PHARMACEUTICAL  NOTES  OF  TRAVEL. 
5 
was  distributed  among  the  class,  which  in  the  height  of  the 
season  is  quite  numerous,  and  an  opportunity  was  thus  afforded 
each  student  to  examine  the  characteristics  pointed  out  by  the 
lecturer,  and  to  carry  home  a  specimen  to  be  studied  at  leisure. 
The  extensive  and  elegant  garden  is  further  traversed  by  the 
students,  who  at  this  early  hour  are  not  molested  by  spectators, 
who  visit  it  later  in  the  day,  and,  the  class  being  accompanied 
by  the  Professor  to  the  beds  in  which  the  plants  are  grouped 
according  to  their  natural  affinities,  have  further  opportunities 
of  becoming  acquainted  with  practical  Botany. 
At  the  period  alluded  to,  the  course  was  near  its  close,  and 
many  of  the  students  having  passed  their  examinations  absented 
themselves  from  the  Lectures,  those  in  attendance  numbering 
about  thirty.  In  the  museum  of  the  Society  were  groups  of 
young  men  studying  and  examining  each  other  in  anticipation 
of  the  ordeal  which  was  to  determine  their  fitness  for  the  Pro- 
fession of  Druggist  and  Chemist.  Their  anxious  expression  of 
countenance  excited  sympathy,  not  unmixed  with  a  sense  of  the 
ludicrous  on  witnessing  the  alarm  produced  by  the  anticipation 
of  the  "  greenbox." 
As  is  well  known,  the  London  Pharmaceutical  Society  em- 
braces all  of  Great  Britain,  and  being  protected  by  a  law  which 
makes  membership  in  it  almost  necessary  to  the  Pharmaceutist, 
it  has  a  large  income  and  a  corresponding  influence. 
By  one  of  the  most  remarkable  coincidences  of  the  journey,  I 
happened  to  call  at  the  rooms  for  the  first  time  on  the  very  day 
of  a  general  meeting  of  the  Society.  The  occasion  was  one  of 
unusual  interest,  in  relation  to  the  "Sale  of  Poisons,  &c.  Bill" 
before  Parliament,  and  a  large  number  were  collected,  so  that  I 
could  scarcely  have  had  a  better  opportunity  of  meeting  with  the 
fraternity  than  was  thus  accidentally  afforded. 
Hon.  Jacob  Bell,  President  of  the  Society,  was  in  the  chair,  and 
first  addressed  the  meeting,  detailing  the  action  of  the  Council 
of  the  Society  in  regard  to  the  proposed  legislation,  holding 
up  the  evil  consequences  which  must  result  if  the  bill  before  the 
House  of  Lords  should  become  a  law,  and  urging  upon  the  mem- 
bers a  combined  and  vigorous  action  against  it. 
The  President  is  a  spare  man,  of  about  medium  height,  with  a 
quick  and  enthusiastic  style  of  speaking,  and  a  clear  and  well 
