024 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS 
May 18, 1872.] 
was an invoice, dated Feb. 23rd, 1798, sent by tbe 
Apothecaries’ Company to a surgeon on board a ship 
lying at Sheerness, and amongst the articles supplied 
were 2 oz. camphor at Is.; 4 oz. powdered ipecacuanha, 
9.9. 6(7.; 1 lb. sugar of lead, £1; 8 oz. magnesia, 3s.; 
2 lb. olive oil 4s. 8(7., etc. with a postscript to the effect 
that the Company did not take back empty bottles. He 
was, however, glad to say that there had been a reform 
in prices since then. He was proud to say the Society had 
done a little, though, perhaps, not so much as they would 
have liked. In regard to the Pharmacy Act of 1852, they 
.•all knew what a goodly proportioned Bill went into Parlia¬ 
ment, and what a miserable skeleton came out. Still, small 
as it was, it turned out to be a step in the right direction. 
Then came what had been called by some, a piece of 
good luck, when, in 1862, pharmaceutical chemists were 
exempted from serving on juries, provided they lived 
in England or Wales; but it was a subject for regret 
that in Scotland there was no exemption, simply because 
the operation of the Bill did not extend so far north as 
to cross the Tweed. He might further state that in a 
Bill read a second time the previous evening, and issued 
under the patronage of the Attorney-General that day, 
there was a clause exempting all registered apothecaries, 
medical practitioners and registered chemists from jury 
service. Still, even here the old fault was not amended, 
for Scotland was left out. This was, no doubt, owing to 
the proverbial modesty of Scotchmen in not advancing 
their claims, but he hoped the defect would be remedied 
before the Bill passed. He then made an allusion to 
the memory of the founder of the Society, Jacob Bell, 
thanked Dr. Greenhow for the eloquent manner in which 
he had proposed the toast of the evening, and expressed a 
“hope that in the future, even more than in the past, the 
working of this Society would serve as a bond of union 
between all members of the business. He concluded by 
saying that had the Society done no more than put forth 
the efforts it had on behalf of Pharmaceutical education, 
.and been the means of bringing together on such an 
•occasion as the present pharmacists from so many parts 
of the country, it would well deserve the application of 
the following lines:— 
“ Behold how good a thing it is, 
And how becoming well, 
Together, such as brethren are, 
In unity to dwell.” 
Dr. De Vry was called upon to propose the next toast, 
i( The British Pharmaceutical Conference.” He said he 
had watched with great interest and satisfaction the 
growth of the British Pharmaceutical Society; and one 
•of its children was the Annual Conference. True, it was 
.still but a young one ; but, judging of what it had done 
during the last few years, and comparing the result 
with that of similar societies in France and Germany, 
which he, as a foreigner could do quite impartially, it 
anight be congratulated upon the position it had attained; 
.and as they had done so much already, it was only 
natural to expect they would go on and do much more 
in the future. If so much good had been done, they 
must all acknowledge it was in a great measure owing to 
the efforts of the leaders of the Society ; and, therefore, 
he must add to the toast the name of its most able Pre¬ 
sident, Mr. Brady, and its Secretary, Dr. Attfield. 
Mr. Brady, in acknowledging the toast, said since he 
had been elected President he had had the honour of at¬ 
tending the sittings of an analogous body on the opposite 
.side of the Atlantic; and with a vivid recollection in his 
mind of the amount of scientific work performed by the 
American Pharmaceutical Association, he felt just the 
slightest misgivings about their ensuing meeting at 
Brighton. He did not doubt the Pharmaceutical Con¬ 
ference ; he never had doubted it; nor did he say'they 
would not come out of that meeting as they had out of 
every previous one, able to report a certain amount of 
.advancement to pharmacy; but he had felt a little 
doubtful whether they were undertaking that amount of 
pharmaceutical research which, as a body, they ought 
to. It was true that within the last four or five years there 
had been questions of more immediate moment pressing 
upon them, and that might account for the advance¬ 
ment of the scientific part of the programme being some¬ 
what neglected. But now this political excitement was 
passed, he hoped they would give themselves to that 
earnest research and careful investigation of pharma¬ 
ceutical problems on which alone the Conference, as dis¬ 
tinguished from the Society, must rest its dignity and 
position. They must not rest on their oars if they 
would hold, in the estimation of Dr. De Yry and those 
who worked with him, the same position which he was 
very happy to hear they now did. 
Mr. Schacht (Clifton), next proposed “ The School 
of Pharmacy,” commencing his remarks with the phrase 
recently used on a somewhat similar occasion by Mr. Dis¬ 
raeli, “Forty years ago.” He said that without in any way 
disparaging the last generation, it might fairly be 
claimed for the present that some progress had been 
made since that time; and though many things had 
concurred to produce that result, some of which had 
been already alluded to, there could be no doubt that 
the main difference between the chemists of 40 years ago 
and the pharmacist of to-day was the superior scientific 
education which the latter might lay some claim to 
possess. This, of course, had been primarily brought 
about through the agency of the School of Pharmacy 
in London ; and though it might be possible that more 
might be done, and that other agencies of equal poten¬ 
tiality might be brought into action, no one could dis¬ 
parage the work which that school had done, and was 
doing. He was always proud to think that he had been 
one of the earliest students of that school, and it was 
very gratifying to find that so many whose names had 
been connected with it from the commencement were 
still working on its behalf. It was always a great 
pleasure to him to look back to the time when he was 
a pupil of Dr. Redwood’s, and he would beg to couple 
his name with the toast. 
Dr. Redwood, in responding, said the task of propos¬ 
ing the toast could not have fallen into more appropriate 
hands; for although a large number of those present had 
been students in the school of pharmacy established in 
Bloomsbury Square some thirty years ago, he believed 
Mr. Schacht was the only one who represented the first 
fruit of the school. Since the time when Mr. Schacht 
entered as one of the eight or ten students who formed 
the laboratory class with which they commenced, he 
and many others, emanating from the same source, had 
become in different parts of the country active promul¬ 
gators of pharmaceutical knowledge. These might be 
looked upon as so many schools dotted over the country, 
in which students were so well instructed that a large 
proportion of them were enabled to pass the required 
examinations without any further assistance. There 
was this marked difference therefore between the state of 
things now and thirty years ago, that while there was 
then only one school, there were now some hundred or 
more. He concluded by expressing the hope that the 
school of pharmacy, to which the toast referred might 
long prosper under the guidance of the Council of the 
Pharmaceutical Society, stimulated from time to time by 
those who, like Mr. Schacht, devoted their special atten¬ 
tion to the promotion of pharmaceutical education. 
This concluded the list of toasts, but notwithstanding 
that the Committee had printed a request that no 
other toasts should be added, there was a general feel¬ 
ing that the health of the President should be drunk. 
Mr. Savory therefore proposed the toast in a short 
speech, and it was drunk with acclamation. Mr. 
Haselden then thanked the company for the compli¬ 
ment. The remainder of the evening was spent in 
conversation, and in listening to the capital music of 
the Grenadier Guards’ band. 
