August 5,1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
109 
We would direct attention to tlie resolution of the 
Council at tlieir last meeting, affecting occasionally 
tlie regular issue of the Journal. The proceedings 
of Council are in future to he published in the next 
issue of the Journal after the meeting, and “the 
Journal may on those occasions be issued on Satur¬ 
day morning instead of Friday as heretofore, if 
necessary.” 
The following paragraphs, in reference to the 
Pharmacy Act (1808) Amendment Bill, occur in the 
Heport recently made by the Medical Officer to the 
Lords of Her Majesty’s Privy Council:—• 
“Under the provisions of the Pharmacy Act, 1868, 
described in my last year’s report, I conveyed to the 
Pharmaceutical Society, in 1870, your Lordship’s ap¬ 
proval of the Society’s annual list of examiners for the 
purposes of the Act, and have now to submit to your 
Lordships the satisfactory report made by Dr. Green- 
how on the London examinations of the Society in 1870, 
as visited by him for your Lordships* information. 
“I regret to report to your Lordships that the power 
which, for the public protection, the first section of the | 
Act vests in the Pharmaceutical Society, to prescribe 
(witli consent of the Privy Council) regulations as to 
"the keeping, dispensing, and selling of poisons, is still 
entirely unexercised. I believe it to have been by an 
accidental oversight in legislation, that, while all other 
powers to be exercised for public purposes by the So¬ 
ciety under the Act were vested in the Council of the 
Society, the language of the first section vested in the 
'Commonalty, and not in the Council, the very import¬ 
ant power which that section confers, and to which my 
present observations relate. It is, perhaps, not surpris¬ 
ing that a large body of tradesmen should be slow to 
.take the initiative in imposing even the most reasonable 
jpenal restrictions on themselves; but I have to submit 
to your Lordships, as a fact which you may deem 
deserving the consideration of Parliament this that non- 
.fulfihnent of the Society’s duty, to make rules against 
■dangerous slovenliness in the keeping, dispensing and 
.selling of poisons, is a breach of the implied contract 
under which the Legislature in 1868 gave powers and 
jprivileges to the Society.” 
A Committee has been formed with the object of 
.raising a suitable memorial to the memory of the 
date Professor William Allen Miller. The Itev. 
Principal Barry, of King’s College, has been chosen 
chairman, Professors Bentley and Bloxam and 
JNIessrs. Cunningham and Tomlinson as secretaries, 
and Professor Guy as treasurer. The ordinary 
subscription is to be one guinea, but the list of sub¬ 
scribers will be published without any statement of 
’the amounts subscribed. It is intended to devote 
the funds which may be raised, first to obtaining 
a bust or portrait of Dr. Miller, and then to the 
institution of a prize or scholarship bearing his 
name, in connection with King’s College. 
Nature states that M. Wurtz has announced to 
the French Academy the success of a young chemist 
in his laboratory in transforming lactose, or the un- 
crystallizable sugar of milk, into dulcose or dulcine, 
the sugar of mannite, which may easil}' be obtained 
in very beautiful crystals, by the successive reaction 
of hydrochloric acid and sodium-amalgam. 
taractas of t|{ pijOTiixtuturJ Sacitljr. 
MEETING OF COUNCIL. 
August 2 nd, 1871. 
MR. A. F. HASELDEN, F.L.S., PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR. 
MR. EDWARDS, VICE-PRESIDENT. 
( Present—Messrs. Atherton, Betty, Carr, Groves, Hills, 
Sandford and Smith. 
The minutes of the last Meeting were read and con¬ 
firmed. 
A letter from the Privy Council was read, approving 
the appointment of Mr. Alexander Noble as an Examiner 
in Scotland. 
The Report of the Finance Committee was presented, 
showing on the General Fund Account a balance in the 
Treasurer’s hands of.£1812. 14s. 3 d. 
And submitting for payment accounts, 
amounting to.£679. 18s. 7 cl. 
On the Benevolent Fund Account the Secretary 
reported that lie had received the legacy of £19. 19s. 
from the executors of the late Mr. Charles Coles; a 
donation of £-5. 5s. from Mr. John Davison; and sub¬ 
scriptions amounting to £6. 2s. 6A; that the present 
balance in hand was £231. 6 s. 1x7. 
Resolved—That the Report be received and adopted, 
and payments made. 
The Report of the Benevolent Fund Committee as to 
applications for relief having been read, it was 
Resolved—That it be received and adopted. 
Mr. Hills said he had received a letter from a Mr. 
Norcott, asking him to bring before the Society the case 
of the suffering French chemists. Mr. Norcott stated in 
his letter that he had been applied to by M. Genevaix, 
the President of the Society which had been formed to 
inquire into the present condition of the pharmaciens 
of the Seine, and to give assistance to the most necessi¬ 
tous. This gentlemen stated that the persons referred 
to were in a very distressed condition ; that twenty-three 
chemists’ establishments had been destroyed, and nine 
tradesmen had been utterly ruined, and would be unable 
to recommence business without assistance. A credit of 
40,000 francs had been opened with the Pharmacie Cen- 
trale for an advance for drugs and chemicals, and they 
sought the aid of their fellow-craftsmen of Great Britain. 
Mr. Norcott had applied to the Lord Mayor, and also to 
the Society of Friends, and had obtained £200 from the 
former, and £50 from the latter; and he had been also 
requested to apply to him (Mr. Hills) with a view of 
bringing the matter before the Pharmaceutical Society. 
The President said he had also received a letter from 
Mr. Norcott, who called on him, and made a similar 
application. 
After full discussion, it was decided that the Council 
had no power to apply the funds of the Pharmaceutical 
Society to such a pui'pose, and the President was re¬ 
quested to communicate the same to Mr. Norcott. 
A subscription list was, however, opened by several 
members of the Council for the purpose of rendering 
assistance. 
The Report and Recommendations of the Library, 
Museum and Laboratory Committee having been read, 
it was—- 
Resolved—That they be received and adopted. 
The Committee having recommended that the Report 
