'THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[July 29, 1871. 
m 
to the pressure of important business during the sessions 
of the Council last year, no meeting of the Committee 
was held, and no report was prepared for their considera¬ 
tion by Dr. Redwood. 
“The Committee met on the 7th inst., and received a 
.report from Dr. Redwood, on the progress of pharmacy 
since the date of his last report. Some points of import¬ 
ance in connection with pharmaceutical preparations 
were discussed, and Dr. Redwood was requested to con¬ 
tinue his services. It was also resolved that Dr. Chris- 
‘tison, Dr. Quain, and Dr, Aquilla Smith be requested to 
-continue their inquiries as regards additions or other 
^changes in the Pharmacopoeia, and that Dr. Redwood 
~be requested, in addition to his duty of reporting on the 
progress of pharmacy, to investigate, from time to time, 
“the composition of articles in the Pharmacopoeia con¬ 
cerning which questions have been raised. 
“As the sum of £75 remains as balance in the hands 
cf the Committee, it will be unnecessary to ask the 
'Council to place any further sum at the disposal of the 
'■Committee for use during the ensuing year. 
“R. Christison, Chairman .” 
Dr. Christison said the first paragraph stated why no 
ueport was presented last year. In fact, there was but 
little material about which a report could be presented. 
Put during that year and the subsequent year useful in¬ 
formation had been derived from various quarters, and 
the Committee were of opinion that all parties concerned 
in the Pharmacopoeia should now get a stimulus to pro¬ 
ceed and look after matters that might occur during the 
.next twelve months. To this, he presumed, there would 
be no objection. Pie was happy to say they did not 
-require to come to the Council for any allowance, as 
fhere were ample funds at command. There now re¬ 
mained only a debt of £104. 14s. The Pharmacopoeia 
had a steady sale, and there was a sufficient number of 
-copies to pay more than the debt. They were not en¬ 
titled to make any profit from it, but simply wished to 
reimburse the Council for the outlay. 
Dr. Quain seconded the motion. 
Dr. A. Smith said that, although a member of the 
•Committee, he was no party to the report. He never 
.saw it until it appeared in the programme. He objected 
to the words “the Committee met on the 7th inst., and 
.received a report from Dr. Redwood on the progress of 
pharmacy since the date of his last report.” It was not 
.a report “ on the progress of pharmacy ”; it was a report 
from Dr. Redwood on discussions which took place at 
the Pharmaceutical Society upon a communication made 
by him at the suggestion of the Committee two years 
ago. There was not a word about the progress of phar¬ 
macy ; the report was mere waste paper. He should 
like to see the report state that Dr. Redwood had sent 
in a report to the Pharmacopoeia Committee, and sug¬ 
gested that it should not be worded so as to appear that 
Dr. Christison, Dr. Quain, and himself recommended 
•themselves for re-election. 
Dr. Apjohn thought it would be desirable that the 
Committee should furnish the Council with a summary 
'Of their researches into pharmacy. It would seem that 
there had been no researches. Looking at the report it 
was so much waste paper, and tended to nothing except 
to mislead people who were not conversant with these 
questions into the opinion that experiments were in pro¬ 
gress and researches had been made which would render 
the new edition a great improvement upon the old. If 
these researches had been made, and these improvements 
were ready, they ought to be laid before the Council. 
Dr. Quain believed that the Pharmacopoeia Com¬ 
mittee had performed its duty as efficiently as the Council 
-could wish. 
Dr. A. Smith : No; I say, and I said before, that the 
work has not been done efficiently. 
Dr. Quain said their duty was simply to take care 
that an accurate record of what was done in pharmacy 
■was kept, and they had employed for that purpose the 
services of the gentleman under whoso care and auspices 
the last Pharmacopoeia was constructed, a Pharmacopoeia 
which he need not speak of now that it was admitted to 
be the greatest success that had yet been accomplished 
in the form of a Pharmacopoeia. They gave Dr. Red¬ 
wood a very moderate payment, and he devoted himself 
to securing that the now edition should bo as good as 
the last. He (Dr. Quain) had more faith in the opinion 
of Dr. Redwood than in tliat of cither of the two gentle¬ 
men who had just addressed the Council. (Order, order.) 
He had more confidence in that gentleman’s opinion 
than in that of either of the gentlemen with regard to 
the construction of a Pharmacopoeia. (Hear, hear.) The 
Committee relied on Dr. Redwood to exercise careful 
vigilance over the progress of pharmacy, and whenever 
a new edition was required the new materials would be 
ready. 
Dr. Smith said he did not insinuate one word against 
Dr. Redwood. He had the highest opinion of him, and 
was willing to admit his efficiency in every respect. He 
simply said it was not a report on the progress of phar¬ 
macy, and he would repeat the assertion. 
Sir D. Corrigan suggested that in the next edition, 
after each article, its degree of solubility in water should 
be inserted. At present it was simply stated whether it 
was soluble, and not the degree of its solubility. 
Dr. Christison said he had more reliance in Dr. Red¬ 
wood than in Drs. Smith, Apjohn, Quain, and himself. 
Dr. Arjoiin said, that being the case, ho would pro¬ 
pose that the Pharmacopoeia Committee should cease to 
exist, and that the preparation of the materials for the 
new Pharmacopoeia should be confided to Dr. Redwood. 
The President pointed out that the motion could come 
on when the Committee was to bo reappointed. 
The Report of the Pharmacopoeia Committee was then 
adopted by the Council. 
Dr. Bennett moved, “ That the Pharmacopoeia Com¬ 
mittee of last year, consisting of Dr. Christison, Dr. 
Quain, Dr. Sharpey, and Dr. A. Smith, be reappointed.” 
Dr. Parkes seconded the motion. 
Dr. Apjohn moved, as an amendment, “That the 
Pharmacopoeia Committee be not reappointed, but that 
the task of collecting information preparatory to the 
publication of the new edition of the Pharmacopoeia be 
entrusted to Dr. Redwood.” 
The amendment was not seconded. Dr. Bennett’s 
motion was then agreed to. 
pitrliamiiUartr itnij fitto fromtatfs. 
— 
HOUSE OF COMMONS. 
Metric Weights and Measures Bill. — July 2 6t7i. 
—Mr. J. B. Smith, in moving the second reading of this 
Bill, stated that it was founded on the report of a Select 
Committee, which had ascertained that there were ten 
different systems of weights and measures in use in the 
kingdom, and recommended that all those systems should 
be abolished and a universal decimal or metrical system 
introduced. The recommendation was as old as Magna 
Charta, which declared that only one standard of weight 
i and of measure should be used throughout the country, 
and now, at the end of 700 years, he asked the House of 
Commons to recognize the rocommendation by a Bill. 
The necessity for some measure of the kind became pain¬ 
full y obvious at the Exhibition of 1851 and subsequent 
exhibitions, where manufacturers from different countries 
exhibited their goods, but could give to strangers no 
proper idea of their price, in consequence of the diversity 
of weights and measures. The treaty of commerce with 
France still further disclosed the inconvenience of the 
present system, and a committee of that House was ac¬ 
cordingly appointed to take the question into considera¬ 
tion. That committee reported that wo had 10 different 
systems of weights and measures, 19 different measures 
of land, 61 measures for selling wheat, 13 measures for 
