaceutical body. 
The Society’s Local Secretaries throughout the 
country would also do good service by looking after 
these and similar cases. We have just received from 
a correspondent a circular bearing the name of the 
proprietor of a Provincial Medical Hall and Drug 
Establishment, who describes himself as being a 
“Registered Chemist of the Pharmaceutical Society , 
London ,” though he is in no way connected with the 
Society. 
ACTIONS AGAINST DRUGGISTS. 
Under the head of Legal Intelligence will be found 
the report of a case that will doubtless interest many 
provincial pharmaceutists. Mr. Barker, the defen¬ 
dant in that case, "writes to ask if there be any fund 
available in the Society to defend actions of the 
kind. There is not any such provision; but the fact 
that pharmacists are liable to suffer from legal pro¬ 
ceedings taken against them without due cause, is 
sufficient to show that the subject is one worth con¬ 
sideration. 
Even in the event of a successful defence being 
made in such cases, costs are incurred in money, 
time and anxiety, which in fact amount to an unjust 
punishment. Only a few weeks ago* we had occasion 
to notice a case in which a defendant was con¬ 
demned to costs, though there did not appear to be 
any ground for the verdict, so far as the report of 
the case went, and it is probable that some organiza¬ 
tion calculated to deal with such cases would be good 
for the general interests of the trade. 
The article we republish this week, from the 
‘Lancet,’ on the subject of “Pepsin,” will doubt¬ 
less attract the attention of the makers of this re¬ 
medy, and we shall be glad to receive from them any 
remarks on the subject winch will lead to its being 
more generally understood. 
* See ante , No. 6, p. 93. 
fratetditp of Srientifit Soiicfics. 
LONDON INSTITUTION. 
On the 10th inst., J. P. Gassiot, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., 
distributed the prizes awarded, and certificates granted, 
to students who passed the examinations connected with 
the courses of educational lectures delivered during the 
past session by Professors Guthrie, Bloxam, and Bentley. 
The prizes consisted of standard works on physics, che¬ 
mistry, and botany, handsomely bound. Dr. Gassiot 
stated that Prof. Odling would open the coming Session 
with a course of educational lectures “ On Chemical 
Action,” and that, after Christmas, Prof. Huxley would, 
deliver a course “ On the First Principles of Biology.” 
BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
Thirty-eighth Annual Meeting. 
Nexccastle-on-Tgne, August 9th, 10 th, 1 \th and Ylth. 
After the preliminary gathering of members and their 
friends at the Reception Room on Tuesday, there was a 
meeting of the Council, at which the chief business was 
the election of Mr. Ernest Hart as Editor of the Journal. 
At a general meeting held in the Lecture Room of the 
Literary and Philosophical Institution in the evening, 
the retiring President, Dr. Chadwick, in opening the 
proceedings, spoke of the influence exercised by the As 1 - 
sociation in reference to the Medical Acts Amendment 
Bill and dwelt strongly on the power of the Association 
to promote professional advancement. Then, after a 
passing mention of the losses the medical profession has 
sustained by deaths within the past year, he expressed 
his high sense of the honour that had been conferred up¬ 
on himself and, with the appropriate words, “ The Presi¬ 
dent is dead! Long live the President!” relinquished 
the presidential chair to his successor, Dr. Charlton, 
who, in his inaugural address, reviewed at length the 
subjects of medical politics and sanitary reform, urging 
their extreme importance in regard to the general pro¬ 
sperity of the country. Referring to the time when the 
title of the Association was changed from Provincial to- 
British, he said:— 
It was then that, for the first time, our interests in 
the provinces became thoroughly identified with those 
of the profession in the metropolis. Since then, we have 
worked in perfect harmony with our London brethren, 
no longer regarding them as mere visitors, but welcoming 
them to our provincial meetings as bona fide members of 
the Association. Indeed it seems to us that most of the 
great reforms of our profession have taken place subse¬ 
quent to this change of name—to this amalgamation of 
provincial and metropolitan interests. Although the de¬ 
ficiencies of medical education and the condition of the 
medical practitioner, had long before been discussed in our 
journals and set forth in language sharp and incisive as 
that of Junius, still it is only within the last two decades 
that the whole profession, tired of calling upon Jupiter, 
has unanimously put shoulder to the wheel and moved, 
with one accord, to remedy our wrongs. United by its 
able journal, united still more by the cordiality engen¬ 
dered at these annual meetings, the British Medical As¬ 
sociation has pushed forward in the path of medical re¬ 
form and the general regulation of the profession. Now 
the struggle for a good standard of medical education is 
finally before us. Hitherto the paramount obstacle to 
progress has been the multiplicity of sources from whence 
licences to practise medicine have been derived. No 
uniform standard of education could be kept up amid 
these jarring interests. The well-meant endeavours of 
the Medical Council, by sending out examiners to visit 
the different universities and corporations was no gua¬ 
rantee for permanent improvement; these bodies were 
ever competing for licentiates and were exposed to the 
deadly temptation of lowering their standards of educa¬ 
tion to attract more graduates. Against this crying evil 
