210 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [September 9,1871 
Mr. Stoddart thought there would never he many of 
these men applying for membership, and they would not 
dream of instituting homoeopathic lectures. 
Mr. Hills said if he were a homoeopathic chemist and 
a member, he should certainly bring it forward and try 
to introduce it. 
Mr. Williams said that generally speaking homoeo¬ 
pathic chemists were very well educated scientifically; 
indeed, rather above the average of chemists and drug¬ 
gists. 
Mr. Sutton said his experience was quite the con¬ 
trary. 
Mr. Groves said if the Council acknowledged the 
status of these men, he did not see how they could draw 
the line and refuse to put on the register booksellers and 
others who had sold homoeopathic medicines prior to the 
passing of the Pharmacy Act. 
Mr. Williams said that was a distinct point. There 
was no question about the propriety of these men being 
on the register. 
The motion was then put, and the following division 
took place:— 
For —Messrs. Betty, Bottle, Savage, Stoddart and 
Williams (5). 
Against —Messrs. Atherton, Carr, Greenish, Groves, 
Hills and Sutton (6). 
The motion was therefore lost. 
Messrs. Edwards and Haselden were present at the 
division, but did not vote. 
Resolved—That the following having passed their 
respective examinations, be elected Associates in 
business:— 
MINOR. 
Hairsine, Herbert S.London. 
MODIFIED. 
Burkinshaw, William Thomas . .Belper. 
Corrie, Andrew A.Bedford. 
Resolved—That the following, having passed their 
respective examinations, be elected Associates of the 
Society:— 
MINOR. 
Webster, John .. Market Deeping. 
MODIFIED. 
Dickinson, William .Manchester. 
Hitchin, Robert .Bradford. 
Ray, William Herbert.Barnet. 
Sloman, Richard .Norwood. 
Stewart, William Henry.Paris. 
Messrs. Benjamin Heald, of Sleaford, and J. S. Eyre, 
of Launceston, were appointed Local Secretaries to the 
Society. 
Moved by Mr. Carr, seconded by Mr. Edwards : 
Resolved—That as there are only two candidates for 
election on the Benevolent Fund in October next, 
no voting-papers be issued on this occasion. 
A letter from Mr. Fletcher, one of the late candidates 
for the Jacob Bell Scholarships, was read, suggesting a 
revision of the rules relating to the competition for these 
Scholarships. Letter referred to the Library Museum 
and Laboratory Committee to consider and report thereon. 
At the request pf the Council, the President undertook 
to place a. notice in the Journal intimating that novelties 
interesting to pharmaceutists would be exhibited at the 
ensuing evening meeting in October, and that persons 
desiring to exhibit should communicate with the Secre¬ 
tary. 
IJnrmMwjs of MmMt §0Mts. 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
Tuesday Afternoon, August 1. 
Mr. H. Smith then read a paper by Messrs. T. and 
H. Smith, entitled “Notes on Aloes, with reference 
chiefly to the Cathartic qualities of Aloin.” 
The Chairman said that the two papers just read were 
very valuable, and he hoped they would elicit remarks 
from those specially acquainted with the use of aloes.. 
As to the crystals, it seemed strange that from different 
kinds of aloes different crystals should be formed. He 
would like to know from Mr. Smith if there was any 
difference in the actual measurements. The shapes were 
different; although sometimes it appeared to the inex¬ 
perienced. eye a mass of crystals, there were two predo¬ 
minating angles. He believed it was possible to mea¬ 
sure the crystals to a great nicety; and he would suggest- 
to Messrs. Smith that they should kindly have the angles 
of the crystals measured, and tell whether there was much 
difference between the aloin from the different kinds- 
of aloes. They did not use aloin in the West of England 
to the extent that it was used in Edinburgh and the 
North. He had no doubt of the activity of the aloirr 
as a purgative, but he would like to know if observations'- 
had been made as to the relative use of it. In the West 
of England they were gradually going round to the idea 
that the Barbadoes aloes were the best to use. When 
he heard Mr. Smith say that there was more aloin to be- 
obtained from the Barbadoes aloes than the others, he 
thought that was a further proof in support of Mr.. 
Smith’s assertion that it was a purgative. As to the 
application of aloin to horses, what Mr. Smith said as to- 
a horse being sick and refusing its food, was the very 
thing they wished to avoid. 
Mr. A. W. P. Smith said that aloin had no pretensions', 
to anything superior to aloes other than activity. The- 
great advantage of aloin over aloes was its reliable cha¬ 
racter, and that it was always to be trusted. The vari¬ 
able character of the crude drug was a great drawback.. 
Mr. T. Smith replied to some statements on the sub¬ 
ject which appeared in the Journal de Pharmacie, and 
maintained that aloin was of great value. 
Mr. Williams said it was very important they should’* 
know that different kinds of aloes yielded different kinds of 
crystals. He would like to know more about the different 
crystals produced, from the various aloes of commerce^ 
He had no doubt that the Messrs. Smith could furnish 
the information. He himself had manufactured aloin,, 
and he had found great difference in the yield; but the^ 
best yield was from the Barbadoes. 
Professor Attfield made some confirmatory remarks^ 
as to the way in which the apparently contradictory 
statements as to the activity of aloes and aloin might/ 
possibly be found to harmonize. Bodies alike in appear¬ 
ance, coming from the same source and closely allied iru 
chemical composition, were known to possess very dif¬ 
ferent physiological properties. Thus Matthiessen and. 
Wright’s apomorphia had medicinal characters entirely 
different from those of morphia, but varied in chemieah 
composition only to the extent of the elements of one 
molecule of water. Again, there were strong grounds- 
for believing that codeia was a similar structure to> 
morphia, except that one of the hydrogen corner-stones, 
so to speak, had been taken out and a methyl stone put. 
in its place. Nay, similar modifications produced non- 
poisonous from poisonous compounds. Thus kakodylic 
acid, which contained as much arsenicum as was present 
in arsenic acid, had no effect on rabbits, and probably 
none on man. Hence he would not be surprised to find 
that different, or even similar, kinds of aloes contained 
different modifications of aloin varying in medicinal, 
activity. This hypothesis might turn out to be valueless* 
