April 2G, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
849 
the wind-force have not yet been satisfactory, owing 
chiefly to the difficulty of eliminating the local conditions 
which affect the wind. We are also unable, as yet, to say 
what interval of time elapses between the establishment of 
the gradient and the setting in of the corresponding wind, 
and, on the whole, it must be said that, if we trust to the 
barometer alone, we shall not have sufficient. warning of 
the approach of a gale. 
There are several valuable deductions which follow from 
Buys Ballot’s law. The wind may move either against 
or with watch-hands, and the former is the more usual 
direction of gyration. The former of these motions is 
termed cyclonic, and takes place round a barometrical 
minimum ; the latter, anti-cyclonic, and takes place round 
a barometrical maximum. The weather depends on the 
relative positions and characters of these areas of defect 
and excess of atmospherical pressure, and the wind systems 
connected with them. 
{To le continued.) 
POISONOUS PROPERTIES OF THE RED BUCKEYE.* 
The red buckeye UEscidus Pavia, Lin.), a Sapindaceous 
plant which has its habitat in the Southern States of 
America, is thei’e generally looked upon as a poison, and 
farmers frequently attribute the death of stock to their 
having eaten some part of the plant. Mr. E. C. Batchelor 
has therefore made some experiments with the seeds, the 
results of which he has recently given in his inaugural 
essay upon taking up his degree of graduate in pharmacy 
at the Philadelphia College. So far as his researches have 
gone, they show that the seeds are possessed of decided 
poisonous properties, residing chiefly in a glucoside found 
in the cotyledons. The symptoms following its adminis¬ 
tration are similar to those of strychnia poisoning. 
The seeds which are from 1 to li inches long, and § to 
1 inch in diameter, lost 25 per cent, of their weight in 
drying. The testa, constituting 17 per cent, of the seed, 
has no odour, but an astringent and slightly bitter taste. 
It yielded 3 per cent, of a dark reddish-brown resin, 
tannic acid, some colouring matter, and a minute propor¬ 
tion of tasteless long prismatic crystals. 
The cotyledons have a slightly disagreeable odour and 
an amylaceous taste, slightly sweet at first, then bitter 
and acrid, with a peculiar and lasting drying effect in the 
fauces. They yielded by successive treatment a fixed oil 
(about 5 per cent.), a tenacious green mass, cane sugar 
and syrup (2J per cent.), and a glucoside. The latter was 
obtained in light yellowish-brown shining scales, possess¬ 
ing a peculiar heavy odour, and an extremely bitter and 
acrid taste, with a very persistent drying effect on the 
fauces. Boiled with dilute hydrochloric acid it was con¬ 
verted into glucose and a compound obtained from a 
solution in alcohol in small yellowish-white tasteless 
odourless crystals having an acid reaction. The glucoside 
was insoluble in ether or chloroform, soluble in cold 
alcohol, more so in hot, freely soluble in water, yielding 
a frothy solution acid to litmus. Valerianic acid was 
obtained by distilling it with sulphuric acid. 
The new glucoside differs from Argyrcescin and Aphro- 
dsescin found by Rochleder in ^Esc ulus Hippocastanum. 
Sulphuric acid gives a rich yellow solution which a drop 
of water changes to a reddish-purple; upon raising the 
temperature purple flocks are deposited, and the odour of 
fatty acids is evolved. Its aqueous solution is not pre¬ 
cipitated by acetate or subacetate of lead or baryta water. 
Less than half a grain administered to a full grown cat 
caused uneasiness in fifteen minutes, and alternate fits of 
stupor and muscular spasms, which lasted three days. 
Besides the foregoing substances, the cotyledons yielded 
a minute quantity of a crystallizable acid, and 12 per 
cent, of starch. The seeds yielded 12 per cent, of ash, a 
qualitative analysis of which showed the presence of 
* Abstracted from the American Journal of Pharmacy 
[4], vol. iii. p. 145. 
aluminium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and iron 
(trace) as bases, and carbonic, hydrochloric, and phosphoric 
acids. 
