38o 
International  Congresses. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharna. 
1      August,  1901. 
St.  Petersburg  five  countries,  and  at  London  eighteen  countries  were 
represented.  The  United  States  were,  as  in  London,  not  represented 
by  a  delegate,  while  Mr.  Fred.  Stearns,  Sr.,  of  Detroit,  attended  as 
a  visitor. 
Mr.  Van  BasUlaer,  of  Brussels,  was  elected  President,  and  quite  a 
number  of  honorary  vice-presidents  and  sectional  presidents.  As 
much  as  this  Congress  differed  from  the  preceding  ones  in  its  organ- 
ization, sections  and  the  admittance  to  membership,  it  deviated  also 
in  the  nature  and  variety  of  questions  proposed  and  introduced  in 
its  deliberations.  Besides  the  inveterate  questions  of  an  interna- 
tional pharmacopoeia,  equalization  of  the  strength  of  pharmaco- 
pceial  preparations,  pharmaceutical  education  and  examination,  the 
relation  of  pharmacists  to  physicians,  and  nostrums  and  specialties, 
such  questions  as  veterinary  pharmacy,  the  regulation  of  the  supply 
of  patent  medicines,  the  repetition  of  prescriptions  containing  poi- 
sonous alkaloids,  the  sale  of  morphia  and  opiates,  the  relative  advan- 
tage of  self-made  chemicals  and  galenicals  over  purchased  ones,  the 
danger  of  lead  pipes  for  water  supply,  of  poisonous  pigments,  of 
the  adulteration  of  food,  the  freedom  of  movement  of  assistants, 
etc.,  were  introduced  and  more  or  less  discussed,  and  resolutions 
passed  thereon.  Of  these  only  those  questions  may  be  briefly  men- 
tioned here,  which  strictly  apply  to  the  practice  of  pharmacy. 
The  question  of  pharmaceutical  education  was,  as  at  the  pre- 
vious congresses,  fully  ventilated  with  the  same  variety  of  diverging 
opinions,  according  to  the  usages  and  the  conditions  prevailing  in 
each  country.  The  delegates  from  Belgium  submitted  the  follow- 
ing propositions : 
(1)  That  in  all  countries  where  it  is  not  already  the  case,  a  diploma  should 
be  established,  giving  the  exclusive  privilege  to  practise  pharmacy. 
(2)  To  require  candidates  for  pharmaceutical  qualifications  to  pass  through 
the  same  preparatory  course  of  study  as  medical  men  and  doctors  of  science. 
(3)  That  the  minimum  of  knowledge  to  be  required  of  the  pharmacist  should 
be  defined. 
(4)  The  various  titles  now  in  use  should  be  replaced  by  that  of  "  doctor  of 
pharmacy." 
(5)  To  obtain  as  a  subsidiary  object,  limitation  of  the  number  of  pharmacies 
proportional  to  the  population. 
These  motions  were  controverted,  particularly  by  German,  Aus- 
tian  and  Russian  delegates,  as  also  the  proposition  to  continue,  as 
in  France,  or  introduce  two  grades  of  pharmacists,  one  for  those 
