December in, 1870.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
471 
The Chairman then called upon Mr. Howden to ad¬ 
dress the meeting and give the results of his observations 
on the condition of Pharmacy in the United States.* 
At the conclusion of the address, 
The Chairman said Mr. Howden’s paper had been 
most valuable and interesting, and contained so much 
matter that he feared it would be impossible to do it 
justice in the way of discussion in the short time that 
remained. He should therefore suggest that the meeting 
be adjourned to the 4th of January. 
Mr. Howden remarked that he wished to call attention 
to the bottles on the table, which were specimens of 
American pharmacy. Ho did not know that they all 
possessed extraordinary merit, but large quantities of them 
were sold. He was passing one day through a laboratory 
when he noticed a large tub holding about 100 gallons. 
The proprietor said to him, “ How do you filter your 
syrups in London Y ’ His reply was that they did not 
filter them at all. His friend said, ‘‘Not filter your 
syrups! why I have this to filter. I make this quantity 
every three weeks.” The process Mr. Howden thought 
an ingenious one. Ho took a cone of felt or flannel 
about four feet long and filled it with water containing 
several sheets of white filtering-paper beaten into a pulp. 
As the water passed away it left a deposit of paper felt 
on the inner surface of the filter, admirably adapted for 
filtering syrups. He was rather proud of it, and justly, 
adding that it had this further advantage, after it had 
been used, he set a boy to wash the paper again, when 
it was as good as ever. The inventor of this filter 
was Mr. Frank Wyeth, of Philadelphia. There were 
also on the table some specimens of “ elegant pharmacy.” 
There was also on the table one ingenious device, which 
he believed was quite new, and for which a patent had 
been taken out. It consisted in first mixing certain 
active drugs with glycerine and then with gelatine, run¬ 
ning the mixture out into flat cakes, with little ridges 
separating it into squares like a chess-board, so that each 
square contained a definite amount of the drug, say 
■| grain of calomel, a grain of quinine, or, as in a speci¬ 
men in his hand, 1 grain of ipecacuanha. In this way a 
medical man in the country might possess himself of 
portable medicines; he only had to put a few of these 
gelatine sheets into his pocket, and when he wanted to 
make a mixture, he could snip oft' squares with a pair of 
scissors, put them in a bottle, fill up with water, and his 
medicine was prepared. There were also pills coated 
with gelatine which were well deserving of notice. 
Also, powdered blue pill. There was also a bottle 
of the celebrated sweet quinine, which had been so 
largely advertised, and which had led to some very 
painful circumstances to those interested in the ma¬ 
nufacture. He had brought over a bottle, thinking it 
would be interesting for the students in the laboratory 
to analyse it, and see of what it really was composed. 
Then there were some packets of what were known as 
“ Shaker herbs,” a remedy which had a great reputation 
in the States, and some other preparations of a similar 
character. He might also draw attention to an engraving 
of the premises of Messrs. Powers and Weightman, of 
Philadelphia, who were leading manufacturing che¬ 
mists. 
The Chairman also drew attention to a number of 
American photographs which Mr. Howden had collected 
in his travels, and which he had kindly placed on the 
table for inspection. 
Professor Attfield thought Mr. Howden had treated 
his subject so exhaustively, that he doubted whether 
there was much left for discussion. The clear and gra¬ 
phic way in which he had given his experience afforded 
much matter for congratulation that the Pharmaceutical 
Society had been so well represented in America during 
* A resume of Mr. Ilowden’s address will be found at p. 401. 
the last few 7 months. Mr. How r den’s paper had been so- 
interesting, that it had set the speaker longing to know 
something of tho state of pharmacy on the Pacific coast 
of tho American Continent. By good fortune there sat 
by him (Professor Attfield) a gentleman who occupied,, 
sixteen years ago, tho same relative position in the very 
room in which they w r ero assembled, w r hen they were- 
both students in what was then tho laboratory. Mr. 
Hugh Lloyd Jones had since resided in Vancouver’s 
Island, at Victoria, and had visited San Francisco and 
other places on that coast, and he had expressed his 
wbllingness to give tho Society on a future occasion tho 
results of his experience of the pharmacy of those lo¬ 
calities. 
The Chairman said he did not intend to convey that 
there was any room for discussion on the merits of Mr. 
Howden’s paper, but there w r ero many points on which 
he thought it w 7 ould be interesting to have a few more 
remarks,—-for instance, on the practices of their Ame¬ 
rican cousins, such as expecting the public to walk inside 
their stores and view their goods, instead of displaying 
them in the window 7 , keeping their bottles nearly empty, 
which w 7 ould be considered a very bad sign in England 
and so on. Again, Mr. Howden had spoken of American 
scales, and he had no doubt what he said w r as correct, 
but ho should like to know 7 whether, when powders were? 
prescribed, they were accustomed to take the precaution 
usual in England of weighing each separate dose, be¬ 
cause it appeared to him that the arrangement described 
would not be so convenient for that purpose as the small 
horizontal scales in use here. There w r ere also other- 
matters on which he thought useful information might 
be elicited by discussion. 
Mr. Woolley (Manchester) said ho had much pleasure- 
in proposing a vote of thanks to Mr. Hov 7 den, for he 
had rarely listened to a paper with so much interest 
and he was very glad to ha\ e the opportunity of learn¬ 
ing so much of pharmacy on tho other side of the waiter. 
He thought it most desirable to adjourn tho discussion. 
Mr. Brown (Manchester) seconded the motion.. Ho* 
very frequently came in contact with American citizens, 
and had heard somewhat of the conditions under which 
pharmacy was carried on in America, and tho difficulties 
wdiich attended the business there, but he had never- 
received anything like the information which had been 
so pleasantly conveyed by Mr. IIow 7 den. He had lis¬ 
tened w*ith very great pleasure to tho details which had 
been given by Mr. HowMcn, and thought many of them 
would form interesting subjects for discussion on another 
occasion. 
The resolution having been carried unanimously, 
Mr. Howden, in acknowdeclging the compliment, said 
he had not gone so much into detail as ho could have 
wished, as it was very difficult to condense the experi¬ 
ence of six w r eeks into an hour, but he should bo happy 
to attend the adjourned meeting, and if he could give 
any additional information it would afford him much 
pleasure to do so. 
The meeting was then adjourned to Wednesday, 
January 4th. 
MANCHESTER CHEMISTS’ ASSISTANTS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
The Weekly Meeting of this Association was. held or* 
Thursday evening, November 17th; the President. in 
the chair. A very interesting and instructive.discussion 
took place upon the prescribing of “Medical Prac- 
titioners.” A paper on Water was also read l)j 
Atkinson. 
