444 
International  Congresses. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I  September,  1901. 
"  To  ask  the  Belgian  Government  to  arrange  with  other  governments  a  con- 
ference in  Brussels,  and  to  ask  all  the  delegates  appointed  to  such  a  conference 
to  have  their  proposals  ready  to  lay  before  the  meeting  whenever  this  may  be 
called." 
The  next  question  discussed  was  the  unification  of  assay  processes 
with  reference  to  the  standardization  of  potent  drugs  and  their  phar- 
maceutical preparations,  particularly  such  as  contain  alkaloids,  gly- 
cosides and  other  definite  principles  capable  of  isolation  and  determi- 
nation. This  subject  had  been  referred  to  this  congress  by  the  pre- 
ceding one  in  Brussels  in  1897;  Dut  nothing  had  been  reported  by 
the  respective  committee,  leaving  the  matter  just  as, it  stood  before. 
It  was,  however,  properly  suggested  that  this  question  would  be 
settled  with  the  appearance  of  an  international  pharmacopoeia,  and 
perhaps  in  advance  by  national  pharmacopoeias  in  course  of  their 
revision  and  publication. 
Quite  a  number  of  papers  were  read  or  reports  made  on  a  variety 
of  subject-matters  relating  to  materia  medica,  to  analytical  and  assay 
methods,  to  the  practice  of  pharmacy,  etc.,  most  of  which  has  since 
been  published  in  pharmaceutical  or  chemical  journals. 
In  section  four,  relating  to  professional  matters,  the  present  posi- 
tion of  pharmaceutical  education,  the  professional  standing  of  the 
pharmacist  in  the  various  countries,  and  the  limitation  of  pharma- 
cies brought  on  a  lengthy  discussion  introduced  by  a  report  on  the 
educational  methods  and  the  compulsory  examination  in  the  princi- 
pal continental  countries,  resulting  in  the  customary  resolutions 
dealing  with  the  subjects  altogether  from  a  French  and  Belgian 
point  of  view. 
Discussions  on  the  questions  whether  apprenticeship  should  be 
placed  before,  during  or  after  the  academic  instruction  of  the  phar- 
macist, as  well  as  disputes  on  the  inspection  of  pharmacies,  on  trade- 
marks and  some  other  topics  remained  without  result,  likewise  an 
exchange  of  opinion  on  standardization  methods  and  on  urinology. 
In  conclusion,  the  president,  Mr.  Petit,  and  the  acting  secretary, 
Mr.  Crinon,  addressed  the  meeting,  giving  a  brief  review  of  its  pro- 
ceedings and  expressed  the  hope  of  meeting  again  at  the  next  inter- 
national pharmaceutical  congress  in  some  convenient  continental 
city. 
In  a  candid  retrospect  on  the  origination,  the  transactions  and  the 
success,  or  utter  want  of  success,  of  the  series  of  these  so-called 
