288 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 7,1371"* 
interest, not onty in tlie distribution of our prizes, 
I)ut, as I believe, in all that pertains to tlie 
prosperity of our Society. Since we made bold, 
and we were rather shy at first, to ask the ladies 
to attend upon these occasions, my predecessors 
have said a separate word of welcome in their 
favour, and I see no reason why I should deviate j 
from so excellent a custom. They render every cheer¬ 
ful scene more cheerful and every pleasure greater, 
their presence acting as it were like a sunbeam. | 
'With the poet’s words I sincerely welcome them,— 
‘•'All honour to woman, to her it is given 
To wreathe the dull earth with the roses of heaven.” 
The President then called upon Professor Red¬ 
wood to present his report with regard to the class 
of chemistry and pharmacy. 
Professor Redwood said the task, or perhaps he 
should rather say the duty, that the professors had 
to perform at the opening meeting of every session 
of their school, was always a pleasant one, and j 
especially so when they had a good list of prizes to 
be distributed to a number of good men who had ac¬ 
quitted themselves with credit in a previous ses¬ 
sion. Far more agreeable was the duty which they 
had to perform at the opening than that which de¬ 
volved upon them at the closing of a session, when 
they had to finish the work of a long ten months’ 
application to study by inviting the students to a 
contest—a friendly contest it might be, but one 
nevertheless in winch there were many anxious 
thoughts, and some misgivings with reference to the 
result. The hopes and sometimes the confident ex¬ 
pectations of some of those who entered the lists 
were necessarily doomed to disappointment, and 
many a hard-working, well-conducted, and merito- 
lions student found himself unfortunately in the posi¬ 
tion of an unsuccessful candidate, and had to return , 
to his friends without the coveted distinction of' 
being a prize-man. They could not award prizes to all, 
and must necessarily cause disappointment to many, 
some of whom might go away, as no doubt they often 
did at the conclusion of a session, discontented with 
themselves and dissatisfied with the result of their 
sessional labours in the school. That was the scene 
at the closing of a session. Now at the opening of a 
session it was otherwise. He need not tell them 
what it was, for it was before them; they had for- j 
gotten the bad and all disagreeables, and thought : 
only of the good. They had a good number of prizes j 
which had been awarded to a considerable number 
of able men who had amply justified their claims for 
these distinctions, and they had invited the mem¬ 
bers, and the ladies especially, to confer a smile of 
approbation upon those who would come forward 
that evening to receive these distinctions. In his 
class there were at the close of last session eleven! 
candidates for prizes, to six of whom some marks of' 
distinction had been awarded, and they were as fol¬ 
lows :— 
Silver Council Medal 
Bronze Council Medal 
Certificates of Honour 
Cert if cates of Merit. 
Henry Churchill. 
Charles Arthur Overton, 
Horace Davenport. 
Thomas Iredale. 
Frederick J. Hanbury. 
Walter Benjamin Cole. 
In conclusion, he (the Professor) could state most 
truly that the whole of these gentlemen had richly 
merited the distinctions which had thus been con¬ 
ferred upon them. 
The questions for examinations were as follows:— 
Chemistry and Pharmacy. 
Hours : Ten till One. Standard Number of Marks, 
100 . 
1. What is the weight of a fluid ounce of rectified 
spirit ? 
2. What i 3 the specific gravity of a liquid, a fluid, 
ounce of which weighs 321*d625 grains ? 
3. How do you explain the difference between common, 
light and polarized light ? 
4. When a ray of polarized light passes through a 
tube filled with oil of turpentine, what effect is produced 
on the ray, and how do you explain it in accordance with 
the undulatory theory of light ? 
5. Describe and explain the phenomena of fluorescence, 
and give a few instances illustrating their occurrence in 
liquids and solids. 
6. Explain the terms specific heat and latent heat; 
describe the methods of determining the latent heals of 
water and of steam, and state what they respectively 
are. 
7. Describe the process of percolation or displacement 
as applied to the preparation of tinctures, and point out 
conditions on which the successful application of the-, 
process depends. 
8. Describe carbonic oxide and nitrous oxide, their- 
composition, production, and properties. 
9. What are the specific gravities of Liquor Ammonite 
and Liquor Ammonia Fortior of the Pharmacopoeia, and. 
what proportions of ammonia do they respectively con¬ 
tain ? 
10. How is hvdriodic acid produced, in the form of 
gas, and also of liquid F 
11. How is iron obtained in what is called the passive 
state, and what arc the phenomena which characterize it 
in that state ? 
12. Describe the processes of the Pharmacopoeia for 
the production of Chloroform and Hydrochlorate of Mor¬ 
phia, making any remarks that may occur to you in 
reference to them. 
13. Give the formula) representing the composition of 
the following bodies :— 
Carbolic acid. 
Gallic acid. 
Ammoniated mercury. 
Tartarated antimony. 
Borax. 
Alum. 
The President then distributed the prizes to the 
successful candidates, and called upon Professor 
Bentley to state the result of the examination in the 
class of Botany and Materia Medica. 
Professor Bentley said that he had always, at 
the commencement of a session, a difficult, but, at 
the same time, agreeable duty to discharge. Tlius 
it was extremely difficult to find words to vary the- 
uniform tenour of the observations which he had 
made on the conduct of the students of his class for 
the long period of twenty-three years during which 
he had been connected with the Society. But it was 
that which also made it an agreeable duty; for 
during the whole of that period he had had uni¬ 
formly to speak of the regularity of attendance, good- 
conduct, diligence, perseverance, and progress of, he 
might say, the large class which was entrusted to- 
his care. That which he had always said he could 
repeat on the present occasion. In no previous 
session had he experienced more pleasure than he 
had done during the past year, both in that hall and 
in the garden of the Royal Botanic Society, in con¬ 
sequence of the general good conduct of the students.. 
With these few brief words, which he hoped would 
be gratifying to those who had been unsuccessful^ 
