Ani.  Jour.  Pharm.\ 
December,  1903.  j 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
575 
Applied  Chemistry,  has  already  been  noticed  in  this  journal  (A.J.P., 
1903).  The  second,  the  International  Medical  Congress  in  Madrid, 
appears  to  have  been  typical  of  so-called  international  congresses. 
The  attendance  was  so  large  that  it  was  unwieldy,  and  this,  with  the 
lack  of  necessary  organization,  rather  detracted  from  the  scientific 
character  of  the  proceedings. 
If  we  review  the  reports  of  almost  any  of  the  proceedings  of  asso- 
ciation meetings,  we  will  be  impressed  with  the  fact  that  the  pro- 
grams that  had  been  arranged  for  the  several  meetings  were  usually 
over-crowded,  and  that  many  of  the  contributed  articles  were  neces- 
sarily read  only  by  title.  This  fact  is  well  illustrated  by  the  pro- 
ceedings of  our  own  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  where  it 
was  found  necessary  to  read  upward  of  40  per  cent,  of  the  contrib- 
uted papers  by  title. 
To  obviate  this  evident  injustice  to  the  members  attending  the 
general  meetings,  and  to  make  the  several  gatherings  more  inter- 
esting as  weli  as  more  profitable  to  such  as  are  willing  or  able  to 
attend,  is  a  problem  that  has  been  freely  discussed  from  time  to  time. 
In  this  connection  the  rather  novel  plan  of  holding  general  meet- 
ings adopted  by  the  Faraday  Society  of  England,  may  be  of  interest. 
The  council  of  this  society  has  determined  that  "  All  papers  pre- 
sented to  the  society  will  be  printed  and  circulated  among  the 
members  before  being  read,  and,  as  a  rule,  they  will  be  read  in 
abstract  only.  Members  and  others  unable  to  be  present  will  be 
asked  to  send  their  contributions  to  the  discussion  in  writing  and 
their  remarks  will  be  read  to  the  meeting." 
It  is  self-evident  that  a  plan  of  this  kind  could  be  developed  that 
would  save  valuable  time  in  the  deliberations  of  societies  and  asso- 
ciations. 
The  printing  of  all  papers  in  advance  of  the  meeting  would  give 
the  members  an  opportunity  of  carefully  studying  such  as  they  were 
particularly  interested  in,  while  the  reading  of  abstracts  of  papers 
only,  would  allow  of  more  time  for  discussion. 
Radio-active  Substances  are  probably  among  the  subjects  that 
have  been  foremost  in  the  minds  of  physicists  during  the  past  year. 
The  contributed  articles  that  have  been  published  bearing  on  this 
subject  are  ample  evidence  of  the  interest  that  is  being  displayed, 
while  the  number  of  able  scientists  who  have  been,  and  are,  at  work 
on  the  involved  problems  is  suggestive  of  the  scientific  possibili- 
ties involved  in  the  investigations. 
