Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
September,  1898.  J 
Editorial. 
453 
EDITORIAL. 
ANNUAL'  CONVENTIONS. 
It  is  noticeable  this  year  that  many  of  the  conferences  of  large  scientific  bodies 
have  been  in  our  large  cities.  In  America  the  American  Association  for  Ad- 
vancement of  Science  met  in  historic  Boston,  August  22-27  I  tne  American 
Pharmaceutical  Association  met  during  August  29th-September  3d  in  Baltimore, 
a  great  commercial  and  manufacturing  city.  Abroad  we  find  that  the  British 
Pharmaceutical  Conference  was  held  at  Belfast,  a  city  which  vies  with  any  in 
Great  Britain  in  enterprise  and  self-reliance  ;  and  the  Third  International  Con- 
gress of  Applied  Sciences  met  in  the  Austrian  Capitol,  Vienna. 
Conventions  held  in  large  cities  are,  as  a  rule,  no  doubt  better  attended 
and  the  results  possibly  extend  further  than  those  held  elsewhere.  The 
large  cities  have  certain  advantages  and  possibly  disadvantages  at  this 
time  of  the  year  for  the  holding  of  large  conventions.  There  are  in- 
creased accommodations  and  attractions,  and,  as  a  rule,  in  or  near  large 
cities  are  the  prominent  educational  institutions,  museums,  and  art  gal- 
leries, and  near  to  them  are  other  places  of  interest  and  pleasure.  In  a 
recreative  sense  a  far  greater  number  can  have  their  individual  tastes  satis- 
fied in  those  meetings  that  are  held  in  large  cities  than  when  the  same  are  held 
in  smaller  towns.  At  the  Boston  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  see  what  the  sail  by  boat  to  historic  Salem,  the  day  at 
Cambridge,  etc.,  meant  to  themembers.  Then,  too,  all  of  the  other  treasures  and 
avenues  of  pleasure  in  Boston  were  open  to  those  who  chose  to  avail  themselves 
of  them.  At  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  there  were  equally  as 
attractive  excursions;  as  the  all-day  ride  on  the  Chesapeake,  including  visit  to 
Naval  Academy  and  historical  rooms  of  the  State  House  at  Annapolis  ;  the  car- 
riage ride  through  Druid  Park,  noted  the  world  over  for  striking  natural 
scenery  ;  the  trip  to  Washington,  Mt.  Vernon,  and  to  Johns  Hopkins  Univer- 
sity— all  of  these  excursions  were  very  profitable  and  pleasurable  both  at  the 
same  time. 
These  scientific  conventions  are  the  meetings  that  ought  to  draw  the  man  fresh 
from  college.  If  his  hopes  and  aspirations  are  directed  for  a  greater  knowledge 
and  broader  education,  he  ought  to  journey  so  soon  as  he  can  to  conven- 
tions of  his  calling.  The  local  and  national  meetings  wiU  be  a  source  of 
greater  profit  intellectually,  physically  and  morally,  and  cause  his  life-work  to 
assume  a  truer  purpose  and  greater  usefulness  than  anything  else  he  can  do. 
To-day  it  is  necessary  for  progressive  men  and  women  to  be  affiliated  with  the 
various  organizations  of  their  profession.  The  President  of  the  British  Phar- 
maceutical Conference,  Dr.  Symes,  truly  said  that  the  value  of  these  confer- 
ences to  the  qualified  man  are  that  they  indicate  "  that  there  is  no  finality  to  his 
knowledge  ;  that  he  has  merely  entered  by  the  legitimate  portal  into  the  field 
of  applied  science,  investigation  and  research  ;  it  offers  him  encouragement  to 
devote  himself  more  closely  to  the  higher  branches  of  his  calling,  and  thus  not 
only  give  deeper  interest  to  it,  but  to  sweeten  the  labor  and  drudgery  attendant 
on  the  more  commonplace  matters  which  go  to  make  up  the  daily  round  of 
duty." 
The  President  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  attested  in  a  more 
personal  way  to  the  value  of  this  Association  to  him.  He  says:  "  The  Ameri- 
can Pharmaceutical  Association  is  to  me  one  of  the  most  delightful,  attractive 
