512 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [December U, 1870. 
LIVERPOOL CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The Fourth General Meeting of the present session 
-was held at the Royal Institution, December 8th; the 
President, Mr. John Abraham, in the chair. 
The minutes of the preceding meeting having been 
read, the President said he must correct the statement 
that he said he had always obtained 15 fluid ounces of 
distilled product in following the Pharmacopoeia process 
for spirit of nitrous ether. He stated the contrary, but 
suggested that the fact might be owing to imperfect 
condensation, and that the loss might perhaps be obvi¬ 
ated by putting the rectified spirit into the receiver in¬ 
stead of adding it subsequently. The alteration having- 
been made, the minutes were confirmed. 
Mr. S. G. Hilditcii exhibited four samples of pro¬ 
ducts taken in the distillation of sp. aether, nitros., 13. Ph.: 
No. 1 being taken when (working on four times the 
B. Ph. quantity) two gallons had distilled over which 
contained 50 per cent, of nitrous ether (C. 2 H 5 N 0 2 ). 
No. 2, when two gallons six pints had been collected, 
which contained 48 per cent, of C 2 H 5 N0 2 . 
No. 3. A fresh receiver was then adapted, and the 
distillation continued until one gallon had been col¬ 
lected ; and on testing this with chloride of calcium, he 
could not get any separation of C 2 H 5 N0 2 . The re¬ 
ceiver was again changed, and heat (steam) being in¬ 
creased, the distillation was continued until nothing- 
more would distil over. In this way he obtained forty- 
eight ounces of a liquid consisting principally of spirit 
and water, having a very disagreeable smell. 
No. 4 represented this product. 
The Secretary then read a letter which had been re¬ 
ceived by the President. 
[The letter is essentially the same as the letter from 
Messrs. Fox to the Editor, already printed in the Journal, 
p. 479.] 
The President said that it did not appear that 
Messrs. Fox complained that he had said anything 
which was not correct, but they objected to the infe¬ 
rences he had drawn from the facts. He had, however, 
nothing to withdraw. They had sent him a handbill, in 
which one of the testimonials referred to the fact that 
their preparation contained only 50 per cent, of cod- 
liver oil; but the handbill round the bottle which he 
had exhibited contained no such statement, and ho could 
not but think that if they had wished it to be known 
that “ palatable cad-liver oil ” contained ouly half oil, 
the rest being sugar and water flavoured, they might 
have taken more effectual means to accomplish their 
purpose. Be that as it may, he had contented himself 
'with showing the composition of the mixture, and that 
the label was so put on the bottle as to conceal the fact 
from all but careful examination. He also observed 
that gentlemen who called themselves Fellows of the 
Chemical Society, who professed to have analysed the 
oil, gave testimonials which did not convey the slightest 
idea of its composition, and left their readers to infer 
that it had been made palatable by some unobjectionable 
process. In the new testimonials which Messrs. Fox had 
sent with their letter, he observed very prominently the 
name of a gentleman whom he could not refer to except 
in terms of respect. It was Dr. A. H. Hassall, who, as 
a commissioner for the Lancet , had done so much to 
make known the composition of important articles when 
their names failed to do so. He says that flavouring- 
and other ingredients have been added, but he does not 
tell us that they form one-half of the mixture. His (the 
President’s) object was that this should be known to 
those who sold and to those who bought it. 
Mr. Edward Davies, F.C.S., heartily agreed with 
the President, and showed that the oil was not and 
■could not be a combination. He said that, knowing the 
whole system of testimonial-giving was thoroughly rotten, 
being applied wholesale instead of confined to the sample 
analysed, he was glad (as an analytical chemist) for the 
sake of his profession that this practice was confined to 
a few conspicuous individuals. 
Mr. T. F. Abraham said the oil professed to be 
patented. 
The Secretary stated that Messrs. Fox had regis¬ 
tered the word “palatable” as a trade mark, but this 
would be invalid if it could be proved that any one else 
had previously applied the term. 
Mr. Hilditcii said he had been informed by legal 
gentlemen that many of those patents were of no more 
value than the paper upon which they were written, and 
gave instances where so-called patent processes were 
invalid. 
Mr. Alfred II. Mason, the Honorary Secretary, 
thought the oil should be condemned by pharmaceutists 
as an inelegant preparation, a decided separation being 
present, and no combination , as Messrs. Fox had stated in 
their letter. He had seen a short time ago in one of the 
New York medical journals a formulary for cod-liver oil 
cream.* The sample exhibited consisted of a solution of 
gum tragacanth (2 drachms being dissolved in 16 ounces 
of cold water), to which 50 per cent, of oil was added, 
flavoured with essence of lemon, essence of almonds and 
cassia, sweetened with syrup of tolu. This mixture did 
not show any separation, as the tragacanth broke up the 
oil into such minute particles that it was held in suspen¬ 
sion, and it thus formed an elegant emulsion very plea¬ 
sant to the palate. 
Mr. Bedford fully concurred with the remarks which 
had been made, and felt that there was not anything to 
withdraw from what had already been made public in 
the report of the proceedings of a fonmer meeting. 
Several other miscellaneous communications were 
made by Messrs. Hilditch, Tanner, Davies, T. F. Abra¬ 
ham, Bedford, and Hallawell. 
Before closing the meeting, the President gave a very 
interesting resume of a paper he had heard read the pre¬ 
vious evening at the Pharmaceutical Society’s meeting 
by Mr. Howden, on “ The State of Pharmacy in the 
United States.” 
After the usual votes of thanks were passed, the meet¬ 
ing adjourned. 
THE EXHIBITION OF CHEMICALS, DRUGS, 
ETC., AT THE RECENT MEETING OF THE 
AMERICAN PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIA¬ 
TION AT BALTIMORE. 
Our space will not permit us to do justice to this at¬ 
tractive feature of the annual gatherings of the Associa¬ 
tion. Though the exhibition was hardly equal in variety 
and extent to the display made at the meeting of last 
year, in Chicago, it was exceedingly good, and the arti¬ 
cles were arranged with most excellent taste, so that 
they might be seen to the best advantage. As usual, 
Messrs. Powers and Weightman, of Philadelphia, made 
the most attractive and valuable contribution, many of 
their specimens being in large quantities, a single vase 
containing upwards of 1000 dollai’s worth of sulphate of 
morphia. Many of their specimens were particularly 
remarked on account of their superior beauty. 
Messrs. Charles T. White and Co., of New York, also 
made a most attractive display. This house is rapidly 
gaining a national reputation for the purity of its pro¬ 
ducts, and certainly no one familiar with the appearance 
of fine chemicals could view their collection without 
being struck with the rare beauty of almost every article. 
They exhibited upwards of forty specimens, among them 
the salts of morphia, which they are largely manufac- 
* I have since found that the article referred to was ex¬ 
tracted from a letter signed “Emulsio,” published in the 
Chemist and Druggist for April, 1870, p. 121.—A.H. Mason. 
