424 BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE, EXETER. 



1869. indubitable ipecacuanha of Brazil. To determine the question 

 Ipecacuanha, of strength, M. Lefort has endeavoured to ascertain how the two 

 drugs compare in their richness in emetine. Pelletier and 

 Dumas having shown that emetine produces an almost insoluble 

 precipitate with tannic acid, M. Lefort availed himself of this 

 fact to determine the amount of precipitate obtainable by this 

 reagent from the soluble matter of a given weight of root. 

 The mean of his experiments showed Brazilian ipecacuanha to 

 yield 1449 per mille of tannate of emetine and New Granada 

 ipecacuanha 13*4 per mille. The curious fact that a nitrate of 

 emetine is but very little soluble, though sulphate, hydrpchlorate, 

 phosphate and acetate are very soluble, afforded a means of 

 checking these results, and warrant the conclusion that the 

 ipecacuanha of New Granada is rather less active than that of 

 Brazil. A second paper by M. Lefort on the preparation, 

 properties and composition of emetine is well deserving the 

 attention of those desirous of studying this alkaloid. 

 Herb drying. The indigenous plants of which the herbaceous parts are in 

 common use in medicine in this country, are few in number, but 

 important by reason of their potency as remedies. The English 

 druggist, unlike his continental brother, has no large herb-room 

 to keep in order ; and the drying of herbs which he may have 

 to superintend, is generally performed on a very small scale, if 

 at all. Yet when henbane, belladonna, digitalis or conium are 

 required for making their respective tinctures, and the leaves 

 have to be stripped from the stems and dried, the desirableness 

 of such a process must have often seemed questionable. Such 

 at least have been my feelings : I have wondered whether the 

 henbane with its leaves exuding a clammy secretion from every 

 hair, and its heavy narcotic odour, can be in nowise deteriorated 

 by being subjected for hours to the heat of a drying stove? 

 Whether conium, the active principle of which is a volatile 

 liquid, loses none of its potency by a similar process ? The 

 same questions have occurred long ago to others, and the ex- 

 Expressed pressed juice of certain medicinal plants, preserved by the addi- 

 tion of alcohol was recommended nearly thirty years ago by 

 Mr. Edward Bentley and Mr. Squire. 



