Septembers, 1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
193 : 
extract of meat had been used there, and it seemed to 
answer uncommonly well. 
Professor Allen said he could endorse the remarks 
that had been made as to Liebig’s extract being a stimu¬ 
lant. He had taken it in a glass of wine and it had a 
restorati\ e effect. Some people objected to the flavour 
of it, and some said it had a burnt taste. He could not 
say that it had that taste} hut he used plenty of pepper 
with it. He thought that the preparation of meat sold 
by Fortnum and Mason, Piccadilly, was uniformly pre¬ 
pared. It was in the form of a sausage, which was 
enough to make a basin of soup. 
Mr. Atkins said he had recently ohseiwed one or two 
striking cases of the nutritive quality of Liebig’s extract. 
Ho had found that slices of toast covered with Liebig’s 
extract were more effectual as a restorative than anything 
else he was aware of. He would like to know whether 
the opposition of the faculty to Liebig’s extract was 
gradually yielding. There was an opinion among me¬ 
dical men that it was deficient in some of the important 
qualities required in beef-tea. 
Mr. Mackay (Edinburgh) said he could bear testi¬ 
mony to the value of Liebig’s extract when made into 
beef-tea. Several very striking instances of its value 
had come under his own observation; and, at this 
moment, there were two persons he had in view 
who had derived great benefit from it. One was 
a lady advanced in life, and the other a young man, 
both given up by their medical men, and they were 
about to sink from sheer want of nourishment. They 
had taken a dislike to everything that was named 
to them, and at length it was suggested to them that 
they should take Liebig’s extract, from which they got 
the greatest advantage. He had often heard medical 
men speak of the stimulating and nourishing effects of 
the extract. He had known cases of gentlemen who 
were out on the moors, and by sjireading a biscuit or 
toast with the extract, it had enabled them to go through 
almost any amount of fatigue. 
Professor Wright said that the prevailing opinion 
was that the extract did not do so much to prevent mus¬ 
cular waste as to enable the digestive organs to act more 
perfectly on the food materials and cause less waste than 
would be the case were the semi-alkaloids not present. 
# Mr. Collins (London) said that a friend of his travel¬ 
ling in South America never went out without Liebig’s 
extract; and when he was exploring there was nothing 
which gave him so much strength. He was sometimes 
days without any other food whatever. 
Mr. Schweitzer (Brighton) said he had made some 
beef powder. It had the same appearance as coagulated 
albumen, and nothing would soften it. 
Di\ Paul then replied. Ho said that as to the pre¬ 
paration of Fortnum and Mason, he believed it was a 
kind of portable soup, made by partial evaporation of 
beef juice and the addition of a little gelatine. It w r as 
not his intention to speak of meat extract as a stimulant. 
Taking small quantities of extract of meat when a person 
was working hard might for a time sustain him, but that 
was no proof that it was food. He might be living on 
his own body. It was true that the pressed meat was 
not to be compared with a fresh beefsteak, but that was 
not the question at all. All meat-preserving methods 
were intended to utilize a quantity of meat that would 
not otherwise be used. It had been pointed out by 
Liebig that one of the greatest defects in preparing 
his extract was that it left the great mass of the animal 
utterly worthless. It required thirty pounds of beef on 
the average, and of the better parts, to produce one pound 
of the extract, and the other twenty-nine pounds were 
entirely waste. The real way of considering the method 
he had brought under their notice was to compare it 
with the other methods intended to attain a similar re¬ 
sult. It might well be that since the pressed meat con¬ 
tained less of the juices than fresh meat, it might be less 
digestible and less valuable as food, but that was still 
more the case with salt junk. He thought that this new 
method ot dealing with meat was one worth attention 
and observation, whatever might be the actual nature of 
thn rnsn I f-Q 
PllOTECTION TO BOTTLERS. 
Mr. Baildon (Edinburgh) then exhibited a guard to 
be put upon bottles, for the protection of men engaged 
m bottling aerated waters. He had no doubt this Inge¬ 
nious contrivance by Mr. Fraser would be interesting. 
It was a very efficient protection to the bottlers, who- 
often had their hands and arms severely cut. Ho had 
had practical experience of the plan himself, and he 
could say that it was very simple and afforded very 
efficient protection. 
The Conference adjourned at four o’clock, to meet- 
next day at eleven. 
Wednesday , August 2. 
The Conference met on Wednesday morning at eleven- 
o’clock ; Mr. Stoddart presiding. 
Mr. Hanbury read a paper on—- 
The Crystalline Principles in Aloes. 
BY PR. F. A. FLUCKIGER, 
Professor of Pharmacy and Pharmacognosy in the 
University of Pern. 
A large sample of Natal Aloes, a variety of the drug- 
remarkable for its opacity and pale tint has been pre¬ 
sented to me by my friend Daniel Hanbury. Thin frag¬ 
ments of it are so little translucent as to show but a faint 
brown colour. The fracture of large lumps exhibits a 
dense conchoidal surface of a dull greyish brown or 
drab, marked with a few yellowish veins, and quite de¬ 
void of the brilliant vitreous gloss exhibited by newly 
broken Cape aloes. 
Fragments freely moistened with spirit of wine, when 
examined microscopically especially in polarized light,., 
are seen to consist of numerous crystals imbedded in a 
yellowish amorphous mass which is readily soluble. 
Mr. Hanbury first observed that the crystals on the other- 
hand are but sparingly soluble and that when the crude 
drug is treated with spirit of wine they separate as an 
almost whitish deposit; he consequently suggested they 
might be something different from aloin. These crystals 
as they occur in Natal Aloes, are not well defined; most 
of them are thin, short prisms, sometimes tufted, as in 
aloin from hepatic Aloes. Sometimes also single, tabu¬ 
lar, probably rectangular crystals are met with, as may 
be seen by gently crushing a fragment of the aloes with 
glycerine between two glass-slides. 
There is no difficulty in separating the crystals from 
Natal Aloes. If the drug is rubbed with an equal 
weight or a little less, of spirit of wine at a temperature 
not exceeding 120° F., the amorphous portion of it is 
dissolved. The remaining crystals may be collected on 
a filter and washed with a small quantity of cold spirit. 
From 16 to 22 per cent, of crude pale yellow crystals can 
thus be got. 
The difficulties begin when the purification of tho 
crystals has to be effected. For this purpose I have tried 
the usual solvents without discovering any liquid that is 
thoroughly convenient for dissolving my Nataloin, for 
by this name I propose to designate the substance. 
Neither water, benzol, bisulphide of carbon, petroleum- 
ether, chloroform, or ether, is capable of dissolving nat¬ 
aloin in appreciable quantity. A mixture of ether (1 part) 
and spirit of wine (3 parts) succeeds a little better ; the 
same may be said with regard to anhydrous aceton, mc- 
thylic and amylic alcohol, glacial acetic acid and acetic- 
ether. After all however, I do not feel convinced ot the 
advantage of any one of those solvents over common*- 
