March 11,1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
729 
%\t ^Ijanuateutol iounutl. 
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SATURDAY, MARCS 11, 1S71. 
Communications for this Journal, and boohs for review, etc., 
should be addressed to the Editor, 17, Bloomsbury Square. 
Instructions from Members and dissociates respecting the 
transmission of the Journal should be sent to Elias Brem- 
jridge, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square, JF.C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street , London, IF. Envelopes indorsed “ Eharm. Journ.” 
OUR MONTHLY EVENING MEETINGS. 
Our readers will have noticed with pleasure the 
report, in our issue of the 25th ult., of the proceed¬ 
ings of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. After 
several j^ears’ intermission, the pharmaceutical meet¬ 
ings in connection with that celebrated institution 
have been resumed, and we hope to be able, in due. 
time, to congratulate the College on the success of 
its fresh endeavours to stimulate research and foster 
esprit tie corps amongst its members. Our confreres 
have set about their task in a thoroughly busi¬ 
ness-like manner, and no apology is needed for 
introducing here the main features of the scheme 
by which they hope to render their meetings both 
profitable and interesting. At the first meeting, on 
the 18th October, 1870, a committee was appointed 
to draw up a plan, and at the succeeding meeting 
in November it reported the following suggestions:— 
1. As it is of primary importance that a general in¬ 
terest should be felt or created in the attendance of these 
meetings, the Committee would recommend that an 
•earnest invitation be extended to the members of the 
College, and all others who may desire to participate in 
the proceedings, to produce at each of our meetings 
•either written or oral contributions on subjects pertain¬ 
ing to chemistry or pharmacy, or the commercial rela¬ 
tion of drugs. Upon the conclusion of such communi¬ 
cations, the presiding officer of the meeting to call for 
any remarks that may be elicited by the subject thus 
introduced. 
2. That there should be appointed annually a Stand¬ 
ing Committee, consisting of three membors, whose duty 
it should be to propose subjects for discussion at any of 
our meetings, whenever there shall be a lack of material 
voluntarily contributed by members. 
3. That a box or other suitable arrangement be pro¬ 
vided for the reception of written queries, anonymous 
•or otherwise, which members may desire to propound, 
relating to any subject connected with the shop or labo¬ 
ratory; which queries may be taken up for discussion 
either at the meeting in which they are proposed or at a 
subsequent meeting. 
> 4. That this Committee be requested to obtain, from 
time to time, the services of any who may favour the 
meeting with lectures suited to the occasion. 
These recommendations were adopted, and Mr. 
Charles Bullock, Dr. Pile and Professor Maisch 
appointed the Committee for the ensuing year. We 
reproduce the recommendations in extenso, because it 
.seems to us that some such plan is urgently re¬ 
quired by our own Society, if the monthly meetings 
are to be rescued from the miserable condition into 
which they have sunk of late years. 
Notwithstanding the “poisonous ” atmosphere just 
now overhanging, we are congratulating ourselves 
that, after thirty years of up-hill work, we have 
grown into the most powerful independent body of 
pharmaceutists perhaps in the world; and yet of 
the few members who attend our meetings, there is 
scarcely one but feels humiliated at the want of 
interest exhibited by councillors, examiners, mem¬ 
bers, associates and apprentices in a part of our 
voluntary curriculum which should be a source of 
profit and delight to old and young. 
Our contemporary the Chemist and Druggist, ever 
ready to point out weak points in our official system, 
has censured us in terms which, though severe, are 
well merited; and it grieved us not a little to note 
that Dr. Carpenter’s lectures on the Microscope, 
recently delivered, were, comparatively speaking, 
but poorly attended even by associates and students. 
These meetings require infused into them the 
same vitality that now exists in the examining, edu¬ 
cational and administrative departments of the So¬ 
ciety. But how is tliis to be accomplished ? In our 
judgment, by following some such plan as is pro¬ 
posed at Philadelphia. 
The most important recommendation we take to 
be the appointment annually of a standing com¬ 
mittee, whose business and pleasure it should be to 
cater for their brethren and sustain the high cha¬ 
racter of the Society and British Pharmacy. 
As at present conducted, it seems optional to any 
person, however ignorant or learned, to extract a roll 
of manuscript from his coat pocket, and, without any 
notice or guarantee that it is suitable matter, to read 
a paper which may occupy one or more pages of this 
Journal, and which may perhaps deal in generalities 
on the purity or impurity of the drugs we sell, with¬ 
out embracing a particle of experimental evidence to 
justify any assumption whatever. It is true the 
Bye-laws provide “ that all communications intended 
to be made shall be submitted to the President, or, 
in liis absence, to the Vice-President or Chairman of 
the meeting, for his sanction, and without such 
sanction no subject shall be introduced;” but in 
practice it has seldom been enforced, because it was 
supposed that its observance might increase the diffi¬ 
culties of securing good and suitable communications. 
\V e would suggest, with all respect to the Council, 
that this Bye-law should be carried out in its integ¬ 
rity ; and that, along with the President, a com¬ 
mittee of two, not holding seats at the Council, 
should be annually associated, to whom all papers 
should be forwarded, and by whom they should be 
read before the meeting, and approved, abridged or 
declined as required. Once secure good papers on 
strictly pharmaceutical subjects, and there will be 
no lack of listeners. 
