THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
35 
acid, and the distillation continued until the product has a s : g : of 0*850, 
and is then known as sweet spirit of nitre. 
The tenth question, which practically requires the examinee to review 
shortly the whole of the atomic theory, would argue a skill on his part in 
literary condensation, ?*.<?., “boiling down,” that few men possess. Attfield gives 
seven pages to the subject ; Hoscoe, in his lessons in Elementary Chemistry, 
nearly as many, and, of course, whole volumes have been written on the 
subject without doing full justice to the matter. 
Some few copies of the new Pharmacopoeia have reached here, and, from a 
very cursory view of its contents, seems to be a great advance on its predecessors ; 
the changed nomenclature of many of the salts is a distinct scientific gain, 
inasmuch that it indicates, in a measure, the chemical composition. 
Perhaps in no town in New Zealand is pharmacy more loyally pursued than 
in Auckland, and the number of elegant pharmacies in this city is amazing, the 
population being considered. “ The pharmacy” conducted by Mr. Aickin will compare 
more than favourably with the majority of places of business in the old country; and 
Mr. Edson, a member of the Pharmacy Board, is erecting a stone building that bids 
fair, from an architectural standpoint, to equal anything of the kind in this city. 
It is possible that a school of mines will be shortly inaugurated at the Thames, 
the chief mining centre in this North Island. This, perhaps, may lead to a school 
of pharmacy being established in one of the principal towns in this colony. There 
is very little doubt that such an institution is sorely needed, and perhaps 
the school of mines being commenced so near us, a spirit of emulation may bring 
it about. 
At a meeting of the Mornington Borough Council of Dunedin, held on the 
10th December, the mayor (Mr. J ohn English) was presented by the council with 
an illuminated address on the occasion of his retirement from the position after 
occupying it for two successive years. Mr. English is well known in connection 
with the New Zealand Drug Company, and is one of the members of the 
Pharmacy Board of New Zealand. The presentation was made by Councillor 
Caffin. Councillors Nicolson, Cahill, Frapwell, Carey, and Morrison also 
expressed themselves in appreciatory terms of the services Mr. English had 
rendered the borough. 
The proposal to hold an Intercolonial Pharmaceutical Conference in 
Melbourne in October next has met with general approval in all the centres in 
INew Zealand, and there is no doubt that this colony will be well represented. 
It should have taken place long since, and would have smoothed away many of 
the difficulties we now labour under. 
THE TREATMENT OF SUNSTROKE. 
Dueing the last hot weather of July and August of the present year, according 
to the report of Dr. Horwitz, a very large number of cases of sunstroke 
were treated at the Pennsylvania Hospital with remarkable success. The plan 
of treatment was almost uniform. It consists of putting the patient at once in 
the ice-water bath, administering digitalis and antipyrine, morphine, and, where 
convulsions occur, musk in 10-grain doses by the rectum every half-hour. The 
effect of the latter drug in subduing the convulsions is said to have been 
extremely pronounced. So far as our recollection serves, its employment is a 
novelty in thermic fever. The results of the use of antipyrine were also very 
satisfactory : in only one case where it was administered did it fail to keep 
