April 5, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
795 
their rarity or otherwise, and the manner in which they 
are preserved ; and should a specimen be wrongly named, 
it will be erased from the list. 
The collections to be forwarded to the Secretary of the 
Pharmaceutical Society, 17, Bloomsbury Square, on or 
before the first day of July, 1874, indorsed “Herbarium 
for Competition for the Botanical Prizes.” After the 
announcement of the award, they will be retained one 
month, under the care of the Curator of the Museum, 
for the inspection of persons connected with the Society, 
and then returned to the collectors, if required. 
No candidate will be allowed to compete, unless he be 
an Associate, Registered Apprentice, or Student of the 
Society, or if his age exceed twenty-one years. 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
Wednesday, April 2, 1873. 
MR. A. F. HASELDEN, F.L.S., PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR. 
The minutes of the last meeting were read and ap¬ 
proved. 
The following donations to the library and museum 
were announced, and the thanks of the Society were voted 
to the donors:— 
‘ London University Calendar,’ 1873, from the Uni¬ 
versity; ‘ Durham University Calendar,’ 1873, from the 
University; ‘Guy’s Hospital Reports,’ 1872-3, from the 
Hospital; ‘ Bulletin des travaux de la SocUtd de Phar- 
macie de Bordeaux,’ Janvier, 1873, from the Society; 
‘ The Origin, Extension, and Prevention of Fires, and the 
relation of Mineral and Vegetable Oils, and other Mate¬ 
rials to Fire,’ from Professor Attfield; * Grundlagen der 
Pharmaceutischen Waarenkunde,’ ‘ Inventaire d’une Phar- 
macie de Dijon en 1439,’and ‘Die Frankfurter Liste,’ 
from Professor Fluckiger ; Obituary notice of Dr. Robert 
Wight, F.R.S., from Dr. Cleghorn ; Notes on a new form 
of Percolator, the triplex Pill, Rhubarb, Aconite Root, 
Citrate of Bismuth and Ammonia, and Aloes, from Dr. 
Squibb. Specimen of African Ammoniacum; Dried spe¬ 
cimens of the following plants:— JRichardsonia scabra, 
Lavandula spica, Coriandrum sativum , and some Italian 
Cereals, from Mr. D. Hanbury; Specimens of Sulphate 
of Lanthanum, Niobic Acid, Titanic Acid, Bibromide of Mer¬ 
cury, Benzoate of Zinc, Bromide of Ammonium, Chloride 
of Zinc, Acetate of Calcium, Phosphide of Calcium, from 
Messrs. Hopkin and Williams; Fresh specimens of Daphne 
laureola , for the herbarium. 
On the table were a fine specimen of Caffeine, exhibited 
by Messrs. Hopkin and Williams; various specimens of 
Pareira brava root, by Mr. Francis, jun.; some supposi¬ 
tories to illustrate Mr. Martindale’s paper; and some 
beautiful Drawings, by Mr. Rochfort Connor, of Micro¬ 
scopic Sections of Mustard Seeds, lent to illustrate Mr. 
Greenish’s paper by the Inland Revenue authorities. 
The Proposed Appendix to the Pharmacopeia. 
The Chairman then called upon Mr. Martindale to 
resume the discussion upon the proposed Appendix to the 
Pharmacopoeia. 
Mr. Martindale prefaced his remarks on the general 
subject by reading a paper on a “ New Basis for Sup¬ 
positories and Pessaries,” which is printed at p. 781. He 
then referred to the proposed insertion into the Appendix 
of the acetum ipecacuanhse and the oxymel ipecacuanhse. 
He said he could not think that these were preparations 
that had met with sufficient favour to be inserted in the 
Pharmacopoeia. In using solvents for these drugs they 
should attempt to get such as were both therapeutically 
and chemically as inert as possible, and acetic acid was 
not so. There was the nitrite of amyl, too, about which 
Professor Redwood had made some remarks. At Uni¬ 
versity Hospital they had used quantities of it, in doses of 
from one-sixth to half a minim. It was readily soluble in 
spirit, and also suspended by mucilage in a mixture. He 
could not think the aqua chloroformi which Professor 
Redwood suggested would be a useful preparation. The 
amount of chloroform it contained would vary according to 
the amount of shaking it received, and there would be a 
tendency towards indefiniteness which would be unde¬ 
sirable. The oxide of bismuth would be a good prepara¬ 
tion. Professor Redwood had also suggested the admission 
of precipitated oxide of mercury, which, as most of them 
were aware, had been used to make the oleates of mer¬ 
cury of various strengths, and he thought Mr. Williams 
could verify to what extent they were used at the present 
time. The oleates were most worthy of insertion—much 
more so even than many of the preparations which Pro¬ 
fessor Redwood had named. With regard to phosphorated 
oil, the phosphorus could be made to dissolve in almond oil 
to the extent of 1 per cent, without much difficulty. He 
had some on the table so dissolved, and the almond oil 
was not treated in the manner Professor Redwood had 
thought necessary. The specimen was prepared some 
four months ago in the same bottle, and there had scarcely 
been any trace of deposit in it. The preparation of the 
almond oil in the manner which Professor Redwood had 
mentioned would be almost an unnecessary refinement. 
The almond oil would, he thought, be so decomposed that 
it would yield a worse preparation than that which could 
be obtained tolerably pure, commercially, in England. The 
phosphorus and oil required to be heated to about 180° F. 
or 200° F. in a water-bath to dissolve the phosphorous at 
all readily, and the mixture should not be exposed to the 
air whilst this was being done. The bottle should be 
kept tolerably closely corked, and shaken frequently 
during the process of making the solution. There was, 
too, the pulvis elaterii compositus, which, he thought, 
would be a good preparation The active substance was 
so difficult to divide into small doses: with the compound 
powder they obtained an accurate preparation for giving 
it in small doses. With regard to tincture of fresh orange 
peel, he believed he suggested that in the first instance at 
one of their meetings two years ago. But he thought 
they should wait until they had a new edition of the 
Pharmacopoeia rather than have the two tinctures, which 
would create a good deal of confusion. 
Mr. Williams said that with respect to the oleate of 
mercury, he certainly thought it had even now arrived at 
sufficient importance, and was in itself so scientifically 
correct that it might be introduced into the Supplement 
of the Pharmacopoeia. He did not think they ought 
always to wait until a thing was ten years old before they 
should notice it. The oleate of mercury had been intro¬ 
duced by an eminent scientific man, who had taken quite 
two years to investigate it and verify the experiments. 
From his (Mr. Williams’s) own knowledge, he could 
assert that when the materials used in its preparation 
were sufficiently pure and heat was avoided, the oleates 
of various strengths appeared to be very perfect and very 
permanent. It was an extraordinary thing that, they 
should introduce the precipitated oxide of mercury into a 
new edition of the Pharmacopoeia and not the oleate, 
Avhich, he fancied, was the only preparation for which the 
precipitated oxide of mercury was at present actually 
required. It was therefore open to question whether it 
would not be wise to go a step further, and put. in the 
oleates. With regard to phosphorated oil, to which Mr. 
Martindale had referred, he could only say there was an 
objection to the use of oil for medicinal purposes. Prac¬ 
tically, he found that phosphorated ether was much more 
in demand, and seemed to be preferred by medical men. 
He quite admitted, however, that ether had many disad¬ 
vantages, and that oil, if it were not objectionable as a niedi- 
cine, was perhaps a better form. The preparations of bismuth 
also was a very important question, and. he. quite agreed 
that the Pharmacopoeia ought to contain in its supple¬ 
ment the oxide of bismuth. But he ventured to suggest 
that there was even a better compound than the oxide of 
