776 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[March 29, 1873. 
Mi\ E. Brown, in the chair. The minutes of former meet¬ 
ing having been read and confirmed, Messrs. J. W. Longley 
and H. B. Young were elected members. The President 
introduced Mr. 6. Pegler, associate of the Royal School of 
Mines, who proceeded to read a paper on Mineralogy and 
Crystallography. He said that mineralogy treats of the 
properties of mineral substances and comprehends the 
study of all inorganic substances in the earth or on its 
surface—as a science it holds as high a position as botany 
and zoolog}', and offers to the diligent student ample scope 
for investigation, opening out the storehouses of nature 
for the fertile discoveries and application of the chemist. 
Referring to the variety of colour, form, and physical pro¬ 
perties of the minerals constituting the earth’s crust, the 
lecturer pointed out that these modifications were merely 
clue to a rearrangement of a few of the known elements, 
the smallest portion of a mineral possessing the same 
constituents, form, and colour as the largest crystal or the 
mountain mass, the growth of a mineral being by accretion 
of its particles, illustrating his remarks by reference to a 
great number of minerals arranged upon the table. In 
consequence of the lapse of time, Mr. Pegler was unable 
to go into the subject of crystallography as fully as he 
had hoped to do; but, at the request of the President, he 
consented to bring the subject forward at another meeting. 
A cordial vote of thanks was given to the lecturer upon 
the motion of the President, seconded by Mr. S. Taylor. 
ROCHDALE CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The fourth ordinary meeting of this Association was 
held at the Public Baths, Rochdale, on Wednesday 
■evening, the 19th inst. 
Mr. Alderman Booth read a paper on G-uarana, giving 
a clear and interesting account of the plant Paullinia 
sorbilis, and the method adopted for the manufacture of 
the drug. The description was illustrated with a com¬ 
plete collection of specimens of the fruit of Paullinia 
sorbilis , guarana in rolls, and alcoholic extract. There 
were also exhibited a fine sample of pyrophosphate of iron 
and soda, and some elegant French preparations. 
After a short discussion on the subject of the paper and 
an examination of the various objects on the table, a vote 
of thanks was unanimously passed to the President, to 
which he replied, “ That he received their thanks as 
wholly due to Mr. Joseph Hallawell, of Liverpool, who 
had furnished at his request the illustrative specimens as 
well as the instructive paper on guarana, to which they 
had listened with so much interest; and to whom he 
would express their thanks.” 
ABERDEEN SCHOOL OF PHARMACY. 
A course of lectures by Dr. Beveridge, for the summer 
session of the Aberdeen School of Pharmacy, Hospital 
Court, G-allowgate, in connection with the Society of 
Chemists and Druggists in that city, is announced to be 
commenced on Tuesday, April 1, at half-past eight, and 
continued every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 
evening, at the same hour, until July 31. The subjects 
will be the Practical Study of the Materia Medica, with 
the Chemistry and Botany of the Pharmacopoeia. Fee 
for the Course, 20s. 
It is earnestly hoped that assistants and apprentices 
will avail themselves of these lectures specially provided 
to assist them in qualifying themselves for passing the 
necessary examinations of the Pharmaceutical Society, 
and as the course will only be proceeded with on the con¬ 
dition of a certain number coming forward, it is requested 
that those desirous of attending it will leave their names 
as early as possible with Mr. Andrew Ross, 43, Castle 
Street. 
The library is open every Friday evening from 8 to 10 
o’clock. 
CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
Thursday, 20th March, 1873, Dr. Frankland, F.R.S., 
President, in the chair. The names of the visitors having- 
been announced, and the minutes of the previous meeting 
read and confirmed, the President called on Mr. C. W. 
Siemens, F.R.S., etc., to deliver his lecture “ On Iron and 
Steel.” The lecturer, after adverting to his former dis¬ 
course delivered before the Society in 1868, and describing 
the various experiments he had since made to obtain 
malleable iron direct from the ore, gave an account of the 
process by which he had succeeded in completely attain¬ 
ing that object. It consists essentially in fusing the ore 
in a revolving furnace, and then adding the requisite 
amount of carbonaceous matter to reduce the iron to the 
metallic state. The malleable iron thus precipitated in the 
molten mass becomes aggregated into balls by the revolu¬ 
tion of the furnace, and can then be easily removed. It 
is free from sulphur, phosphorus, and other impurities, 
and dissolves readily in a bath of molten cast iron, pro¬ 
ducing steel of a quality equal to that made from the 
best Swedish bar iron. 
After some discussion, the Society adjourned until the 
anniversary meeting, which will be held on Monday, the 
31st March. The next ordinary meeting will be on 
Thursday, 3rd April, for which the following papers are 
announced:— 
1. “ A Way of Exactly Determining the Specific Gravity 
of Liquids,” by Dr. H. Sprengel. 2. “ On Cymene from 
Various Sources,” by Dr. C. R. A. Wright. 3. “Re- 
seax-ches on the Action of the Copper-Zinc Couple on Or¬ 
ganic Bodies, II. On the Iodides of Amyl and Methyl,” 
by J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S., and A. Tribe. 4. “ Contri¬ 
butions from the Laboratory of the London Institution, 
No. XI., Action of the Acid Chlorides on Nitrates and 
Nitrites,” by Dr. H. G. Armstrong. 
f atliamnitatn mitr fato frmcMwp. 
Suicide by Strychnine. 
An inquest was held at Doncaster on Thursday, 
March 20, upon the body of Joseph Mordue. It was 
shown that the deceased, who was a butlei', had received 
notice to leave his situation, and his employer, upon 
going to his room to settle accounts with him, found the 
door locked. An entrance was forced, and Mordue was 
found to be dead. A bottle containing strychnine was on 
the mantel-piece. It was labelled “ Strychnine,” but no 
infox-mation could be obtained by the police as to its 
purchase. 
The coroner remarked that the bottle had at one time 
been filled with strychnine, sufficient to kill two hundred 
persons. There was enough left to poison five or six. It 
was a mystery where the poison had been obtained. 
Dr. Sykes, the foreman, said that probably the deceased 
had had the bottle by him a long time. 
The jury returned a verdict that death had been caused 
by strychnine, taken while in an unsound state of mind. 
Suicide by Chloral Hydrate. 
On Friday afternoon, March 21, Mr. Humphreys held 
an inqffiry at the Workhouse, Mile End, respecting the 
death of Mr. Charles Carter Bewley, aged 21, who com¬ 
mitted suicide under very painful circumstances. 
Mr. Chai-les Bewley, surgeon, of Kingsland Road, stated 
that the deceased was his son, and that he was a medical 
student at the London Hospital. About one o'clock on 
last Tuesday afternoon he left his house in good spirits, 
being more cheerful than usual. He was engaged to be 
