Am'o0ct.r;i£iarm"}   British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  507 
public.  Tracing  an  analogy  in  the  recognized  position  of  the  press  in  politics 
as  the  fourth  estate  of  the  realm  to  that  of  pharmacy  as  the  fourth  estate  of 
medicine,  he  expressed  a  fear  that  this  latter  position  was  not  always  accorded, 
and  that  there  was  now  almost  a  risk  of  the  pharmacist  having  to  give  prece- 
dence to  the  nurse.  This  was  partly  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  the  pharma- 
cist does  not  come  into  such  close  contact  with  the  patient  during  the  time  of 
suffering,  his  meed  of  gratitude  being  often  the  thankless  one  of  having  supplied 
nasty  physic.  In  his  relations,  however,  with  the  medical  profession  the  phar- 
macist met  with  more  appreciation,  as  evidenced  by  the  "acknowledged  posi- 
tion "  accorded  to  him  by  the  Medical  Council  in  the  compilation  of  the  recently 
published  Additions  to  the  Pharmacopoeia.  The  speaker  then  proceeded  to  refer 
to  some  of  the  advances  that  have  been  made  in  recent  years  in  the  treatment  of 
disease  by  medicines,  and  referred  to  some  of  the  services  that  had  been  and  might 
be  performed  by  the  pharmacist.  The  tendency  of  pharmacy  of  late,  it  was  pointed 
out,  had  been  to  prepare  medicines  in  as  definite  and  stable  a  form  as  pos- 
sible, and  to  provide  chemical  substances  of  which  the  purity  could  be  tested. 
Modern  chemistry  had  in  many  cases  isolated  from  valued  drugs  definite  active 
principles,  which,  having  to  some  extent  the  same  properties  as  the  crude  drugs, 
had  been  so  far  accepted  medically  as  possessing  the  same  therapeutic  action  ; 
but  still  in  this  direction  much  was  left  undone.  In  many  investigations  the 
therapeutist  and  the  pharmacist  came  between  the  physiologist  on  the  one  hand 
and  the  chemist  and  botanist  on  the  other.  The  advances  in  chemical  science 
and  the  experimental  investigation  of  recent  physiologists  and  therapeutists- 
had  tended  to  prove  that  the  physiological  action  on  the  system  of  the  simpler 
chemical  compounds  is,  in  many  cases,  a  chemical  and  physical  action  of  the 
elements  of  which  they  are  composed,  "  modified  to  some  extent  by  what  is 
called  life."  In  the  more  complex  organic  substances  also  there  was  a  marked 
connection  between  physiological  action  and  chemical  constitution.  The  physi- 
ological action  of  a  certain  compound  having  been  ascertained,  chemists  had 
endeavored  by  introducing  several  certain  elements  or  groups  of  elements  of 
known  properties  to  modify  the  action  of  the  original  compound  in  the  direction 
desired  by  the  physiologist  or  therapeutist.  Generally  the  chemist  had  been 
in  advance  of  the  physiologist,  but  the  physiologist  had  at  times,  by  a  process 
of  induction,  indicated  the  direction  in  which  he  desired  the  chemist  to  work. 
But  progress  was  still  hampered  by  the  want  of  clearer  knowledge  as  to  the 
constitution  of  many*  of  these  complex  bodies  and  their  derivatives.  These 
points  were  illustrated  by  references  to  the  researches  on  the  relative  constitution 
of  morphine  and  codeine,  and  of  caffeine,  theobromine  and  xanthine  ;  the  work 
of  Staheschmidt,  Brown  and  Fraser,  and  Takex  on  the  methyl  and  ethyl 
derivatives  of  strychnine  ;  and  the  gradual  building  up  of  kairine,  kairoline, 
thallin,  antipyrin  and  other  compounds.  But  it  was  pointed  out  that  the  prog- 
nostications as  to  the  effect  of  the  new  compounds  oh  disease  are  not  always 
fulfilled,  as  in  the  case  of  tetronal.  The  President  then  passed  on  to  other 
forms  of  the  treatment  of  disease  which  have  recently  attracted  attention, 
speaking  especially  of  the  medical  use  of  various  lymphs,  the  preparation  of 
which  might  one  day,  he  thought,  form  part  of  the  occupation  of  the  pharma- 
cist. But  all  these  novelties  notwithstanding  it  was  thought  probable  that 
physicians  would  long  continue  to  order  the  pure  active  principles,  or  extracts 
or  solutions  of  natural  drugs,  and  in  the  preparation  of  these  the  pharmacist 
