THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[March IS, 1871. 
754 
The paper for the evening was read by Mr. "VV. Keith, 
npon “Permanent Photographic Printing.” 
After describing the autotype, Woodbury-type and 
heliotype processes, Mr. Keith showed practically the 
development of the picture in the carbon process by the 
nse of hot water only. The paper was illustrated by 
specimens of various processes, as well as the instruments 
used. He drew particular attention to the heliotype 
process of Messrs. Edwards and Kidd as being the latest, 
and supplying a want long felt of a means of applying 
photography to book illustration, the pictures which he 
exhibited having been printed in printing-ink at an 
ordinary press, with a margin so as to obviate the neces¬ 
sity of mounting, and ready to bind up with printed 
matter. 
A discussion followed, in which the Chairman, Messrs. 
Hallawell, Houghton and Bird took part; and, upon 
the motion of the Chairman, seconded by Mr. Redford, 
an unanimous vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Keith 
for his very interesting and instructive paper. 
SUNDERLAND CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The Monthly Meeting was held on Tuesday, March.7th; 
Mr. H. Thompson in the chair. 
Mr. Sharpe introduced a motion on prices. He com- 
pared the chemists of the present day unfavourably with 
those of older times in the profits they obtained on their 
articles, and moved that a committee be formed to draw 
out a list of prices on the basis of that so successfully 
carried out in Edinburgh and other places. 
Mr. Sidgwick referred to the cost of education and ap¬ 
prenticeship, and drew attention to the manner in which 
dispensary prescriptions were carried about the town 
until some chemist was found who would dispense them 
for less money than the others. 
Mr. J. Harrison admitted that Mr. Sharpe had shown 
that an evil does exist, but contended that he had not 
.suggested an effectual remedy; that the Society had 
neither the right nor the power to impose conditions on 
those who were outside its pale, and that it was useless 
attempting to enforce uniformity in practice until there 
was unity in principle. 
Mr. Robinson thought Mr. Sharpe’s plan quite prac¬ 
ticable, if there were as much good feeling among the 
chemists and druggists as among the solicitors, who, by 
the moral power of their Law Society, were able to pre¬ 
vent any individual member from injuring the others by 
undercharging. 
Mr. Nicholson agreed with Mr. Sharp’s proposal in 
principle, but was doubtful as to their power to carry it 
out in a town like Sunderland, where the dispensing and 
higher branches of a chemist’s business formed so small, 
and the mixed retail so large a proportion of their re¬ 
turns. The success of a plan in Edinburgh was no evi¬ 
dence that it was adapted to Sunderland, where the con¬ 
ditions were so essentially different. 
Mr. Sharp replied, and proposed that a Committee be 
appointed to adopt some feasible arrangement on the sub¬ 
ject, which proposition was carried by a large majority. 
Mr. Harrison gave notice that, at the Annual Meet- 
ing, in April, he would propose:—(1.) That the ordinary 
meetings of this Society be held on Tuesday evenings in¬ 
stead of Mondays. (2.) That a petition be forwarded to 
the Annual Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society on 
the subject of the Juries Act. (3.) That a petition be 
also forwarded against the poisons regulations. 
SHEFFIELD PHARMACEUTICAL AND 
CHEMICAL ASSOCIATION. 
The usual Monthly Lecture in connection with this 
Association was delivered at the Music Hall, on Wed¬ 
nesday evening last, by H. C. Sorby, Esq., F.R.S.— 
subject, “ Blow-pipe Chemistry.” Mr. G. B. Cocking. 
Vice-President, occupied the chair. Mr. Sowerby com¬ 
menced his lecture by explaining the methods adopted 
to obtain blow-pipe beads enclosing various crystals, 
which, independent of their connection with chemistry 
and mineralogy, were of extreme beauty merely as mi¬ 
croscopical objects. His own method differed materially 
from those described by Emerson, Rose, Ross, and other 
authors, he using borax as the solvent, and, if requisite, 
adding various reagents, so as to produce, as it were, 
precipitates of characteristic crystalline form. By this 
means transparent, glass-like beads were obtained, con¬ 
taining perfect crystals of the substances added. The 
beautiful forms in which the following and other che¬ 
mical substances crystallized were described, viz. borate 
of magnesia, first as thin prisms, then, by the deposit of 
smaller crystals, giving rise to objects very much like a 
handle with a brush at each end; borate of zirconia, 
as small prisms with a simple cross at each end after¬ 
wards becoming more complicated; molybdate of zir¬ 
conia, which are so delicate that their own weight would 
probably break them, if in an aqueous solution, but 
being supported in solid borax, like insects enclosed in 
amber, they are secure from all injury, and become ex¬ 
tremely elegant and beautiful objects; tungstate of 
lime, molybdate of strontia, phosphate of lime or soda, 
titanic, columbic, and molybdic acids, etc. The me¬ 
thod of preparing and mounting these objects for perma¬ 
nent use was explained ; this being to enclose them in a 
cell with Canada balsam, by which means the moisture 
of the atmosphere which causes the borax to become 
hydrated and opaque was excluded, the alteration then 
taking place so slowly that the lecturer had not re¬ 
marked any change after a period of six months. The 
full beauty of these specimens can only be seen with a 
binocular microscope; and few objects are better fitted to 
show the advantage of that kind of instrument, for the 
crystals then stand out in perfect relief, and are seen to 
be equally complicated in all directions, though not in 
each case alike, as those formed on the surface of the 
bead differ very materially from those in the interior, 
and in both positions, though the type is constant, the 
forms vary very considerably. As illustrating the scien¬ 
tific value of microscopic blow-pipe chemistry, Mr. 
Sorby related the following fact:—Mr. Maskelyne, of 
the British Museum, had obtained from a new rare 
mineral in a meteorite a very small quantity of a sub¬ 
stance which much resembled the earth zirconia. If it 
had been so, the fact would have been very interesting, 
since hitherto there has been no evidence of the occur¬ 
rence of that substance beyond our own globe. The 
amount of material was, however, too small to enable 
Mr. Maskelyne to decide the question by the usual me¬ 
thods of chemistry; he therefore placed about one-half 
of the entire quantity in the hands of Mr. Sorby, and, 
though this was no more than 1-100th of a grain, he 
succeeded in proving that it was titanic acid, a substance 
which had previously been detected in meteorites and 
not zirconia. 
GLASGOW CHEMISTS’ AND DRUGGISTS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
The Eleventh Meeting of the Session was held in 
Anderson’s University, 204, George Street, on the 8th 
instant; Mr. T. Davison, President, presiding. 
Messrs. A. Jamieson and Robert Walker were elected 
members. 
After the regular preliminary business, Mr. Clark, 
who was introduced by the Chairman, delivered a paper 
on “ Botanizing, or some hints in the Collecting of Bo¬ 
tanical Specimens.” 
Mr. Clark said he found his subject was naturally 
divided into two parts, namely, “ Collecting ” and “ Dry¬ 
ing,” and as his remarks on the former required the full 
time allowed for the reading of his paper, he would 
