Voii. ii., No. 1. 
3 
THE CHEMIST AND DEUGGIST OP AUSTRALASIA. 
THE CHEMISTS’ AND DRUGGISTS’ DIARY. 
The Chemists’ and Druggists’ Diary, 1887, has been posted 
irom this office to all our Australasian subscribers, and will pro- 
bably be in their hands before this issue reaches them. We 
do not claim that our Diary is at present Australasian, but we 
have added a special supplement on yellow paper, containing 
intercolonial postal and telegraphic information and mail 
tables arranged on an original plan. We trust this additional 
section will prove very useful to our supporters. We call the 
special attention of our readers to the treatise on the Act of 
Pharmacy, which we believe will repay them for their sub- 
scriptions to our journal for many years. As will be seen 
from an announcement in another column, we have cabled 
home for an extra quantity, and hope to be able to supply our 
subscribers with extra copies for which the charge will be 
2s. 6d. Orders will be filled as received. 
A POSTAL SYSTEM. 
Mr. T. W. Thomason of Stanley-street, Brisbane, pro- 
poses to introduce a system of instruction for pharma- 
ceutical students by lectures sent periodically through 
the post. This system has had great success in England in the 
hands of Messrs. Wills and Wootton of the Westminster 
College of Pharmacy, and seems peculiarly adapted to Australia 
where the great distances from centres of instruction put the 
country student at a great disadvantage. These distances are 
annihilated by the Post-office, and we should expect that the 
postal system will fill a very large gap. Apprentices wishing 
to avail themselves of the system should communicate with 
Mr. Thomason without delay. Full particulars will be found 
in his advertisement in this issue. 
THE INTERCOLONIAL PHARMACEUTICAL 
CONFERENCE. 
What Others Say of it. 
The New Zealand Merald of Nov. 24 says : — The results of 
this conference are now before us, and it is a pleasure to see the 
unanimity with which its proceedings have been characterised. 
The objects sought were chiefly “a uniform system of 
education and reciprocity of certificates.” In addition to this 
several other subjects engaged the attention of the delegates, 
particularly that dealing with the desirability of uniformity 
in Australasian pharmaceutical legislation. In discussing the 
equality of the examinations now being held, it was found 
that New Zealand stood fully equal to Victoria, for though the 
papers set by the latter colony were the most advanced, yet 
50 per cent, of marks qualified for the certificate, whereas the 
Pharmacy Board of New Zealand requires 70 per cent, of 
marks to insure success. The high status to which this 
colony had brought their examination was a matter of surprise 
and pleasure to the conference. Especially was this the case 
when it became known that the Government of this colony 
has not in any way aided our Board of Pharmacy, who have had 
only the fees obtained by registration to work upon, thus 
requiring great care and economy to prevent the exhaustion 
of their small balance. This, in comparison with the Govern- 
ment of Victoria, who have granted the Board a large and 
valuable building and land, together with a sum of £2000 per 
annum, towards carrying out the provisions of the Act, reflects 
great credit upon the Board of Pharmacy of our colony. To 
enable the reciprocity, which is so much to be desired, to 
come into effect it will be necessary to obtain an amendment 
to the present Pharmacy Act, which in some of its chief points 
is very defective. Notably is this the case where the Act 
gives power to the Boar^ to make regulations, but requires a 
meeting of registered chemists to be held to confirm the same ; 
but where or how the meeting is to take place, or what extent 
of a majority is to confirm the regulations, is not stated. 
The conclusion of the work of the Conference was marked by 
a presentation of the sum of £10 by the delegates to the 
Pharmaceutical Society of Australasia, this sum to be 
expended in the purchase of books for the use of the society. 
