334 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [October 22, 1870. 
A library has been established; a reading-room, to which 
many of the leading medical and pharmaceutical perio¬ 
dicals are supplied, is open nightly, a course of lectures 
bias been arranged, and classes have been formed for the 
instruction of the apprentices in the various branches of 
knowledge required for their examinations. 
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AMERICAN PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION. 
Meeting at Baltimore. 
The Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the American 
Pharmaceutical Association was commenced on Tuesday, 
September 13, in the Lecture Room of the University of 
Maryland, Baltimore, under the presidency of Mr. E. H. 
Sargent, of Chicago. 
The President, after a few words of welcome to those 
present, referred to the concurrence in the time of meet¬ 
ing of two kindred associations in different and widely 
separated nations. He thought that as the British Phar¬ 
maceutical Conference was in session in Liverpool at 
that moment it would be appropriate to render some¬ 
thing more than a formal recognition of the fact, and 
that some expression of interest in an Association having 
the same aims and speaking the same language was 
called for. 
A list of forty-eight applications for membership from 
all parts of the country was read, and the applicants 
having complied with the requirements of the bye-laws 
were unanimously elected. 
On the motion of Mr. A. B. Taylor, of Philadelphia, 
it was resolved unanimously that “ the Secretary be re¬ 
quested to telegraph a fraternal message to the British 
PharmaceuticaljC©nference, now in session in Liverpool.” 
After reports had been received from various com¬ 
mittees, the President read his Annual Address, which 
was well received. A committee was appointed to con¬ 
sider and report upon its recommendations and sug¬ 
gestions. 
_ On Wednesday morning, after the minutes of the pre¬ 
vious meeting had been read, the Secretary said that on 
the previous evening he had sent a telegram to Liver¬ 
pool, in accordance with the resolution adopted:— 
“ Pharmaceutical Conference, Liverpool. 
“ Fraternal greetings of American Pharmaceutical 
Association. Maisch, Secretary.” 
About two hours later he received the following tele¬ 
gram, signed by the President of the British Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Conference:— 
“American Pharmaceutical Association, Baltimore. 
“ The most successful meeting ever held sends hearty 
fraternal greeting.” 
Their English brethren had thus preceded them in 
time, and the messages passed each other in transitu. 
The officers for the ensuing year were then nominated 
and elected, the office of President being conferred on 
Mr. Richard H. Stabler, of Virginia. 
The Secretary then read the Annual Report, which 
referred specially to the regulation of pharmacy in the 
United States. It mentioned that the State ot' Rhode 
Island had adopted a law, compelling all persons desiring 
to engage in the business to pass a satisfactory examina¬ 
tion before a committee of five pharmacists, appointed 
by the Governor. In New Jersey efforts were made to 
Rave a drug law passed by the Legislature, but they were 
not successful. It is expected this will be accomplished 
in the next meeting of the Legislature. The Maryland 
Legislature has passed a law, compelling all persons 
who intend to practise pharmacy in the city of Balti¬ 
more to pass a similar examination. 
A list of queries was then submitted, thirty-seven in 
number; these had been prepared for acceptance, and 
the names of the persons who had agreed to prepare 
the replies for the next annual meeting were reported. 
Among the subjects referred to were—■ 
I. The preparations of rennet, pepsine, and pancreatic 
juice, which have been recommended to assist assimila¬ 
tion of fat in the human stomach. In the course of 
the day Mr. S. M. M‘Collin read a paper relating some 
of his experience in the preparation of pepsine. He pre¬ 
pared fluid preparation, in which glycerine was the 
chief preservative agent. 
II. The system of apprenticeship and the amount of 
preliminary education to be required of apprentices. 
Interesting meetings were held by the delegates on the 
evenings of Wednesday and Thursday for the discussion 
of this subject, at which a series of resolutions were 
passed, which will be given in our next number. 
III. Granulated effervescing compoimds sold by drug¬ 
gists under popular names that do not correspond with 
their composition. 
IV. The comparative value of carbolic acid and other 
disinfectants and antiseptics. 
The reading of answers to queries of last year was 
then proceeded with, and occupied nearly the remainder 
of Wednesday and Thursday. 
Mr. Joseph P. Remington, of Philadelphia, read a 
paper “ On Glycerine,” giving the results of some care¬ 
ful experiments on samples of the leading kinds in the 
market. The experiments showed conclusively that the 
lower grades of glycerine were unfit for medical use, 
while the best quality of several of the leading manu¬ 
facturers were inodorous, colourless, free from impurities, 
giving with the usual reagents negative results in almost 
every case. The specific gravity varied from 1-245 to 
1-253. 
Dr. E. R. Squibb inquired if he had met with formic 
acid as an impurity, but Mr. Remington replied that he 
had not noticed it. Dr. Squibb stated that it had been 
asserted that that acid was the cause of the unpleasant 
symptoms in some cases where it had been used. To de¬ 
tect the unpleasant odour of glycerine, it was best to 
dilute it to about ten times its bulk with water, and 
apply heat, when the odorous principles are more readily 
distinguished than if it be heated alone. 
The Secretary read a paper upon a case of poisoning 
by fluid extract of aconite, by Dr. S. P. Duflield, of De¬ 
troit, in which it appeared that there was culpable neg¬ 
ligence of an employe of a large manufacturer, who had 
labelled a pound bottle, “ Fluid Extract Acta?a Racem.,” 
instead of “Fluid Extract Aconit. Rad.” The question 
would naturally suggest itself, how many more bottles 
were thus labelled, and had any others died from this 
criminal neglect ? In the course of some remarks by 
Dr. Squibb and others, it was elicited that the odour and 
chemical reactions of Veratrum viride are almost identical 
with aconite; and that cimicifuga and aconite root have 
been found repeatedly mixed in the same package. It 
was also stated that owing to negligence on the part of 
the physician, who had written badly, or of the pharma¬ 
cist, who had imperfectly translated the wretched hiero¬ 
glyphics, fluid extract of belladonna had been sub¬ 
stituted for taraxacum, and fluid extract of veratrum for 
valeriana. 
Mr. William Procter, jun., contributed a paper on 
the assaying of opium to determine its contents of mor¬ 
phia. After narrating various processes conducted on 
several portions of the same solution of opium, Mr. 
Procter said that he preferred a slight modification of 
the present United States Pharmacopoeia process, more 
familiarly known as Staple’s process, which he thought 
would best meet the wants of pharmacists who desire to 
test this drug. The chief points to observe are to ex¬ 
haust the drug thoroughly, evaporate with care to a 
small bulk, and, after adding alcohol to the remaining 
solution, to add the ammoniated alcohol, allowing it to 
stand 24 to 36 hours, preventing the loss of ammonia by 
evaporation. 
Dr. Squibb said that in the cose of opium, he always 
