PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY, EDINBURGH. 
365 
One very successful meeting of the Conference has already been held; judging from 
the spirit and talent displayed, we have good grounds for believing that it will be per¬ 
manent, and that it will take no mean place among the scientific institutions of the 
country. 
Let us hope that on the next occasion Scotland may be w r ell represented, that some of 
our friends on this side of the Tweed may find it convenient to be present, and lend a 
helping hand to the cause of Pharmaceutical progress and elevation. 
In drawing these observations to a close, I have to announce to you that several valu¬ 
able additions have been made to the library, and new arrangements entered into with 
the curator, Mr. Hill, for the purpose of rendering it more accessible, and encouraging 
individuals to use it more extensively. 
Dr. Macadam, I am glad to say, is to open the session by a lecture on Pharmaceutical 
Chemistry, a subject of great practical importance to us, and I have no doubt that as on 
other occasions on which we had the pleasure of hearing him, he will be listened to with 
attention, and with much profit to ourselves. 
Dr. Macadam moved a vote of thanks to the President, which was seconded by Mr. 
Mackay, and carried with acclamation. 
Dr. Macadam then read the following paper on Pharmaceutical Chemistry :— 
Mr. President and Gentlemen,—The opportunity which is generally afforded me 
once at least every year, to meet the members of the Pharmaceutical Society, and to 
aid, as far as lies in my power, the interest of the public meetings, invariably recalls 
to my mind many pleasant recollections of the past. I can never forget that it was 
in connection with the Pharmaceutical Society that I delivered my first course of 
systematic lectures on Chemistry, and that much encouragement was afforded me in 
those early years by the countenance of the Society in my maiden courses of lectures, 
and by the energetic and disinterested counsel and kind sympathy of your excellent 
secretary. 
When, therefore, a request was tendered to me about five weeks ago that I should 
occupy a part of this evening, I embraced the opportunity of being present with much 
pleasurable anticipation of meeting old friends, and of discoursing to them on some sub¬ 
ject connected with Pharmaceutical Chemistry; and on thinking and rethinking over 
the subject matter of my discourse, my mind wandered to the great aim of all Pharmaceu¬ 
tical knowledge and all Pharmaceutical skill, and I saw that behind all the bottles and 
the dispensing-table, and above all the tinctures and the infusions, there was the great 
mission of all Pharmaceutical Chemistry, which was to minister to the sustainment of 
the bodily frame of the man animal in a state of health. And looking still more deeply, 
and seeing how, when the vitality of the man was ebbing from his mortal frame, the 
Pharmaceutical preparation appeared to resuscitate the enfeebled constitution, and 
how, when the vital activity w r as running its course in a heedless and feverish state, the 
Pharmaceutical compound checked the speed and reined in the display of vital force,— 
I then thought that the scientific vocation of the Pharmaceutist was a noble one, and 
that it was more closely related to individual and national prosperity than what it is 
often supposed to be. 
Moreover, knowing well that the preparation of Pharmaceutical compounds could be 
more properly discussed by a professed Pharmaceutist; that the more strictly chemical 
properties could be more profitably alluded to in the lecture-room ; and that the more 
immediate medical effects could be better discussed upon before you by one of our 
enlightened practitioners,—it became evident to me that my province on this occasion 
was to refer you to the relations which more immediately connect Pharmaceutical 
Chemistry with the vitality of the bodily frame in health and in sickness. xVnd this de¬ 
partment of the subject forced itself upon my attention, alike from its being one which 
I have had great personal delight in studying for some time past, and because it 
appeared to me that it would afford matter of discourse which -would be novel to many 
present here, and therefore command your earnest attention. 
The connection which subsists between the food of the animal and its growth and 
sustenance, has long been observed in a partial way, and the necessity of a supply of 
food for the building up of the animal structure, and the repair of injury, has been 
universally admitted. It has remained for more recent physiological researches, however, 
to show conclusively that the food of the animal does not only minister to the increase of 
