136 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
as 'hyoscvamine. Dr. Harley finds that its activity is destroyed by fixed 
caustic alkalies,—an observation previously made, as you will remember, by 
Dr. Garrod, who also pointed out the impropriety of combining Ilyoscyamus 
with a caustic alkaline solution such as Liquor potasses. The action of an 
alkali on atropine is not instantaneous, in fact the power of the atropine is 
not apparently diminished when freshly mixed. If as is probable the same 
observation holds good for liyoscyamus, it allows of that drug being adminis¬ 
tered with potash provided the two are mixed at the moment of taking 
the dose,—or perhaps it would be still better to give them separately. 
The analysis of Jalap was the subject of a communication made at our last 
meeting, and it is one which seems still deserving attention. Messrs. T. and 
H. Smith assert, that in many trials they have never obtained of the resin 
more than 15 per cent., while our colleague Mr. Umney has recently obtained 
21‘5 per cent, from the Yera Cruz drug. Dr. Squibb considers that powdered 
Jalap which does not yield over 12 per cent, of dry resin should be rejected 
as unfit for use, an opinion I cannot indorse, for I have found Yera Cruz Jalap 
of undoubted goodness which yielded but 11 per cent., and a similar result 
was obtained by my friend Mr. Broughton. 
The transition from Jalap to Rhubarb is natural, at least in the popular mind,, 
and I notice this latter drug, in order to remind you of the interesting account 
of the cultivation of rhubarb in England, recently published by Mr. Usher 
in the Journal of the Society of Arts. Although the directions of the Phar¬ 
macopoeia preclude the employment in an English pharmacy, of any other 
rhubarb than that of China (and most of us are practically unacquainted with 
any other), yet no such limitation extends to other countries ; and that British 
Rhubarb is appreciated somewhere is proved by the fact alleged by Mr. Usher, 
that the demand is greater than the supply. The disappearance from com¬ 
merce of the old-fashioned Russian Rhubarb, a drug that was of uniform ex¬ 
cellence, has been followed by a remarkable alteration in the rhubarb shipped 
from China. For the last two or three years this rhubarb has been singularly 
bad in quality, whole chests affording only a few pounds of the drug in a 
sound condition. As the price has also very much advanced, it is not sur¬ 
prising that British Rhubarb which is at least Avell prepared and of good ap¬ 
pearance, should find numerous purchasers. The increased facilities for 
traversing the interior provinces of China may soon I hope afford an oppor¬ 
tunity of reaching some of the districts in which rhubarb is produced, and of 
bringing thence living plants of this most valuable drug. 
Dr. Eliickiger of Bern, one of the most careful and profound pharmacolo¬ 
gists living, and who I am happy to tell you is a contributor of some papers, 
to our Conference, has lately pointed out that a second sort of Kamala, differ¬ 
ing essentially from that derived from JZottlera tinetoria , Roxb., has been 
imported into commerce. This new form of the drug appears as a dark choco¬ 
late-coloured powder which is seen to consist of grains of larger size than 
those of ordinary kamala and of very different structure. The new drug is. 
remarkably free from sand, which has not been the case with most of that 
hitherto found in the market. Yet freedom from earthy admixture is a con¬ 
dition in which it is possible to obtain this drug, even as a commercial article. 
Some quantity of it recently shipped from India was so entirely pure that it 
afforded upon incineration only 1*37 per cent, of ash. 
The introduction of the Cinchona into India is an enterprise the success of 
which ought to be gratifying to every Englishman, not indeed, so much as a 
source of commercial wealth to our country, as because it will, we may hope, 
perpetuate to the world a supply of those precious barks which the improvi¬ 
dence of the South Americans has long threatened to annihilate. To the 
Dutch we must concede the honour of having led the way to the good results 
