ASbveaSr^5Sn"  I     British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  519 
On  Tuesday  morning  the  regular  sessions  of  the  Conference 
opened  in  the  Marischal  College  with  the  President,  Mr.  Robert 
Wright,  F.  C.  S.,  in  the  chair. 
After  addresses  of  welcome  by  Principal  Lang,  of  Aberdeen  Uni- 
versity, and  others,  Mr.  Wright  proceeded  to  read  his  presidential 
address.  Contrary  to  the  expectation  that  he  would  speak  on  a 
subject  of  which  he  is  an  authority — the  standardizing  of  alkaloidal 
drugs — Mr.  Wright,  who  is  one  of  the  foremost  of  British  practising 
pharmacists,  devoted  his  address  to  a  survey  of  present  conditions 
and  future  prospects  of  pharmacy.  In  speaking  of  the  decline  of 
pharmacy  as  a  profession,  Mr.  Wright  said  that  illegitimate  com- 
petition has  lowered  the  general  tone  of  pharmacy,  and  he  claimed 
that  pharmacists  were  in  part  responsible  for  such  a  deplorable  con- 
dition, because  they  allowed  themselves  to  be  used  as  the  distributing 
agents  for  other  men's  products ;  products  which  reflected  anything 
but  credit  on  the  professional  attainments  of  those  who  handled 
them.  He  also  made  the  statement  that  until  the  retail  pharma- 
cists returned  to  the  practice  of  early  days  and  prepared  most  of 
their  galenicals  and  other  preparations  themselves,  which  is  not  the 
general  practice  at  the  present  time,  they  could  not  hope  to  obtain 
that  standing  in  the  public  eye  which  other  professions  enjoy.  He 
touched  upon  the  increasing  sale  of  "  patent  "  medicines  and  hoped 
that  the  time  would  soon  come  when  the  Legislature  would  require 
the  publication  of  the  formulas  of  all  of  those  medicines  that  contain 
noxious  and  habit-forming  drugs.  In  speaking  of  counter-prescrib- 
ing, he  said  that :  "  neither  the  prescribing-chemist  nor  the  dispensing- 
doctor  was  practising  in  the  best  interests  of  the  public."  In  the 
concluding  paragraph  of  his  address  he  said :  "  The  advancement  of 
pharmacy  as  an  honorable  calling,  worthy  of  educated  men.  will  de- 
pend upon  the  extent  to  which  pharmacists  are  willing  to  sink  their 
own  personal  interests  and  work  together  for  the  good  of  the  body 
corporate.  On  the  scientific  side  this  involves  whole-hearted  de- 
votion to  pharmaceutical  research,  for  let  it  be  remembered  that  the 
researcher  must  always  lead  the  way,  and  all  pharmaceutical  work, 
small  or  great,  if  thoroughly  done,  becomes  a  distinct  asset  to  the 
whole  body  of  pharmacists." 
After  the  usual  routine  business,  such  as  presentation  of  delegates, 
committee  reports,  reports  of  delegates  to  other  conventions,  the 
reading  of  papers  commenced,  abstracts  of  which  follow. 
