418 
TIIE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [December 2 ,187U 
Treasury. They next had a conference with the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer and Sir Thomas 
Fremantle, the Chairman of the Hoard of Customs, 
hut with no better result; both those gentlemen being 
of Opinion that eA r en with qualified inspectors locally 
appointed, the Customs could not be entrusted 
■with such powers as those suggested, and that such 
powers if used would have a very injurious effect 
upon trade, and divert a large amount of business 
from this country. The Chancellor of the Ex¬ 
chequer considered that nothing further could be done 
without an express Act of Parliament, and that any 
application to the Government to introduce such a 
measure, which probably would not pass, should be 
made either to the Home Secretary or the Local 
Government Board. The Committee concluded by 
expressing regret that there seemed no means open 
for adoption likely to put a stop to a trade so in¬ 
jurious to the heaith of the community. The Report 
of the Committee was approved and ordered to be 
printed and circulated among the members of the 
House of Commons and of the Corporation and of 
the various sanitary bodies in the Metropolis. 
The usual Monthly Evening Meeting of the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society will be held on Wednesday next, 
at half-past eight o’clock. The first subject will be 
the discussion on Mr. Greenish’s paper on “ Phar¬ 
macy in North Germany,” adjourned from last 
month. Professor Redwood’s paper 011 “ The Sub¬ 
stitution of Proportional Numbers for Specified 
Weights and Measures in the Description of Pro¬ 
cesses in the Pharmacopoeia,” which also stands 
over from last month, will be the next. A paper by 
Mr. t T. T. Miller on a “ Method for the Estimation 
of Morphia in Opium,” and another by Mr. A. F. 
Haselden, on “ The Syrup and Resin of Tolu, Tinc¬ 
ture of Cinnamon,” etc., are also promised. 
Mr. William Robert Grove, Q.C., F.R.S., has 
been appointed to the Judgeship vacated by the re¬ 
moval of Mr. Justice Collier to the Judicial Com¬ 
mittee of the Privy Council. I 11 addition to emi¬ 
nence as a barrister, Mr. Grove has a considerable 
scientific reputation. From 1841 to 1847 he was Pro¬ 
fessor of Experimental Philosophy at the London 
Institution, and he has long been an active member 
of the Council of the Royal Society. Among many 
other contributions to scientific literature may be 
mentioned his famous essay on “ The Correlation 
of Physical Forces,” published in 1846 and in sub¬ 
sequent editions. In 1847 he received the medal of 
the Royal Society for his Bakerian Lecture on j 
“ Voltaic Ignition and on the Decomposition of 
Water into its Constituent Gases by Pleat.” In 1860 
Mr. Grove was President of the British Association 
at its meeting at Nottingham. He has also devoted 
considerable attention to the operation of the Patent 
Haws, and was a member of the Royal Commission 
appointed to report upon them. 
I Tom these antecedents, and the scientific cha¬ 
racter of Mr. Grove’s mind, we may expect that 
the interests of abstract science, and its applica¬ 
tions, will receive, through the influence Mr. Grove 
will now acquire, official recognition and promotion 
of the kind that is so much needed, and which can 
only be rendered by those cognizant of the details 
of scientific matters. 
fnmsiiiticns cf % flwnramtiral jsatictjr. 
NORTH BRITISH BRANCH, EDINBURGH. 
The First Meeting for the present session of the North 
British Branch of the Society was held in Craigie Hall, 
5, St. Andrew Square, on the evening of Friday, 24th 
November, at 8.30 ; Mr. PI. C. Baildon, President, in 
the chair. There was a good attendance; in addition to 
those connected with the Society resident in Edinburgh, 
there were present Messrs. Frazer, Kinninmont and 
Davison from Glasgow. 
The President addressed the meeting as follows:— 
Gentlemen,—Having been placed by you for the se¬ 
cond time in the honourable position of President of tho- 
North British Branch of the Pharmaceutical Society of 
Great Britain, at the commencement of the session I 
would ask your indulgence whilst I endeavour as briefly 
as possible to recapitulate events of great importanco 
that have taken place since our Annual Meeting, and 
which will, I doubt not, exercise a very beneficial influ¬ 
ence on this Branch of the Society, and will afford ad¬ 
vantages not hitherto enjoyed to the rising generation of 
pharmacists in Scotland. 
It is well known that the Council had for years felt 
deeply the inadequate resources at the command of the 
North British Branch; although it had a name, it had 
no permanent “local habitation,” no sufficient library of 
reference, and but a very imperfect museum; and of these 
deficiencies we were made still more painfully conscious- 
when, whilst attending the Pharmaceutical Conference, 
our esteemed friend Mr. Henry Deane, a fellow-worker 
with Jacob Bell in founding the Pharmaceutical Society,, 
at his own request, accompanied our Honorary Secretary 
to our rooms in Princes Street and saw the poverty of our 
resources. Having the honour and interest of the Society 
deeply at heart, Mr. Deane at once expressed his inten¬ 
tion, at the earliest opportunity, to bring the subject fully 
before the London Council. This he (lid, in a very able 
letter, which I hope all of you have seen in the 71st num¬ 
ber of the Pharmaceutical Journal, and which may bo 
said to have exhausted the subject, suggesting that the 
Council should provide funds, 1st, for the rent of a suite 
of rooms, to be occupied exclusively by the Society, an;L 
not as at present, with two back rooms, available only 
for one night in the week ; 2ndly, that our library should 
be largely added to and amply supplied with all needful 
works on chemistry, pharmacy and botany ; and, 3rdly, 
that we should have a museum worthy of the name, con¬ 
taining an ample supply of specimens for our exami¬ 
nations. 
I quote the conclusion of Mr. Deane’s letter. He says, 
“As an old examiner and as an old member of Council, 
having taken deep interest in the welfare of the Society 
from its foundation, I venture to place this subject before- 
the Council, believing it to he one of the greatest im¬ 
portance, about which no time should he lost and no- 
reasonable expense he spared. It is not a question of 
money, nor the numbers passing their examinations hero 
or there, hut it is one of necessity, affecting our character- 
for consistency and good sense and of justice to those 
young men who have to appear before the examiners, 
whether in London or in Edinburgh.” 
When this letter came before the London Council, it 
was very properly referred to a select committee to re¬ 
port upon, of -which our Honorary Secretary and Mr. D- 
Frazer, of Glasgow, were members. As it was believed 
that a good deal of misunderstanding existed in the 
minds of some of the gentlemen composing this com¬ 
mittee as to the origin and position of the North British 
Branch of tho Pharmaceutical Society, I,—as being one of 
the three pharmacists in Edinburgh who' met Mr. Jacob 
Bell in 1851, and since the death of Mr. John Macfarlan 
and Mr. Duncan, the only survivor,—was requested by 
the Council in Edinburgh to accompany Mr. John 
Mackay and Mr. Frazer to London, in order that I 
