280 LIVERPOOL chemists’ association. 
year, among which may be mentioned one of six important volumes from Mr. Natha 
Mercer. 
The Librarian reports that 320 volumes have circulated among fifty readers during 
the session, and that there were two borrowers of the microscope in the same period. 
Your Council availed themselves of the willingness of Professor Robert Hunt, F.R.S., 
to deliver a lecture before the members of the Association, and resolved to make that 
the basis of their annual conversazione. 
The entertainment, which was held on the 15th of March, proved to be, in respect to 
the Professor’s lecture, and the merit" of the several other scientific discourses and illus¬ 
trations that supplemented it, one of the most interesting and instructive hitherto 
organized. Your Council regret, however, that, in its financial aspect, a considerable 
balance on the debit side of the conversazione account had to be met out of the funds pf 
the Association. 
Your Council have to inform you that the Association has lately lost the valuable 
aid of two of its most prominent and efficient members; namely, Mr. Nathan Mercer, 
the late Vice-President, and Dr. Edwards, the teacher of pharmacy, than whom none 
were more energetic and painstaking to contribute to the advancement of your body. 
Tully believing that the zeal and labour exhibited by these gentlemen in the cause of 
the Association, for a long series of years, merited not only the esteem but the gratitude 
of the members generally, your Council felt that an expression of those feelings was 
due to them from the Association before their departure to Canada. Urged this 
motive, and by the personal regard of the Council for each, your Council entertained 
Mr. Mercer at dinner, in July last, at the Alexandra Hotel, Dale Street. The attend¬ 
ance on the occasion was large; and the greetings tendered to Mr. Mercer were most 
friendly and cheering. To Dr. Edwards, your Council, on behalf of the Association, 
presented an illuminated Address on vellum, embodying appropriate expressions of ob¬ 
ligation for his services, and of regret for his departure, etc. In addition to these public 
testimonies, your Council have elected Mr. Mercer and Dr. Edwards honorary members 
of our Society. 
Your Council may be permitted to remark, that the withdrawal of two members of 
such acknowledged talent is calculated, if not to produce a void in our ranks, at least to 
throw upon the members generally an additional necessity to use their best endeavours 
in carrying out the work the Association has mapped out for accomplishment. No 
doubt a cordial and generous desire, by the members, to lay before the Association some 
portion of the scientific and other facts which they may have noticed within the range 
of their acquired knowdedge, wmuld render the general meetings more attractive and 
instructive, if possible, than they have been. At all events the endeavour to prepare 
something of interest for the Association would frequently be productive of as much 
benefit to the authors as to listeners. 
Your Council desire to direct attention to another subject which they have always 
considered of special importance, namely, the maintenance of a w'ell-conducted and 
efficient Pharmacy Class. In view of the tendency, both of the governing body and of 
the public mind in this country, that persons following the calling of chemist and 
druggist should be well- qualified in chemistry and pharmacy, and being cognizant of the 
fact, that the object of the Association is the cultivation of such knowledge among its 
members, it behoves your Council to urge upon the members not to undervalue the ad¬ 
vantages wffiich proficiency in these sciences confers, but, on the contrary, to cherish 
every means that will conduce to their attainment. 
Of late years the Pharmacy Class, in connection with the Association, has not been, 
from a variety of causes, so successful as your Council wdsh it to be; and it is their 
anxious desire that the members would earnestly co-operate with them to render the 
Pharmacy Class one of the successes of the Association. Your Council, therefore, in¬ 
vite special attention to the circular announcing the classes for the ensuing session. 
Respecting the Museum, your Council have to report, that very few donations have 
been received during the past session. It is greatly to be desired that members should 
exert themselves in obtaining objects of chemical and pharmaceutical interest for the 
Museum. Sixteen valuable specimens of rare chemical preparations by Messrs. Johnson 
and Mathey, of London, were purchased during the session for the Museum. 
In compliance with the request of the Committee of the British Pharmaceutical 
Conference, your Council lent several series of objects from the Museum, for exhibition 
