PHARMACY. 



PHYSIOLOGY. 



689 



cent, for seven months. Six per cent, interest 

 per annum is allowed on installments until all 

 are paid ; and after that, 6 per cent, per annum 

 on amount of certificate ; and in addition there- 

 to a further participation in the profits of the 

 company, at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum. 

 After the expiration of one year from the date 

 of the certificate, the amount subscribed may 

 be used in the payment of premiums on ac- 

 cepted insurance. 



"The policies of insurance of the company 

 are not assessable." 



The secretary reported a total membership 

 of 341, and the treasurer showed a balance of 

 $1.639.50 on hand. George A. Kelly, of Pitts- 

 burg, Pa., was chosen president, and A. B. 

 Merriam, of Indianapolis, Ind., continued as 

 secretary. The next annual meeting will be 

 held, beginning on September 10, at Indian- 

 apolis. A supplementary meeting was held of 

 the "Western members in St. Louis, Mo., on Oc- 

 tober 18 to consider various trade matters in 

 which they dissented from the resolutions 

 adopted at the Saratoga meeting. The whole- 

 sale druggists of Chicago, St. Louis, Peoria, 

 and Indianapolis met in Chicago on December 

 4 and organized a " Central Drug Exchange, 7 ' 

 having for its object the promotion of friendly 

 relations, the correction of any mercantile 

 abuses in the trade, and the maintenance of 

 the high standard in the quality of goods han- 

 dled. P. Singer, of Peoria, was elected presi- 

 dent; Peter Van Schaak, of Chicago, vice-presi- 

 dent; and C. Walbridge, of St. Louis, treasurer 

 and secretary. 



The Association of Manufacturers and Deal- 

 ers in Proprietary Articles held its annual 

 meeting at Saratoga Springs, X. Y., on Septem- 

 ber 14. About twenty members were present. 

 Several communications were received and re- 

 ferred to committees for consideration, after 

 which R. V. Pierce, of Buffalo, X. Y., was 

 elected president, and Henry E. Bowen, of Xew 

 York city, as secretary. The Association then 

 adjourned subject to the call of the president. 

 A National Paint, Oil, and Tarnish Associa- 

 tion was organized at Saratoga Springs on 

 September 11, and Charles Richardson, of 

 Boston, Mass., was chosen president, and G. H. 

 Yrooman, of Chicago, 111., secretary. 



Literature. The books of the year include : 

 "The Art of Dispensing" (London); "The 

 Xational Formulary" (Philadelphia); "Pictorial 

 History of Ancient Pharmacy," translated from 

 the German by Dr. William Xetter (Chicago) ; 

 " Organic Analysis," by Prof. Albert B. Pres- 

 cott (Xew York) ; " The Beginnings in Phar- 

 macy," by R. Rother (Detroit); "An Intro- 

 ductory Treatise on the Practical Manipulation 

 of Drugs," by R. Rother (Detroit) ; "The Pre- 

 scription, Therapeutic-ally. Pharmaceutically, 

 and Grammatically Considered," by Otto A. 

 Wall (St. Louis) ; " Price and Dose Labels," by 

 Hans M. Wilder (Xew York); "Toilet Medi- 

 cine," by Edwin Wooton (Xew York); also 

 new editions of " The Dispensatory of the 

 VOL. xxvm. 44 A 



United States," 16th edition (Philadelphia); 

 " Pharmacology, Therapeutics, and Materia 

 Medica," by T. Lauder Brunton (Philadelphia) ; 

 " Prescription AVriting," by Frederick H. Ger- 

 rish (Portland, Me.) ; " Chemical Lecture 

 Xotes," by 11. M. Whelpey (St. Louis); "Thera- 

 peutics : its Principles and Practice," by Dr. 

 Horatio C. Wood (Philadelphia). The pharma- 

 ceutical journals have been active in the expos- 

 ure of the objectionable character of various 

 proprietary medicines. " The Druggists Circu- 

 lar " deserves credit for its analysis of " Scotch 

 Oats Essence.' 1 which it showed to be a prepa- 

 ration of morphine. Samples of the widely ad- 

 vertised ' Recamier Balm " proved on analysis 

 to consist of one drachm of oxide of zinc and two 

 grains and a quarter of corrosive sublimate in 

 four ounces of water. The original cost of the 

 mixture could hardly have exceeded three cents 

 yet it finds a ready sale at $1.50 a bottle. The 

 "Vita Xuova" owes, according to the same 

 journal, its wonderful properties to a small 

 quantity of cocaine dissolved in alcohol ; still it 

 is advertised as " free from alcohol " and as 

 not being a " wine of coca." 



" The Rocky Mountain Druggist," edited by 

 J. L. T. Davidson, made its appearance in Den- 

 ver, Col., in June, and is the first distinctively 

 pharmaceutical journal to be issued west of the 

 Mississippi. " The Xew England Druggist." 

 of Boston. Mass., edited by J. W. Colcord, be- 

 gan publication later in the vear. 



FUYSIOLCGY. The HOTMH System. The re- 

 searches of Profs. Victor Horsley and Schafer 

 go to show that, as the result both of ablation 

 and excitation, the motor region of the brain 

 cortex may be mapped out into a series of 

 main areas, each being connected with the 

 movements of a particular part such as the 

 head, trunk, leg, arm, and face areas and these, 

 again, present subdivisions concerned with 

 more specialized movements ; there are, how- 

 ever, no sharp lines of demarkation between 

 the several areas, but they overlap one another. 

 Brown-Sequard has made another contribution 

 to the discussion of this subject, in which he 

 suggests that each function, each property of 

 the central-nerve system, is strongly localized 

 in certain nerve-cells, but these cells are not 

 localized in restricted areas or microscopic cen- 

 ters, but are distributed through many parts of 

 the central nervous system. This dissemina- 

 tion, he considers, explains the fact that there 

 is no single spot or region in the whole of the 

 central nervous system the destruction of which 

 is followed with absolute certainty by either 

 paralysis or anaesthesia. 



A distinction has been made by some writ- 

 ers between cranial and spinal nerves : and, al- 

 though efforts have not been wanting to bring 

 both groups under the same system, they have 

 failed, on account of some misconceptions and 

 confusions that are pointed out in a paper by W. 

 H. Gaskell. This author has made a new study 

 of the subject, from the results of which he 

 concludes that both of the groups to which he 



