THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[August 19, 1871. 
tlie question had been asked, he might state that he 
knew of a firm in London, the one named by Mr. Mason 
as sending him samples, that made large quantities of 
hydrate chloral, and he believed it was in a considerable 
. state of purity. 
Mr. Kerr (Dundee) asked if he could be informed 
•whether there was any general test of smell by which 
a good sample of hydrate of chloral could be distin- 
g-uished from a bad one. On one occasion he received a 
sample which had not the sweet smell of chloral, but an 
acrid smell. He asked the opinion of a firm on the 
. subject, and they told him that it was good, and that the 
smell varied. When the stopper of a bottle was taken 
out it left the chloral different from what it was when 
quite close. It would be useful to dispensing chemists 
to know whether there was anv test such as he had in- 
V 
-dicated. 
Mr. Atkins said he also wished to put a question. 
He had not yet quite learned from the debate whether 
the cake or the crystalline form was to be considered the 
best and purest specimen for dispensing. 
Mr. Mason said he had already answered both ques¬ 
tions. 
Dr. Attfield said Mr. Muir seemed to have come to 
the conclusion that the crystalline was the best. 
Mr. Robins (London) said that a gentleman of his ac¬ 
quaintance had got some pounds of the crystalline sub¬ 
stance, but after trying it he gave it up, and returned to 
the use of the cake. He said that in many cases he did 
not find the action so good. He (Mr. Robins) thought 
it would be well to know if similar results were found in 
other cases. 
The President, in regard to Mr. Kerr’s question, said 
that probably the sense of smell would not be sufficient 
as a substitute for a chemical test. In the case of pure 
chloral the pungent smell disappeared, by constant 
opening of the bottle. The discussion seemed to be 
satisfactory as to the state of chloral as a manufactured 
product. In his own experience at Bristol he had found 
it to give him satisfaction. 
Brief Remarks on the Bark of Rhamnus Frangula, 
or Black Alder Tree, a Shrub of the North of 
Europe (Pentandria Monogynia). 
BY H. C. BAILDON, EDINBURGH. 
Some time since a gentleman from Holland applied to 
me to prepare for him a decoction of the Rhamnus Fran¬ 
gula, bark. The bark he brought with him, having 
previously found that he could" not obtain it in this 
country. He spoke most enthusiastically of its good 
properties as a gentle cathartic, which had proved very 
beneficial to himself, and which was much used and 
esteemed by the medical profession in Holland. He 
kindly offered to procure for me a small quantity of the 
bark. To. my surprise, I shortly afterwards received a 
bale containing nearly a quarter of a cwt., accompanied 
by the following letter. He writes, “ I hope you will find 
it giving as much benefit generally as I have derived 
from it personally. The preparation of my Dutch phy¬ 
sician was 3 or 4 drams of bark to a pint of water boiled 
down to half a pint. Two or three tablespoonfuls occa- 
- sionally night and morning, as an aperient. Than this 
nothing can be more simple or less injurious, and it does 
not require increase of dose, but the contrary.” 
I am aware that this drug is not altogether unknown 
in this country, though I believe rarely or never used. 
In the 2nd volume of the first series of the Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Journal, page 721, I find a letter signed George 
Mennie, Plymouth, speaking very favourably of it as a 
purgative and alterative, and" again in the 9th volume, 
page 537, there is an analysis by M. Benswanger. 
I have repeatedly taken the decoction myself, and find 
the taste not unpleasant, with a slight prussic acid fla¬ 
vour, of which the analysis shows traces. It operates 
gently as an aperient, without griping, in doses of 2 or 3 
tablespoonfuls. It appears to me to possess properties 
which should in many cases render it a valuable substi¬ 
tute for senna,—which is often found drastic in its effects, 
and is nauseous to take,—and to be especially suitable for 
children. 
In Holland it must be very plentiful, as it was charged 
me only at the rate of about 10^. per lb., including cost 
of carriage. A specimen of the bark and decoction is 
now upon the table.* 
The Conference then adjourned Rom half-past twelve 
to two o’clock. 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE¬ 
MENT OF SCIENCE. 
On Thursday, August 3, the business of the sections 
commenced. The meetings were held in the various 
class-rooms of the University, the time saved to visitors 
by the contiguity of the places of meeting being very 
considerable. 
In Section A. (Mathematical and Physical Science), 
Professor P. G. Tait, the President, delivered an ad¬ 
dress, in which he claimed that the grand test of the 
science, and the proof of its being a reality, and not a 
mere invention of new terms and squabbling as to what 
they shall mean, is that it is ever advancing. There is 
no coming back at the end of a century or so into the 
old positions, and fighting the selfsame battle over again 
under slightly different banners. The sad fate of Newton’s 
successors ought ever to be a warning to us. Trusting 
to what he had done, they allowed mathematical science 
to die out in this country, at least as compared with its 
immense progress in Germany and France. If the suc¬ 
cessors of Davy and Faraday pause to ponder even on 
their achievements, we shall soon be again in the same 
state of ignominious inferiority. Even as it is, though 
we have among us many names as justly great as any 
that our rivals can produce, we have also (even in our 
educated classes) such an immense amount of ignorance, 
and consequent credulity, that it seems matter for sur¬ 
prise that true science is able to exist. Spiritualists, 
circle squarers, perpetual motionists, believers that the 
earth is flat and that the moon has no rotation, swarm 
about us. This is characteristic of all inferior races, but 
it is consolatory to remember that, in spite of it, they soon 
become extinct. Your quack has his little day, and dis¬ 
appears, except to the antiquary. But in science nothing 
: of value can ever be lost; it is certain to become the 
stepping-stone on the way to further truth. Still, when 
1 our stepping-stones are laid, we should not wait till others 
| employ them. 
Professor James Thomson read a paper entitled 
“ Speculations on the Continuity of the Fluid State of 
Matter.” The author referred to the discovery of Dr. 
Andrews, that there is gradual transition between the or¬ 
dinary liquid and the ordinary gaseous states of the same 
matter, by courses passing through temperatures and 
pressures above those at which boiling can take place, 
and showed that there is probably also a theoretical con¬ 
tinuity, having a real and true significance, directly 
; across temperatures and pressures of boiling-points. He 
also drew the attention of the section to the existence for 
each of the various substances (water or carbonic acid, 
for instance) of a remarkable point of pressure and tem¬ 
perature, at which alone the substance can exist in three 
states, solid, liquid and gaseous, together in contact with 
one another. This point of pressure and temperature he 
designated the triple point. 
* Me are requested to state that Mr. Baildon will, with 
pleasure, supply members of the Conference with specimens 
of this bark, to afford them the opportunity of testing its 
merits.—E d. Pharm. Journ. 
