246 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
called Eyes and no Eyes,'* in which! the narration of a country walk is 
made the occasion of showing how an observant mind may derive instruction 
and pleasure from objects which in the non-observant excite no interest. 
As I have neither been able to accept one of the subjects proposed by the 
Pharmaceutical Conference for investigation, nor to take up any other, and 
am yet unwilling to appear before you empty-handed, I am compelled to the 
expedient of producing my essay from the same kind of materials that af¬ 
forded the narrative of “ Eyes;" and will therefore read you a few memoranda 
bearing as far as may be on pharmacy, made after a month’s ramble among 
the Alps of Dauphiny. 
Leaving London in the latter part of July, in / company with a friend, I 
spent two days in Paris, visiting while there the Ecole de Pharmacie, which, 
I need hardly remind you, is an establishment of ancient growth, and is much 
more extensive than our own school in Bloomsbury Square. Besides museum, 
laboratories, etc., it possesses a small botanical garden, which is overlooked 
by the residence of the veteran pharmacologist, Professor Guibourt, Lecturer 
on the Natural History of Drugs. The professor’s private collection is very 
extensive, and occupies several small rooms in the upper part of a house in 
an adjoining street, where we had the pleasure of meeting him, as well as 
Professor Planchon of the School of Pharmacy at Montpellier. I may re¬ 
mind you that Paris, Strasburg and Montpellier are the centres of French 
pharmaceutical education, these three cities alone possessing Superior Schools 
of Pharmacy. 
We next visited the Jardin des Plantes, which is not distant from the Ecole 
de Pharmacie, and spent some time in inspecting the zoological and botanical 
collections in the museums. In the garden itself, I observed in a sheltered 
situation against a wall a fine pistachio-tree, with nuts of full size, produced, 
I was informed, after artificial impregnation, the male tree growing at some 
distance. Conducted by M. Naudin, we also examined some of the rare Cu- 
curbitacece, for which the garden is famous, as well as a series of beds in 
which curious experiments on the hybridization of plants were being carried 
on. A call at the busy establishment of Dr. Miallie, pharmacien to the Em¬ 
peror, and a brief visit to the large and bustling wholesale house of M. Dor- 
vault concluded all that could be called pharmaceutical in my visit to Paris ; 
and I shall therefore pass at one jump to the Grande Chartreuse, that famous 
monastery near Grenoble, founded by St. Bruno in the eleventh century, and 
of which our London Charterhouse was originally a branch. I need not here 
tell of the magnificent alpine scenery amid which the monastery is situated, 
nor of the austere habits of the monks, nor of the primitive style of bed and 
board, with which visitors to the establishment are entertained. But I wish 
to relate to you the beneficial effect to the institution of a little pharmaceu¬ 
tical knowledge. 
Previous to the French Pevolution of 1789, the convent had large landed 
possessions, all of which were confiscated during that convulsion, and the 
monks expelled for a period of over twenty years. However in 1816, the 
Grande Chartreuse was restored to its owners, but without the restitution of 
its lands,—the only privilege allowed being the right of pasturage and of cut¬ 
ting wood in the circumjacent forest. But the monks had another resource : 
they made some excellent cordials and an elixir of wonderful virtue, both 
distilled from the aromatic plants growing on the alpine pastures. They in¬ 
vented also a tooth-tincture, and a certain preparation of iron, known under 
the name of Boule d’acier; and these have become sources of revenue almost 
equal in value to the houses and lands lost by the Pevolution. The liqueurs 
* By Dr. Aikin and Mrs. Barbauld. 
