374 THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [November 4,1871. 
'S | Gilmour, James .Edinburgh. 
1 Reid, James .Edinburgh. 
Davidson, James.Falkirk. 
Blanshard, Richard Lacy .... Edinburgh. 
Gray, James.Edinburgh. 
Tweedie, Alexander.Edinburgh. 
Macintosh, John .Elgin. 
Ellis, Thomas Russell.Dunfermline. 
"3 | Gibson, Aikman Graham .. . .Edinburgh. 
S. I Ogilvie, John Hovel .Montrose. 
| Dick, Robert G.Edinburgh. 
f MacGregor, Donald.Edinburgh. 
\ Stuart, Thomas Peter Anderson Dumfries. 
The above names are arranged in order of merit. 
MODIFIED EXAMINATION. 
Four candidates were examined; one failed, the fol¬ 
lowing three passed, and were declared duly qualified to 
ibe registered as 
CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS. 
Dickinson, Joshua Steel.Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
Sinclair, George Fisher .Liverpool. 
Wright, John Armstrong _Macclesfield. 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING-. 
Wednesday , November 1st, 1871. 
^IR. A. F. IIASELPEX, F.L.S., PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR. 
The following Donations to the Library were an¬ 
nounced : — 
Calendar of the Royal College of Surgeons, of Eng¬ 
land, 1871,— University College, London, Calendar, 
Session 1871-72,—Transactions of the Clinical Society of 
London, Vol. IV.,—Statistical Tables of the Patients 
'under Treatment in the Wards of St. Bartholomew’s 
Hospital during 1870,—La Viande des Animaux malades 
nu point de vue do l’Alimentation publique, par M. T. 
Hetet: from the “Societe d’Acclimatation.” 
The thanks of the Meeting having been accorded to 
the several Donors, the President then called upon 
Mr. J. B. Barnes to read a paper on “A New Excipient 
for Pills,” which will be found printed at p. 361. 
At the conclusion of the paper, 
Ihe President said that this was a very appropriate 
•pharmaceutical subject, and one upon which he imagined 
they must all have some notion, if not much experience. 
He very much disliked ever having to find fault from 
that chair, but he had told his friend Mr. Barnes that he 
demurred to the practice of putting these medicines into 
pills. Pills might be very convenient at times, but as a 
general rule he thought they should endeavour, if possi¬ 
ble, to put these remedies in some other shape, especially 
the hydrate of chloral. He considered it very objection¬ 
able to put hydrate of chloral into pills, which might be 
•swallowed almost ad libitum, and they scarcely knew 
’•what the consequences might be. With respect to sul¬ 
phur, hi thought there could be no great objection to the 
pill system. Having looked into the specimens of pills 
before them, he certainly must say that they were very 
ingeniously and cleverly put together; and if at any 
time pills of that kind should be required, there could 
not possibly be anything better than those which Mr. 
Barnes had placed upon the table. They should at all 
times give encouragement to gentlemen who brought 
forward these modified, or what they conceived to be im¬ 
proved, conditions for making medicines, although, as 
vone of the old school, he objected to pills when he could 
give the medicine in the shape of draughts. He should 
be very glad to hear expressions of opinions from gen¬ 
tlemen in the room who had had more experience in this 
matter than he professed to have. 
Professor Attfield would like to ask Mr. Barnes, by 
way of introducing the discussion, whether he had made 
any experiments as to the relative rate of solubility of 
these pills. He remembered that some time ago Mr. 
Morson brought before their notice some so-called solu¬ 
ble cream of tartar which had solidified, and which sub¬ 
sequently, he thought, was found to be not so readily 
miscible with water as the ordinary more fluid prepara¬ 
tion. It was possible that the tartar in these pills might 
be in a similar condition. At all events it was important 
to know at what rate pills dissolved. 
Mr. Barnes replied that he found the pills dissolved 
in a very short time when placed in tepid water, perhaps, 
on the average, in about ten minutes. 
Mr. Linford thought this question rather brought up 
the idea whether the reason for putting these medicines 
into pills was that their action might be more gentle or 
more modified on the system. He did not know whether 
members had experimented on the difference to be ob¬ 
tained with such substances as scammony resin, or jalap, 
in this direction. Their duty was to prepare medicines 
ordered by medical men, but in that preparation they 
ought to look somewhat to the subsequent action upon 
the system, and it was a question whether the real end 
and purpose of putting these things into pills was not 
that, by their being gradually dissolved, their action 
might be correspondingly modified. 
Mr. J. E. Howard, F.L.S., then read a paper on 
“Cinchona-trees grown in India,” which will be found 
printed at p. 361. 
The President said that this was a very important 
communication, and one in which they all, no doubt, 
took great interest. It was possible that some of the 
gentlemen present might be able to offer some further 
remarks upon the subject. There was only one point 
that struck him as being a mercantile question of some 
importance, and that was why the Government should 
have encouraged the growth of the succirubra barks in 
preference to the Calisaya barks, seeing that the latter 
produced a larger amount of quinine—so much used in this 
country—than the other. He had been told by a com¬ 
mercial gentleman who dealt largely in these articles that 
it appeared to be a mistake on the’ part of the Govern¬ 
ment that they had undertaken to grow, and had grown, 
the succirubra barks instead of the Calisaya barks. He 
personally was quite inexperienced in the growing of 
these barks, but still it struck him as a curious fact that 
the Government should have grown the Succirubras, 
which were seldom used nowadays. Occasionally, it 
was truej a physician ordered succirubra bark in an 
infusion or a decoction, but the general thing was Ca¬ 
lisaya bark, both for quinine and in nearly all the pre¬ 
parations they used in pharmacy. Perhaps some gentle¬ 
man could enlighten them upon the subject. Professor 
Bentley was present, and probably he would kindly say 
something on the point to which he had referred. 
Professor Bentley said that, having been called upon, 
he would express the pleasure he felt in hearing the 
paper with which they had been favoured, for they always 
looked to Mr. Howard for any information upon the sub¬ 
ject of barks, which he had certainly made peculiarly 
his own, not only in this country, but in all parts of the 
world. He (Professor Bentley) should not have risen on 
this occasion if he had not been appealed to by the Presi¬ 
dent. If he understood properly, Mr. Howard spoke 
particularly of the great development in the cultivation 
of the Cinchona succirubra in comparison with Cinchona 
officinalis , and he also thought Mr. Howard had said that 
there was a larger development of the bark of the officinalis 
than of the succirubra ; but he did not understand that 
