THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
JULY,  igoi. 
THE  INTERNATIONAL  PHARMACEUTICAL 
CONGRESSES. 
By  Fr.  Hoffmann.* 
At  the  annual  meeting  of  a  French  pharmaceutical  society  held 
at  Strassburg  in  August,  1864,  the  disadvantages  of  the  constantly 
increasing  manufacture  of,  and  trade  in,  secret  remedies  (nostrums) 
was  discussed  and  the  desideratum  expressed  for  counteracting  and 
suppressing  this  growing  and,  as  was  claimed,  dangerous  evil  in 
medication  and  pharmacy.  A  resolution  was  proposed  and  adopted 
for  calling  an  international  conference  of  delegates  of  the  represen- 
tative pharmaceutical  associations  for  consideration  and  action  in 
this  matter. 
It  remains  a  matter  of  conjecture  whether  an  invitation  was  ex- 
tended by  French  pharmaceutical  associations  to  other  societies  for 
arranging  such  a  conference,  or  whether  the  resolution  passed  at  the 
Strassburg  meeting  became  known  only  by  reports  published  in 
French,  and  subsequently  republished  in  other  pharmaceutical  peri- 
odicals. The  fact  is  that  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  General 
German  Apothecaries'  Association,  held  September  14-16,  1864,  at 
Wiesbaden,  about  one  month  after  the  meeting  in  Strassburg,  atten- 
tion was  called  to  the  resolution  passed  there  in  regard  to  the  nos- 
trum trade.    This  resolution  was  submitted  for  consideration  to  a 
*  At  the  request  of  the  Editor  of  this  Journal  I  have,  not  without  reluctance, 
consented  to  compile  from  a  few  American,  British  and  German  periodicals  at 
my  disposal  this  brief  and  incomplete  retrospect  upon  the  so-called  international 
pharmaceutical:  congresses.  ~  ,  " 
(315) 
