143 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
The Pharmaceutical Conference at Bath, of which a full report will be found 
in another part of this Journal, has been attended with at least as much success 
as its best friends had any right to expect. The meetings extended through 
four days, and a considerable number of communications were read, the purport 
and character of which may be judged from the abstracts we have given. The 
attendance was by no means bad, for we know how reluctant chemists and 
druggists are to leave their shops with the heavy responsibilities that rest upon 
them, and recent events will have added to this feeling. In addition to the 
druggists of Bath, who may be looked upon as the hosts, there appear to have 
been twelve members of the Conference from London, three from Liverpool, 
and sixteen from other parts of the country. We might, it is true, have ex¬ 
pected a larger attendance from Bristol, but, on the whole, the result must be 
considered to have been a decided success. We are glad to observe that many 
of the communications have been contributed by provincial chemists, and espe¬ 
cially that several of them are from places where no associations exist for pro¬ 
moting and encouraging scientific investigation. It is by inducing our brethren 
in different parts of the country to look beyond the mere drudgery of trade, to 
accustom themselves to the investigation of phenomena which are frequently 
coining under their observation, to confer together on the results of these in¬ 
vestigations, and thus to cultivfite a love for science and mutual friendship one 
with another, that these provincial meetings may be made most useful. In 
■carrying them out in the form of a new institution, it is to be hoped that care 
will be taken to weaken as little as possible the means of support of previously 
existing local associations having similar objects. This is an evil which in many 
cases has been severely felt, from the long-existing tendency to split up socie¬ 
ties into associations having special and limited objects, for which there is often 
barely matter enough to maintain the interest of their proceedings. 
The President’s address, and the report on the prevention of accidental 
poisoning, are the only communications read at the meetings that we have re¬ 
ceived otherwise than in abstract. Some of the scientific papers are on inter¬ 
esting subjects, and we hope to have the means of publishing these more fully 
than is done in the brief abstracts contained in the report. 
TRANSACTIONS 
OF 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
AT A MEETING- OE THE COUNCIL, *Wi September , 1864, 
Present—Messrs. Bird, Bottle, Davenport, Deane, Hanbury, Morson, Orridge, and 
Standring, 
Davids, George Ware.Hackney, 
was elected a Member of the Society. 
The Report of Professor Bentley on the Herbaria presented for competition was 
read, and awards were made of a Bronze Medal and Certificate ot Merit. 
The Report of the Examiners on the competition for the Minor Examination Prize 
of Books to the value of two pounds was read, and the award made to the successful 
candidate. 
These prizes will be distributed at the evening meeting on the 5th October. 
M 2 
