490 
PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE 
William  Thomas,  in  a  few  appropriate  remarks,  and  offered  the 
following  resolution,  which  was  adopted  ; 
"Resolved,  That  this  Association  have  learned  with  deep  regret 
the  decease  of  one  of  their  members,  William  Thomas,  of  Jersey 
city,  New  Jersey,  and  they  hereby  tender  their  condolence  to 
his  bereaved  family. 
The  meeting  then  adjourned  to  4  o'clock  this  afternoon. 
Afternoon  Session — Sept.  10£A,  1856. 
The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  the  President,  and  the 
minutes  of  the  morning  session  were  read,  corrected,  and  adopted. 
On  motion  of  Edward  Parrish,  it  was  Resolved,  That  the  Facul- 
ty of  the  University  of  Maryland,  and  of  the  Maryland  College 
of  Pharmacy,  be  invited  to  seats  in  this  Convention. 
On  motion,  it  was  carried  that  the  Association  resume  the  ex- 
amination of  specimens,  and  the  reading  of  scientific  papers  at 
4|  o'clock. 
The  report  of  the  Committee  on  Text-books,  (Messrs.  Procter, 
Ellis,  and  Sharp)  was  read  by  the  Chairman. 
To  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association. 
The  undersigned,  a  Committee  appointed  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  As- 
sociation, to  report  on  the  question  "  What  are  the  best  text-books  published, 
for  study  and  reference,"  offer  the  following  as  their  report. 
According  to  Webster,  a  text-book,  in  the  sense  here  intended,  is  "  a  book 
containing  the  leading  principles  or  most  important  points  of  a  science  or 
branch  of  learning,  arranged  in  order  for  the  use  of  students."  The  ques- 
tion naturally  divides  itself  into  an  inquiry  relative  to  books  for  study,  or 
text-books  for  the  student  of  Pharmacy,  and  books  for  reference,  to  be 
used  by  him,  but  more  frequently  by  the  pharmaceutist,  in  the  course  of  his 
business,  to  point  out  the  causes  of  incompatibility  in  dispensing,  or  to  ex- 
plain difficulties  that  arise  in  the  laboratory ;  and  we  shall  therefore  consider 
them  separately. 
Of  the  students  of  Pharmacy  in  the  United  States,  of  all  grades,  perhaps 
nineteen-twentieths  never  have  the  advantage  of  lectures,  and  are  left  to 
feel  their  way  through  the  treatises  on  materia  medica,  chemistry  and 
pharmacy  that  they  may  possess,  without  any  systematic  arrangement  to 
aid  them  in  appreciating  the  several  subjects.  The  novice,  who  takes  up 
the  Dispensatory  at  the  beginning,  soon  becomes  interested  in  the  botanical 
and  commercial  history  and  chemical  properties  of  the  acacia  gums,  and 
suddenly  finds  himself  out  of  depth  in  the  chapters  on  acids,  involving 
much  chemical  technicality;  and  after  these  he  dips  successively  into 
