September 24, 1870.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
249 
JprffmMngs at StMi&t 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
Tuesday, September 13 th. 
The following financial statement was put before the 
meeting- by the Treasurer, and adopted :— 
The Treasurer in Account with the British Pharmaceutical 
Conference, 1869-1870. 
Dr. £. s. d. 
To cash in hand, August, 1869. 79 10 1 
„ Sale of ‘ Proceedings ’. 0 4 6 
„ Interest from London and Westminster 
Bank. 1 1 4 
„ 846 Subscriptions, viz.:— 
1 for year ending June 30th, 1865. 
3 „ „ „ 1866. 
16 „ „ „ 1867. 
33 „ „ „ 1868. 
132 „ „ „ 1869. 
509 „ „ „ 1870. 
149 „ „ „ 1871. 
3 „ „ „ 1872. 
(Total 846) 211 10 0 
£292 5 11 
Cr. 
By General Printing— 
Taylor and Co.£39 12 0 
Butler and Tanner.. 5 12 
J. Bell. 0 12 6 
-45 5 
„ Cost of ‘ Proceedings,’ Taylor 
and Co.£43 11 6 
,, „ Compiling Index .... 1 1 0 
-44 12 
„ Expenses of Exeter Meeting . 5 10 
,, Advertising . 2 4 
„ Stationery. 4 14 
,, Directing Circulars. 4 14 
„ Postage. 49 9 
,, Various Petty Expenses. 1 3 
„ Bookbinder’s Tool for “Bell and Hills” 
Books. 3 0 
„ ‘Year-book of Pharmacy ’ (Editor’s Salary 
in part) . 35 0 
„ Balance in hand . 96 10 
8 
6 
4 
6 
2 
7 
9 
8 
0 
0 
9 
£292 5 11 
1870. £. 5. d. 
August. Balance in hand. 96 10 9 
Estimated Arrears of Subscriptions 
up to June 30th, 1870 (204 Sub¬ 
scriptions) . 51 0 0 
Bell and Hills' Library Fiend, 1869-70. 
To Cash received from T. H. Hills, Esq. 52 10 0 
By Books forwarded to Exeter. 10 10 0 
Balance in hand . £42 0 0 
Examined and found correct, 
John Shaw. 
Joseph F. Robinson. 
Liverpool, September 5th, 1870. 
The Treasurer explained that he was reluctantly 
compelled to look to the resignation of his office, espe¬ 
cially since the large accession to the numbers of the 
Conference would add very materially to the duties 
which he felt he had not the time to perform. He would 
be glad to retire to the ranks of the Conference, and 
continue in that position to do Iris best to serve its in¬ 
terests. 
Mr. Erin (Bath) much regretted to hear this an¬ 
nouncement from their friend Mr. Brady, and thought 
that it suggested they ought to elect a paid officer to 
assist both the Treasurer and the General Secretary. 
The President said that Mr. Ekin’s suggestion should 
bo considered at a later stage of the proceedings. 
Mr. Dymond moved that the following members form 
a committee to report on the exhibition of objects re¬ 
lating to pharmacy :—Messrs. Carteighe, Davies, Ekin, 
Ince, Paul, Sutton. 
This resolution was seconded by Mr. Greenish, and 
carried unanimously. 
The following papers were then read:— 
The Purity of the Yellow Beeswax of Pharmacy. 
BY EDWARD DAVIES, F.C.S. 
In this paper I am only able to give the result of the 
examination of some samples of wax purchased in Liver¬ 
pool, five samples of crude wax obtained from a whole¬ 
sale house, and four samples sent to me for analysis from 
a Liverpool firm, of the history of which I am ignorant. 
I shall first give the methods employed, then a table 
of the results and conclude with a few remarks. The 
melting-point presents a little difficulty, and, after trying 
various methods, it was found better to take the solidify - 
ing-point. A test-tube containing about 100 grains of 
wax was immersed in hot water in a beaker until per¬ 
fectly melted. A thermometer was inserted in the tube 
and the water allowed to cool gradually, the wax being 
constantly stirred until the bulb of the thermometer 
could not be seen when in the middle of the wax. The 
temperature then remains steady during the solidification 
for about two minutes, and there is no difficulty in get¬ 
ting the same result any number of times within half a 
degree. 
The presence of paraffin is shown by the low melting- 
point, but no idea of its amount can be obtained from the 
degree shown, owing to the varying melting-points of 
different samples of paraffin. The only method of deter¬ 
mining the amount of paraffin found at all practical, con¬ 
sists in destroying the wax with fuming sulphuric acid. 
50 grains of the wax, with \\ oz. by measure of fuming 
sulphuric acid, are put into a small beaker holding about 
5 oz., and gradually heated in a water-bath. Great care 
must be taken to stir it very slightly at first, especially 
if only a small quantity of paraffin is present, as the 
action is apt to become unmanageable. When the vio¬ 
lence of the action is over, the heat is raised to 100° C. 
for about an hour and a half and the mixture occasionally 
stirred. It is then left to cool very slowly in the water- 
bath, and, when quite cold, the paraffin will be found 
forming a layer on the black semi-liquid mass. It is 
carefully removed, washed with water to remove as 
much of the adhering acid as possible, dried, and again 
heated for an hour in a smaller beaker with ^ oz. 
of the acid. This gives the paraffin perfectly white, 
and it is then washed, dried, and weighed. There can 
be no doubt that there is some loss, as the common paraf¬ 
fin employed contains colouring matters destroyed by 
the acid; but I know of no other method at all useful, 
though I have carefully tried some which have been 
proposed. 
For the estimation of rosin, the action of cold alcohol 
seems sufficient. To 90 grains of pure wax, 10 grains 
of rosin were added, by melting them together and tho¬ 
roughly incorporating. On exhausting with cold alco¬ 
hol, by rubbing the wax in a mortar with successive 
small portions of alcohol, filtering, and evaporating on a 
water-bath, a residue was obtained weighing 10 - 54 grains. 
It was brittle and, when heated, gave an unmistakable 
smell of rosin. Pure wax yields 2-4 per cent, to cold al¬ 
cohol, and rosin is not entirely soluble, but one of these 
about balances the other. 