GLASGOW CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
A complimentary dinner was given on Thursday even¬ 
ing, at six o’clock, in McLean’s Hotel, St. Vincent Street, 
by the President, Vice-President, and Council of the 
Glasgow Chemists and Druggists’ Association, to the Pre¬ 
sident, Vice-President, and Secretary of the Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Society of Great Britain, on the occasion of their 
first official visit to Scotland. Mr. Thomas Davison, 
President, in the chair ; Mr. John Jaap, Vice-President, 
croupier. 
The following gentlemen were present:—Mr.' Haselden, 
President of the Pharmaceutical Society ; Mr. Williams, 
Member of the London Council; Mr. Bremridge, Secre¬ 
tary and Registrar of the Pharmaceutical Society; Dr. 
Cowan, Professor of Materia Medica, Glasgow University; 
Dr. Simpson, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence, Glas¬ 
gow University ; Mr. Baildon, President of the North 
British Branch; Mr. Gilmour, Vice-President of the 
North British Branch ; Mr. Mackay, Honorary Secretary 
of the North British Branch ; Mr. Young and Mr. Ainslie, 
Edinburgh ; Mr. McDonald (Glasgow Apothecaries’ Com¬ 
pany) ; Mr. Stanford, British Seaweed Company ; Mr. 
Daniel Frazer, Member of the London Council; Mr. Rait. 
Partick ; Mr. Currie, Sauchiehall Street; Mr. Currie,. 
Eglinton Street; Mr. Battie, Dumbarton ; Mr. Duncan- 
son, Stirling; Mr. Kinninmont; Mr. Fan-lie ; Mr. Greig; 
Mr. Whyte ; Mr. Dun, etc. etc. 
The Vice-President of the Pharmaceutical Society was 
unavoidably prevented from being present at the dinner. 
Thirty-two gentlemen sat down to dinner. A fine 
band, under the charge of Mr. Adams, was in attendance,, 
and played appropriate airs. 
The Chairman, after giving the usual loyal and patriotic 
toasts, proposed the toast of the evening ,—“ The Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society of Great Britain, coupled with Mr. Ha¬ 
selden, President, and Mr. Bremridge, Secretary.” 
In heartily welcoming the deputation—on the occasion 
of its first official visit to Scotland—to the good old City 
of St. Mungo, now in magnitude the second in the em¬ 
pire, the Chairman commented upon the desirability of the 
President and Council of the Pharmaceutical Society—it 
being a representative body—-occasionally visiting their 
constituents as such, to enable them far more accurately 
to learn what was thought in remote places regarding the 
various matters brought under their consideration. He 
particularly referred to two points in which pharma¬ 
ceutists of the commercial metropolis of the north were 
specially interested. These were, first, “ That the true 
interests of the medical profession, as well as those of 
pharmaceutists and the general public, demand that the 
duties of the prescriber and pharmacist should be as far as 
possible separated.” Second, “That when physicians and 
surgeons really find it necessary to keep open shop, they 
should at least be required to have a qualified dispenser.” 
The necessity of the first point the chairman regarded as 
self-evident. With regard to the second point, the chair¬ 
man said—“ If the physician or surgeon requires to keep 
open shop, it is surely right that the person who dispenses 
in that shop should be a qualified person. It seemed 
altogether a strange procedure that laws—however well 
they may be made with the view of protecting the pub¬ 
lic, should apply only to the trained pharmaceutists, while 
mere boys, ignorant alike of pharmacy and elementary 
education, are permitted, under the wing of a medical 
practitioner’s name, freely to dispense and sell the most 
poisonous agents. If the Parliamentary Committee who 
watch over such matters would feel assured of the sup¬ 
port they would receive from Glasgow, he was sure they 
would not be long in being up and doing. The opportu¬ 
nity might soon occur in the introduction into the House 
of Commons of some bill on medical reform ; and what 
