Am.  Jour.  Pl)arm. ) 
Oct.,  1881.  f 
British  Pharmaceuticai  Conference. 
529 
THE  BRITISH  PPIARMACEUTICAL  CONFERENCE. 
The  meeting  of  the  British  Pliariiiaceutieal  Conference  for  1881,  which 
has  been  held  Aug.  80th  to  Sept.  1st  in  tlie  city  of  York,  may  be  regarded  as 
one  of  si)ecial  interest,  since  it  lias  been  lield  on  tlie  occasion  of  the  jubilee 
meeting  of  the  British  Association,  from  which  it  is  an  offshoot,  and  at  a 
time  wlien  speculation  is  rife  concerning  the  continued  existence  of  the 
parent  association. 
Under  these  circumstances,  and  inasmuch  as  the  British  Association  was 
inaugurated  at  York,  it  is  natural  that  the  President  of  the  Conference 
should,  in  his  address,  refer  to  the  formation  of  that  body,  and  show  that 
one  among  those  who  took  part  in  that  work  was  a  pharmacist  of  the  town 
of  Leeds,  whom  he  had  succeeded  in  that  capacity,  as  well  as  in  the  office 
of  honorary  secretary  of  the  Philosophical  and  Literary  Society  of  that 
town. 
If  it  be,  as  some  suppose,  full  time  that  the  British  Association  should 
henceforth  rank  with  things  that  are  no  more,  it  becomes  iniiDortaiit  to  con- 
sider how  the  Pharmaceutical  Conference  will  be  able  to  maintain  an  iso- 
lated existence  in  the  future  without  the  aid  of  such  support  as  has  been 
afforded  by  the  coincidence  of  its  meetings  with  those  of  the  British  Asso- 
ciation. Referring  to  the  financial  statement  as  a  means  of  arriving  at  a 
conclusion  on  this  point,  we  find  that,  leaving  out  of  account  the  receipts 
for  sales  of  the  "Year-Book  "  and  for  advertisements  inserted  in  it,  the  cost 
of  the  "  Year-Book  "  has  been  within  £76  of  the  amount  of  the  income 
arising  from  subscriptions  and  investments.  During  the  last  year  there 
has  been  no  increase  of  the  invested  funds  of  the  Conference,  but  there  has 
been  an  addition  made  to  the  items  of  expenditure  by  the  appointment  of 
a  paid  secretary,  and,  although  this  increase  only  applies  to  a  imrt  of  the 
past  year,  the  total  expenditure  has  been  within  about  £12  of  the  total 
income.  It  apjjears,  therefore,  that  even  including  the  receipts  for  adver- 
tisements, which  it  has  been  determined  to  continue  to  admit,  there  will 
be  a  necessity  for  augmenting  by  some  means  the  annual  income.  In 
regard  to  the  probabilitj^  of  such  an  increase,  it  may  be  mentioned  that 
since  the  last  annual  meeting  there  has  been  a  considerable  accession  of 
new  members,  but  the  number  is  still  much  less  than  what  might  be 
expected  from  a  consideration  of  the  various  individual  advantages  to  be 
derived  from  membership  of  the  Conference.  The  other  points  referred  to 
in  the  Report  of  the  Executive  Committee  do  not  call  for  any  particular 
comment. 
Referring  to  the  address  of  the  President,  the  editor  of  the  "  Phar.  Jour." 
cannot  avoid  expressing  surprise  at  the  statement  that  prosecutions  of 
chemists  and  druggists  for  the  sale  of  adulterated  drugs  have  at  any  recent 
time  been  of  very  frequent  occurrence.  It  is  true  that  the  President  of  the 
Conference  is  not  responsible  for  that  statement  further  than  that,  by  repro- 
ducing it  as  a  quotation  from  a  report  of  the  Executive  of  the  Chemists  and 
Druggists'  Trade  Association,  he  has  given  it  an  enhanced  importance. 
For  this  reason  alone  we  think  it  desirable  to  say  that  we  cannot  regard 
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