NOTES ON EFFERVESCING CITRATE OF MAGNESIA. 
167 
in India for jalap, and a quantity powdered, the error not being detected until several 
persons had been poisoned. He had the curiosity to procure specimens of this particular 
parcel, and, although the appearance as a whole was sufficiently distinct from jalap, he 
could but admit that it included many roots so similar in appearance to Tampico jalap 
as to be almost undistinguishable. The difficulty of getting good jalap root had be¬ 
come very great, and the question arose whether its cultivation would not be the remedy 
for this state of things. He (Mr. Hanbury) had procured plants, and succeeded in 
growing them even in England ; but it was in India that success must be looked for if 
we were to supersede Mexican supplies of this drug. The plants which he had sent to 
the Neilgherries were flourishing. 
The President confirmed the statement of Mr. Hanbury as to the resemblance between 
certain roots of Tampico jalap and those of Aconitum ferox. 
NOTES ON EFFERVESCING CITRATE OF MAGNESIA. 
BY MR. G. DYMOND, BIRMINGHAM. 
Whilst this Conference is engaged in the laudable endeavour to raise the 
status .of English pharmacy, and whilst the talk of rival societies is the protec¬ 
tion and encouragement of commercial and scientific pharmacy,—it is a cause 
of some discouragement that the first principles of sound morality and success 
are frequently set at defiance by pharmaceutists. The pleasing deception which 
is daily practised in the sale of the various popular granulated effervescing com¬ 
pounds is the instance which I wish here to adduce, because these preparations, 
being almost without exception known by names which do not express their 
composition and real character, have met with a success which must raise the 
indignation of every lover of honest pharmacy. The so-called “ Granulated 
Effervescing Citrate of Magnesia,” whilst it is the most popular of these com¬ 
pounds, is at the same time the most fallacious, because it usually contains no 
citrate of magnesia at all ; and I venture to think that the consciences of many 
pharmaceutists must, with my own, have long protested against such a mis¬ 
nomer. 
Anxious as we are to promote the growth of true pharmacy, its welfare is, I 
hold, in jeopardy whilst we tacitly recognize such departure from correct che¬ 
mical nomenclature, and much more from those obligations which we are under 
to the pure truths of science and morality. If the higher objects of scientific 
pharmacy are to be reached, the pharmaceutist must, with his growing responsi¬ 
bilities, keep faith with scientific truth, and if his professions of knowledge are not 
in accordance with its demands, the u unerring instinct” of the people will find 
him out, and rate his professions at their proper value. It is no alleviation 
to know that the public is knowingly deceived, or that there have been precedents 
for such a practice, or that these false compounds supply a want which is appre¬ 
ciated even under a wrong name. Our work is dignified and honourable in 
proportion to the integrity with which we pursue our investigations, and to 
honesty and exactness with which these results of our labours are given to the 
world. But the application of the name of a definite chemical production to 
a mixture which bears no real resemblance to it, is a departure from strict sci¬ 
entific integrity which I think this Conference will do well, with all its vigour, 
to condemn. 
The writer was pleased to hear that an analysis of several samples of granu¬ 
lated effervescing preparations had been promised to this meeting, and he trusts 
that though not presented at this Conference, it will be ready hereafter. I he 
task of making such an analysis is, however, in part spared by the candid ac¬ 
knowledgment of some large manufacturers of so-called “ Effervescing Citrate 
of Magnesia,” that their productions contain no such constituent whatever. 
