AMERICAN   PHARMACEUTICAL  ASSOCIATION. 
489 
could  be  made  from  the  professors  of  any  colleges  or  schools  already 
organized,  and  as  many  could  be  appointed  as  would  be  required  from  time 
to  time.  Lectures  and  courses  of  instruction  prepared  by  them  and  approved, 
could  then  be  at  the  service  of  any  number  of  pharmaceutists  or  assistants 
who  would  properly  organize  to  receive  them,  by  paying  only  the  expense 
of  their  delivery. — leaving  it  at  their  option  to  choose  from  any  of  the 
professors  thus  appointed,  whose  services  could  be  secured  at  the  terms 
mutually  agreed  upon.  It  wouid  then  become  an  object  for  men  of  talent 
to  qualify  themselves  for  the  office  and  pursue  it  as  a  business,  by  having  a 
sufficient  number  of  such  classes,  especially  if  the  professors  were  connected 
with  laboratories,  botanical  gardens,  &c. 
Mr.  Henry  F.  Fish,  at  our  last  meeting,  proposed  to  have  all  our  annual 
meetings  held  in  New  York,  or  New  York,  Boston,  Baltimore,  Philadelphia 
and  Washington;  having  a  permanent  Secretary  and  headquarters  in 
Washington,  acting  in  some  measure  as  a  scientific  association  ;  but,  as  our 
settled  policy  has  been  to  meet  in  as  many  different  cities  as  is  possible  to 
secure  a  full  attendance,  for  the  benefit,  it  may  be,  to  our  profession  in 
different  localities,  as  well  as  to  increase  an  extended  influence,  usefulness 
and  roll  of  members.  The  proposition  met  with  little  or  no  favor.  Had. 
the  proposition  been  understood  to  embrace  the  idea  of  establishing  a  central 
office,  for  the  transaction  of  the  business  of  the  Association  ;  increasing  it 
by  the  collection  and  dislribution  of  specimens,  papers  and  general  inform- 
ation in  pharmaceutical  matters;  the  resolution  might  have  been  more 
carefully  considered,  or  referred  to  a  committee.  Should  it  ever  be  deemed 
advisable  to  establish  such  a  central  office  and  employ  a  permanent  Secretary. 
I  can  see  no  good  reason  why  our  annual  meetings  may  not  be  held  in 
different  places  as  at  present, — unless  the  meeting  should  prove  to  be 
burdensome  by  reason  of  any  impression  existing  that  it  is  necessary  to 
entertain  the  Association  expensively.  Should  the  practice  of  former  years 
continue  of  expensive  complimentary  banquets,  it  must  operate  against 
securing  a  united  action  of  pharmaceutists  in  some  places  where  we 
should  like  to  meet,  and  possibly  render  the  meetings  objectionable  in 
many  places.  There  is  no  reason  why  any  place  in  which  our  meetings  are 
held  should  provide  more  than  suitable  accommodations  for  the  meetings 
alone;  and  on  many  accounts  it  wTould  be  preferable  to  reverse  the  custom; 
and  if  any  entertainment  is  given,  let  it  be  done  by  the  more  numerous 
strangers  to  the  local  society,  or  simply  a  social  gathering  of  our  own 
members  and  invited  guests,  by  those  of  us  who  have  a  taste  for  such  kind 
of  thing.  In  a  quiet  way,  a  social  gathering  may  be  productive  of  much 
good  ;  acquaintances  formed  in  this  wTay  often  ripen  into  lasting  friendship; 
and  friendship  and  good-feeling  created  in  the  direct  line  of  our  occupation, 
cannot  but  operate  to  secure  that  concert  of  action  for  which  we  are  banded 
together. 
Committee  on  Home  Adulterations. — In  view  of  the  importance  ol 
this  Committee,  and  the  interest  manifested  by  the  public  outside  of  our 
