5 18  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  {Am'oot^?arm' 
it  is  regarded  as  a  distinct  advance  towards  a  recognition  of  the  claims  of  phar- 
macy to  be  represented  in  the  settlement  of  questions  relating  to  the  Pharma- 
copoeia. Among  other  items  mentioned  were  the  efforts  that  have  been  made 
to  increase  the  membership  and  the  grant  of  money  in  connection  with 
research. 
The  Honorary  Treasurer,  Mr.  W.  Martindale,  then  read  the  Financial 
Statement  for  the  year  ending  30th  June.  From  this  it  appeared  that  the 
money  received  during  the  year  had  amounted  to  ^672  35.  gd.,  the  principal 
items  being  ^527  is.  id.,  on  account  of  members'  subscriptions,  and  ^135  on 
account  of  the  Year-Book.  The  income  from  subscriptions,  therefore,  shows  a 
slight  decrease  as  compared  with  the  previous  year.  As,  however,  the  expen- 
diture has  also  been  somewhat  less,  the  net  result  this  year  is  a  slightly 
increased  balance  in  favor  of  the  Association.  \ 
The  President  then  proceeded  to  deliver  his  address,  choosing  for  a  subject 
Fashion  in  Medicine.  In  a  few  words  of  preliminary  justification  he  said  it 
could  not  be  contended  that  medicine,  striving  year  b)'  year  to  become  a  less 
inexact  science,  knows  no  fashion,  though  it  might  be  urged  that  it  possessed 
a  license  for  adopting  fashions  without  parallel  in  any  other  profession,  due  to 
the  rapid  strides  of  science.  The  first  fashion  referred  to  was  the  modern  dis- 
position to  replace  in  prescribing  the  remedies  familiar  to  a  former  generation 
by  new  medicaments.  A  legion  of  new  crystalline  and  resinoid  principles  have 
been  adopted  to  the  almost  entire  exclusion  of  the  crude  substances  from  which 
they  are  prepared,  whilst  even  alkaloids  have  in  many  instances  given  place  to 
synthetically  prepared  compounds.  Certain  drugs,  as,  for  instance,  opium  and 
cinchona,  are  as  much  relied  on  as  they  were  half  a  century  ago,  but  they  are 
standardized  now  to  contain  a  definite  amount  of  chemical  constituent,  so  that 
the  physician  is  enabled  to  use  them  with  precision.  On  the  other  hand,  some 
drugs,  such  as  jalap,  scammony,  aloes,  and  gamboge,  are  not  prescribed  so 
frequently  as  formerly,  and  this,  to  some  extent,  has  been  consequent  upon  a 
want  of  uniformity  in  their  quality.  Another  change  of  fashion  has  been  in 
the  medicaments  used  as  external  applications.  Lard  as  a  basis  for  ointments 
has  been  displaced  by  hydrocarbons  or  the  more  easily  absorbed  wool  fat, 
whilst  plasters  are  now  relatively  seldom  ordered  and  the  oleates  of  zinc,  mer- 
cury and  bismuth  have  become  familiar.  Concentrated  percolates  of  the  more 
potent  drugs  are  also  now  used  for  external  application,  elegant  examples  of 
which  are  seen  in  the  official  liniments  of  aconite  and  belladonna  and  the  chloro- 
formum  belladonnae  of  the  Unofficial  Formulary.  Other  preparations,  such 
as  gray  powder,  antimonial  powder,  and  green  iodide  of  mercury  are  in  less 
esteem  than  formerly,  because  of  their  want  of  uniformity.  But  although  the 
legitimacy  of  most  of  the  changes  was  acknowledged,  the  speaker  could  not 
overlook  the  prevailing  fashion  of  discarding  antiquated,  though  well-tried 
remedies,  in  favor  of  newly-introduced  drugs,  and  mentioned  that  at  the  recent 
meeting  of  the  British  Medical  Association  an  eminent  therapeutist  had 
denounced  this  rage  as  fatal  to  accuracy  of  observation  and  precision  of  treat- 
ment. The  next  fashion  referred  to  was  that  of  prescribing  medicine  in  the 
most  concentrated  form,  regardless  of  potency,  and  it  was  described  as  a  prac- 
tice not  without  danger  to  the  public.  But  it  was  suggested  that  this  has  been 
largely  brought  about  by  the  pharmacist,  and  it  was  pointed  out  how,  ignoring 
