EXHIBITION OF OBJECTS EELATING TO PHARMACY. 
229 
better position to claim that respect from others which we have practically 
shown to ourselves. 
Dr. Bence Jones, in his address before the British Association, has not 
hesitated to allude to the recent progress of pharmaceutical science. One 
extract will not be out of place :— 
“ At present, so far from physicians possessing more knowledge of food and of medi¬ 
cine than any other class of persons in the community, the analytical and pharma¬ 
ceutical chemists are rapidly increasing in knowledge, Avhich will enable them not only 
to understand fully the nature and uses of food and medicines, but even to detect the 
first appearances of a multitude of chemical diseases. Their habits of investigation and 
their knowledge of the nature of the forces acting in the body will gradually lead them 
to become advisers in all questions regarding the health of the community, and from 
this they will, like M. Bouchardat, in Paris, become almost, if not altogether, practi¬ 
tioners of medicine. In confirmation of ray opinion of the direction in which the treat¬ 
ment of disease is progressing, I may just refer to the cattle-plague, which in 1745 was 
treated by Dr. Mortimer, at that time Secretary of the Koyal Society, and therefore one 
of the most scientific physicians in the country, with antimony and bleeding. In 1806, 
two chemists. Dr. Angus Smith and Mr. Crookes, gave the only useful suggestion for 
combating the disease, namely, by the arrest or the destruction of the poison by chemi¬ 
cal agents. 
“ All our druggists in England ought to be what they are in Germany and in France, 
chemists capable of any analysis that might be required of them, and able to satisfy 
themselves and the medical men that the substances they sell are what they profess to 
be—pure, unadulterated chemical compounds.” 
The Bepor^ at least will show that there are some paths of knowledge 
which modern pharmaceutists have not feared to tread. 
For convenient reference the objects sent may be divided into three main 
classes. 
CLASS I. 
OBJECTS REPRESENTING NOVELTIES OR IMPROVEMENTS IN PHARMACEUTICAL 
PROCESSES, INCLUDING APPARATUS. 
ExJlihitors. 
Ash (Moses), 4, Bull Streety Birmingliam. 
Two small microscopes. 
Attfield, Dr. J., 17, Bloomsbury Square, London. 
A set of brass metric decimal weights, as used in the pharmacies of France 
and other countries; a set of iron metric weights, as used by grocers ; 
a draper’s metre measure ; a specimen of the jointed metre measures used 
by carpenters ; a 10-metre measuring tape ; a set of metric pewter mea¬ 
sures, from the double litre to the centilitre ; a set of wooden metric 
measures for seeds, etc., from a decalitre to a decilitre ; a set of brass 
and platinum metric weights, and glass rough and fine metric measures, 
as used by analytical chemists in all civilized countries; medicine 
bottles for holding metric decimal quantities ; several French prescrip¬ 
tions, illustrating the use of metric decimal weights and volumes. ^ Gold, 
silver, and copper decimal coins current in France and Italy, their dia¬ 
meter, weight, etc., adjusted on the metric decimal system. An Ame¬ 
rican coin, 5 cents in value, 5 grammes in weight, and 2 centimetres in 
diameter. 
In a paper, read before the Conference, “On Weights, Measures, Coins,, and 
Numbers,” the exhibitor said his object in showing the articles mentioned above 
was to aid in familiarizing chemists and druggists with the decimal system of 
weights and measures, of which a table was given in the British Pharmacopoeia, 
and which would probably soon become generally adopted. In the intervals of the 
