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THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS 
[July 29,1871. 
ing together at the close of the session, happily smoth¬ 
ered each other. 
“ English institutions, like Englishmen, flourish the 
best away from the shade of Governmental protection or 
management. They require hut freedom from restraint, 
and fair opportunities for development. Let there bo a 
sense of duty and responsibility leading up to self-reli¬ 
ance and effort, and these will prove the surest guaran¬ 
tees both of personal success and of public advantage. 
A Pharmacy Bill that should substitute routine for alert 
attention would be fraught with inevitable mischief. A 
merely mechanical system, enforced by extraneous au¬ 
thority, is vastly inferior to a system which has grown 
up with existing requirements, and been gradually 
adapted to them. We do not pretend to say that the 
hands which are trusted to mix our physic and vend our 
poisons are always wisely guided, but upon the whole 
we would rather commit ourselves in such matters to 
the care of a very ordinary chemist than incur the risk 
of being experimented upon by an extraordinary Privy 
Councillor; and hence we congratulate our readers upon 
their deliverance from the Amended Pharmacy Bill.” 
THE METRIC SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND 
MEASURES. 
The decision of the House of Commons on Wed¬ 
nesday rejecting the Bill to establish compulsorily 
the Metric System of Weights and Measures, brought 
in by Mr. J. B. Smith, is probably not entirely unsa¬ 
tisfactory to the supporters of the measure. That the 
second reading should be refused only by the small 
majority of five, notwithstanding the attempt of the 
Government to shelve the Bill, by a promise to deal 
with the subject next year, appears to show that 
public opinion is gradually tending in favour of 
the adoption of some such plan. For the conveni¬ 
ence of our readers we give a short resume of the 
Bill. It proposes that after a time fixed by Par¬ 
liament the present imperial and all local or custo¬ 
mary weights and measures shall be abolished, and 
the metric system, which is now permissive, shall 
be made compulsory. To this end, it directs that the 
unit of lineal measurement shall be the “metre,” 
verified by comparison with the original standard in 
Paris; that the unit of surface measurement shall 
be the “are,” equal to the square of ten “metres;” 
that the unit of the measure of capacity, for liquids 
and dry goods, shall be the “ litre,” equal to the cube 
of the tenth of the “metre,” and that the unit of 
weight shall be the gram, of which a standard is to 
be prepared, to be verified by comparison with the 
original standard in Paris. 
At the expiration of the time fixed, it is to be il¬ 
legal to use any other denomination of weights and 
measures than those specified in the Bill, under a 
penalty of ten shillings for each offence. Any per¬ 
son who shall print any price list or price current, 
or any journal or other paper containing a price list 
or price current, in which the provisions of this Bill 
are not complied with, is to be liable to a penalty of 
ten shillings for every copy of such price list, price 
current, journal or other paper he shall publish. 
The Bill also provides for the preparation and 
publication of accurate tables of comparison, show¬ 
ing the proportions between the weights and mea¬ 
sures and those proposed to be established by the- 
Bill. 
The names on the Bill, besides Mr. J. B. Smith, 
are Sir Charles Adderley, Sir Thomas Bazley, 
Mr. Graves, Mr. Baines, Mr. Albert Pell, Mr. 
Muntz and Mr. Dalglish. 
Of course, in the discussion of so wide and im¬ 
portant a question, it is desirable that every argu¬ 
ment should be carefully considered; but we are 
sorry to notice the appearance of an intention to 
make political capital out of it by an affected consi¬ 
deration for the convenience of the lower classes, 
and the suffering and loss the Bill would entail 
upon them. To use an illustration given by one 
honourable member, and with all deference to those 
who urge this view of the question, we think it very 
problematical a working man would continue to pay 
for the half-litre of beer the same as he now pays- 
for a pint, although he would only receive about 
seven-eighths of the quantity. Such matters would 
undoubtedly be regulated by the ordinary law of 
supply and demand. By the way, a daily contem¬ 
porary strongly opposed to the Bill, gives proof of 
its capability for dealing with the subject, by report¬ 
ing that the half-litre is equal to “8'3-tentlis” of a 
pint, a jumble that many of those whom it assumes- 
to patronize would be competent to set right. 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
The following are amongst the papers promised: 
to be read at the Edinburgh meeting:— 
On the Tincture Press. By Mr. C. A. Staples. 
On the Compound Mixture of Iron of the British 
Pharmacopoeia. By Mr. C. A. Staples. 
On a Method of Obtaining Distilled Water Econo¬ 
mically. By Mr. C. A. Staples. 
The Composition of the Bottled Mineral Waters of 
Commerce. By Mr. E. M. Rimmington. 
Pharmaceutical Ethics—Apprenticeship. By Mr. Si 
R. Atkins. 
Certain Derivatives from Codeia. By Dr. Wright. 
Report on the Purity of the Peroxide and Hydrated 
Peroxide of Iron of Commerce. By Mr. A. H. Allen. 
Report on the Permanganate of Potassium of Phar¬ 
macy. By Mr. A. H. Allen. 
On Solutions. By Mr. T. B. Groves, F.C.S. 
On Linseed. By Mr. Greenish. 
Remarks on the Proposed Changes in the Chemical? 
Nomenclature of the Pharmacopoeia. By Mr. C. R. C. 
Tichborne, F.C.S. 
Examination of Samples of Commercial Chloral Hy¬ 
drate. By Mr. M. M. Pattcson Muir, F.C.S. 
On Crystalline Principles in Aloes. By Professor 
Dr. F. A. Fliickiger. 
Notes on Aloes—No. II. By Dr. W. A. Tilden, F.C.S; 
Report on the Chloral of Trade. By Mr. A. H. 
Mason, F.C.S. 
Pharmaceutical Notes on Bhamnus Frargula, Linn*. 
By Mr. Baildon. 
