493 
December 1G, 1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
of the trade were due to the Committee if they had done 
nothing more than give them one hour more for study, 
recreation and social intercourse. 
This resolution was seconded by Mr. Jessop, and 
carried unanimously. 
Mr. Stott (Sowerby Bridge) was re-elected President, 
Messrs. Dyer and Farr Vice-l’residents, and Mr. Robert 
Brook, jun., Honorary Secretary. 
The President then thanked the Society for the 
honour again conferred upon him, remarking that he be¬ 
lieved he was the oldest in the trade in that part, and 
that he was one of the original four hundred that formed 
the Pharmaceutical Society. He regretted that so many 
failures occurred in passing the Preliminary, and strongly 
urged upon members that no apprentice should be in¬ 
dentured until he had succeeded in the first examination. 
He rejoiced that Government had not succeeded in carry¬ 
ing the Poison Bill, but warned the Society to keep a 
sharp look-out next Session of Parliament. He strongly 
objected to the principle laid down by Mr. Wilkinson, 
that of deviating from prescriptions, as being perfectly 
unjustifiable. This is a point of great importance that 
should be attended to, or great mischief might result. 
On the other hand, it is the bounden duty of the pre- 
scriber, as stated by the lancet- , to see that the proper 
and necessary quantities of ingredients are ordered to 
secure the end aimed at, and not compel the dispenser 
to seek an interview with the physician. 
BRISTOL PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION. 
A General Meeting of the Association was held on 
Friday, December 8, 1871 ; Mr. Townsend, President, 
in the chair. 
The President announced his intention of shortly 
making a specific appeal to his fellow-members for sub¬ 
scriptions towards a fund that was being raised for the 
purpose of sending some help to the pharmacists of 
Chicago who had suffered sadly by the late calamitous 
fire. He would call upon Mr. Stoddart for the lecture 
he had kindly promised them, upon “ Potable Water : 
its Importance and its Impurities.” 
Mr. Stoddart then delivered his lecture, of which the 
following is an abstract, and, at its conclusion, received 
a cordial vote of thanks:— 
After touching upon the importance of the water ques¬ 
tion, the office of water in the animal and vegetable eco¬ 
nomy, its physical properties, and the sources of supply, 
the lecturer drew attention to some celebrated Bristol 
wells, such as Jacob’s well, All Saints’ well, the Quay 
pipe, etc. Having shown how rain percolated through 
the earth to the wells, he remarked that so long as there 
were no houses on the top of Clifton Hill, no doubt 
Jacob’s well contained very good water, but supposing 
the houses above it on the hill should throw out refuse, 
nothing could save the well from being contaminated. 
He had known a case in Unity Street, where it was as¬ 
certained that several children had typhoid fever on ac¬ 
count of drinking the water from a well which was below 
the level of the Float, and into which injurious matter 
from the Float had made its way. There were wells in 
St. Paul’s, in a bed of sand, which extended several 
square miles ten feet below the surface of the ground. 
This substance was so porous that any liquid matter per¬ 
colated through it very rapidly; and as there were two 
churchyards in the district, he had no doubt that if all 
the wells were examined which were sunk in that bed of 
sand, they would find some of the water was nothing but 
animal solution. The well at the end of Terrell Street, 
when it was in the garden of the monks of the priory, 
which stood where St. James’s Church now stands, un¬ 
doubtedly gave very pure water, but since Kingsdown 
had been covered with houses, the whole drainage of 
Kingsdown went into that well, and the water was not 
fit to drink. It was almost impossible to have pure water 
in a city from a well, because impure matter would sink 
down into the source of supply. There was a danger 
arising from our sewers, which was often overlooked,—• 
the noxious gases which arose to the top of the pipes, and 
which made their way very often under pressure of tho 
tide into houses, and generated disease. As a matter ot 
fact, the top of the hill was not so healthy as the bottom, 
although it was generally thought the reverse was tho 
case. Three years ago zymotic fevers were more preva¬ 
lent on the higher ground than they were on the lower. 
They had in Bristol a splendid fall for the sewage, but 
the houses were built so as to take the greatest care of 
these gases, and the wonder was the inhabitants wero 
not all poisoned. One or two places in Bristol had 
actually been built with ventilating shafts, so that the 
gases could escape, and this should be the case in all 
houses to prevent the gases poisoning the air. That 
morning he had been astonished ht reading that tho 
Prince of Wales had been drinking Bristol water. He 
had seen in the Times a most exhaustive report upon tho 
water of Scarborough and the neighboiu’hood. He found 
also that Lord Londesborough had been in the habit of 
using the Bristol water—the water from the Hotwells 
pump. More than that, an analytical chemist, having- 
examined the Scarborough and other waters, found the 
Bristol water splendidly wholesome, the only water of 
the whole that was wholesome. That was admitted in the 
Times of that morning. Many persons might say that 
the illness of the Prince of Wales had been caused by tho 
Bristol water; but if they read the report he had alluded 
to, they would find that the illness was undoubtedly 
caused by the gases which escaped from the sewers. Tho 
report was very plain and unmistakable on that point. 
Mr. Stoddart, referring to the water supplied by the 
Bristol Water Works Company, said they could not bo 
too thankful for it. According to the report of the com¬ 
mission on the water of the United Kingdom, there was 
no better water, take it altogether, than that supplied by 
the Bristol Water Works. It came in hermetically- 
sealed pipes, into which no sewage could penetrate, from 
splendid reservoirs. The water was as pure as the water 
from the much- vaunted chalk wells of the East of Eng¬ 
land, and was as free from impurity as water could possi¬ 
bly be. The lecturer alluded also to the fallacy of popular 
tests, and showed that appearance and taste were not to 
be trusted ; and concluded by drawing various sanitary 
deductions. The lecture was illustrated by specimens, 
photographs and diagrams, shown by the oxycalcium 
light. 
SOCIETY OF ARTS. 
Dyes and Dye-Stuffs other than Aniline.* 
BY DR. CRACE-CALVERT, F.R.S. 
Lecture III. 
Blue Colouring Substances. — Indigo, Orchil, Cudbear, 
Litmus , Prussian Blue and Ultramarine. 
Indigo. —This most valuable dyeing substance was- 
used as a dye-stuff in India and Egypt long before the 
Christian era, and the Romans were acquainted with it, 
although they only used it as a pigment, not knowing- 
how to render it soluble, and so available for dyeing. 
It is only since the sixteenth century, or from the time 
of the discovery of the passage to India round the Capo 
of Good Hope, that it has become generally known in 
Europe; and its employment as a dye was greatly re¬ 
tarded by the opposition it met with from the large 
vested interests of the woad cultivators, who induce 
the English, French and German governments to pro- 
* Cantor Lecture, delivered Tuesday, Feb. 21. Reprinted 
from the Journal of the Society of Arts. 
