PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY, EDINBURGH. 
575 
factory to find there was some prospect of an improvement being effected in the 
work, and there was no one better qualified for this duty than Professor Red¬ 
wood. There were two classes of people who were greatly interested in a Phar¬ 
macopoeia, namely, physicians and pharmaceutists, who desired to know the 
composition of medicines, and the best methods of preparing and identifying 
them. The object of the work was to supply this information to these two 
classes of persons, and he thought it undesirable to introduce extraneous 
matter. The Pharmacopoeia was not intended to be a work for teaching che¬ 
mistry, and still less botany and zoology, but for giving the necessary instructions 
for the preparation of medicines in the best, most efficient, and economical way; 
and the information given should be conveyed in plain language, that could be 
readily understood by those who had occasion to refer to it. 
Dr. Edwards, of Liverpool, thought that those, like himself, who were en¬ 
gaged in teaching medical and pharmaceutical students, had some claim for a 
little consideration. They had to teach chemistry, and they would like to know 
what the chemistry of the Pharmacopoeia was, or was intended to be. He had 
been accustomed to think that the Pharmacopoeia was, or at least that it ought 
to be, the standard by which medical and pharmaceutical students were to be 
taught, and to which they were to look as their guide in practice; but when he 
expressed this opinion some time ago at a meeting of the British Association, he 
was told that pharmacy was not philosophy; and now again, on coming to the 
head-quarters of British pharmacy, he heard something very similar. He con¬ 
fessed he felt doubtful what course to pursue in future, if there was to be so little 
left in the Pharmacopoeia to indicate what system of chemistry was recognized. 
Dr. Attfield would have been glad if the subject could have been ad¬ 
journed, so as to admit of a more full discussion on a future occasion ; but even 
at that late hour he must beg to be allowed to say a word or two on behalf of 
the class of students. Plitherto the Pharmacopoeia had been used as a text¬ 
book by pharmaceutical students, and this was at least one important applica¬ 
tion of it which ought not to be overlooked. It was true that the chemistry of 
the Pharmacopoeia was sometimes at variance with that taught at the schools, 
and he had sometimes found it took as long to unteach the bad chemistry which 
apprentices had learnt as was afterwards required to teach them what they 
ought to know. It was perhaps better that the Pharmacopoeia should not at¬ 
tempt to teach chemistry, than that it should teach what would afterwards 
require to be untaught. He hoped, however, if the Pharmacopoeia was not to 
be a text-book for students, that such a work would be furnished in connection 
with it. 
The Chairman - said he was sorry the lateness of the hour did not admit of 
the discussion being extended, and as this was their last meeting for the season 
there would be no early opportunity for renewing it; but the ‘ Pharmaceutical 
Journal 1 was open for any communications, and Professor Redwood would also 
be glad to communicate personally with those who took an interest in the 
subject. 
PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY, EDINBURGH. 
The last scientific meeting of the pi’esent session was held in St. George s Hall on 
Monday evening, April 17th, at 9 o’clock; Mr. Kemp, President, in the chair. 
The following paper was read by Mr. D. R. Brown, Vice-President, on “Chloroform, 
and the Tests for its Purity in the British Pharmacopoeia 
Chloroform seems to have been first prepared by Graham, an American chemist, in 
1831 ; but he was not aware of it. In 1820, Dr. Thomas Thomson gave the name of 
chloric ether to the compound known as Dutch liquid, the empirical formula of which 
2 S' 2 