In this the Conference followed a precedent of the Pharma- 
ceutical Conference of Great Britain, who present this sum 
to the local society, in whichever town their annual conference 
is held. A presentation of a handsome silver inkstand to 
Mr. H. Shillinglaw, the indefatigable secretary of the society, 
brought the work of the conference to a close. The work, 
however, was succeeded by a round of dissipation that stands 
in marked contrast to the sober energy the delegates had 
already displayed, and we find them at banquets, races, picnics, 
excursions, and mayoral receptions, which makes us doubt 
their presence in Melbourne at Cup time as merely a 
coincidence. The unanimity which has hitherto attended the 
work of the New Zealand Board of Pharmacy is still observ- 
able in the fact that the new Board, and which will have its head- 
quarters at Christchurch, w’as gazetted without the necessity of 
election, the exact number of members only being nominated ; 
the two delegates to the late conference — Mr. J. A. Pond 
of this city and Mr. G. Bonnington of Christchurch — being 
among the number. It is a pleasing fact to know that one of 
the retiring members, Mr. Graves Aickin, the president, has 
been on theBoard during the past six years, and is undoubedtly 
one of those who has done most towards placing it in its 
present strong and useful position. 
Euphorbu Pilulifbra. — In a recent report on new reme- 
dies, Herr E. Merck, of Darmstadt, Germany, speaks of ex- 
tractum euphorbise piluliferffi fluidum. He states that it is 
employed as a gentle stimulant and narcotic. The active 
principle of the drug is soluble in diluted alcohol and water. 
On animals even small doses exert a toxic influence, and if 
larger doses are given, respiratory and cardiac action are at 
first quickened, then slowed, and death ultimately ensues by 
paralysis of the centres of respiration and circulation. There 
is no accumulation tendency in the drug, and its elimination 
from the system takes place through the hepatic channels. 
The dose of the fluid extract is J to 1 dr. twice daily. 
Dujardin-Beaumetz employs a tincture of which 15 drops 
represent 75 grains of the plant. The dose is 15 to 30 drops. 
The drug must be used cautiously, on account of its unques- 
tionably poisonous character. 
Kata Kava. — Dr. Lewin, of Berlin, finds that this drug con- 
tains an alkaloid provisionally named kawakine (according to 
the German spelling of kava), and also two resinous princi- 
ples, one of which has a special power of destroying sensi- 
bility. Applied to the conjunctiva of animals, as well as to 
the surface of various tissues, with marked ansesthetic effect. 
He believed that this property first led to its use as an intoxi- 
cant. The Thei'aupetic Gazette reports some novel data ob- 
tained from the same investigator. The active principle con- 
tains no nitrogen. If six or seven division marks of a Pravacz 
syringe are injected into the subcutaneous tissues of a man, 
sensibility becomes so reduced that a needle pushed into the 
same tissues can be moved about in all directions without 
meeting with a trace of sensibility. Lewin tried an experi- 
ment of this kind on himself, and found that in the entire 
neighbourhood of the passage of the injection, as far as the 
greenish resin could be seen shining through the tissues, sen- 
sation was utterly and completely absent for five days. He 
suggested that the resin might also be useol to, /disguise the 
taste of bitter or repulsive medicines, all that is required 
being to apply the kava resin to the tongue (in all German 
works the name is spelt kawa). Dr. Saun6 has investigated the 
use of kava in blennorhagia. He used pills, each containing 
10 centigrammes of an alcoholic extract, corresponding to a 
gramme of the powdered root. Six to twelve pills were given 
daily. In acute cases excellent results were obtained, pain 
was promptly allayed, and the discharge rapidly modified. 
Chronic cases are equally amenable to this medicine. Kava 
is eliminated by the urine, to which it communicates a slight 
odour, not at all like that given by copaiba or cubebs. It is 
well tolerated by the stomach, and produces neither anorexia, 
irritation, or diarrhoea. It does not make the breath un- 
pleasant. The bark of the root is the most active part of 
the plant. The anaesthetic resin is probably the cause of its 
usefulness in blenorrhagia, and in the success obtained by 
Dr. Cheron in the treatment of cystitis of the neck of tha 
bladder in females. 
