November 25,1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
433 
ments and the greatest research. Never be ashamed of 
your daily work, and do not miscall it drudgery ; make 
it your daily delight; seek in it opportunities for putting 
to a practical use the knowledge you have gathered; 
and remember there is no happiness so real and great as 
that which comes from a day’s work well done, a 
day’s duties nobly fulfilled, and an evening’s rest well 
and truly earned. 
I must now, ladies and gentlemen, ask your attention 
for a short time to one or two general questions affecting 
the interests of pharmacy, and then take some note of its 
progress during the past year. And, vexed question as 
it is, and threadbare as the discussion has been worn, it 
is impossible for me to pass over the poison regulation 
question without notice. I fear the lull which at pre¬ 
sent relieves our minds, is hut the calm before the storm, 
and that when the time comes, we shall hear again the 
rising gale. I regret, gentlemen, most sincerely the de¬ 
cision arrived at by the Pharmaceutical Society at its last 
annual meeting, conceiving it to have been an error both 
in principle and policy ; and with the absolute certainty, 
as it appears to my mind, that legislation will be enforced 
if we do not carry out the Pharmacy Act in its integrity, 
an Act granted “ on the tacit but distinctive understand¬ 
ing that the Pharmaceutical Council should frame a code 
of regulations to be approved of by her Majesty’s Privy 
Council,” I earnestly trust that wiser counsels may pre¬ 
vail in the future. 
It would be a curious comment upon the course advo¬ 
cated by the champions of “recommendations only” to 
ascertain by how many of them these recommendations 
had been carried out. I venture to predict it would be 
by a very small proportion. I am a firm advocate for 
regulations made and enforced by the Pharmaceutical 
Society under the sanction of the Privy Council. 
We know what is needful and practicable, and can 
frame these regulations far better than they can be done 
for us by Parliament; but, unless this be done at once, 
I greatly fear it will be too late, and that all control will 
be taken out of our hands. But, whatever comes in the 
future, I hope nothing will arise to make any real or 
lasting breach in our own ranks ; and, though we may 
differ widely, I trust all will consent to sink individual 
opinions in order in the best and speediest manner to 
secure the safety of those whose lives are intrusted to our 
care and skill. 
I now approach the second portion of my subject,—a 
short resume of the more prominent additions to pharma¬ 
ceutical materials made during the past year; and I con¬ 
fess I wish this had fallen into abler hands. I shall be 
content, however, if, in my passing notice, I indicate some 
objects to which your attention may be profitably directed 
during the session. 
And, although not entirely new, the prominence which 
has been given during the past few months to the thera¬ 
peutic value of the “ Nitrite of amyl ” induces me to place 
it first on my list. 
Nitrite of amyl, C 10 II i;i O,NO 3 ,* is an amber-coloured 
fluid, prepared by the action of nitrous or hyponitric 
acid on amylic alcohol. In the Pharmaceutical Jour¬ 
nal for April lastfi were published some notes on its pre¬ 
paration by Mr. John M. Maisch, in which it is pointed 
out that the process for the preparation of this com¬ 
pound consists of two distinct operations ; first, the pro¬ 
duction of the amyl-nitrous ether, and, secondly, its 
purification. In both operations the very yradical appli¬ 
cation and increase of heat is very essential. 
Another process of manufacture consists in distilling 
amylo-sulphate of potash with nitrate of potash. 
Dr. Richardson, to whom so much is due for his re¬ 
searches and discoveries in therapeutic science, and to 
whom, as is well known, we owe the introduction of 
hydrate of chloral, says of nitrite of amyl that it causes 
* CjjHuN Oj, according to the new notation, 
f 3rd ser. vol. i. p. 865. 
“ paralysis of the chain of organic nerves, which supply 
the contractile power of the blood-vessels.” 
It thus induces muscular and arterial relaxation, in¬ 
creasing frequency of cardiac pulsation, accompanied 
by a very marked and sudden flushing of the face, 
warmth of head, face and neck, and perspiration, the 
perspiration often becoming general. 
The safest method of administration appears to be by 
inhalation ; five drops poured on a piece of lint, and 
held to the nostrils for ten or twenty seconds, until the 
face begins to redden. In from eight to twelve seconds 
the frequency of the pulse rapidly increases, rising some¬ 
times from twenty beats in the quarter minute to forty. 
Occasionally it produces some giddiness and headache; 
and it is evident that caution need be exorcised in its 
employment in many cases. 
In a most interesting paper by Mr. Talfourd Jones, 
published in the Practitioner last month, its physiological 
action'and medicinal uses are most ably treated; and as 
we are expected to know not only the chemical pro¬ 
perties of the remedies we dispense, but something als» 
of their effects, and the pui-poses for which they are 
employed, I will read one extract, premising only 
that Dr. Jones has used the nitrite of amyl with, 
some considerable success in spasmodic asthma, angina 
pectoris, epilepsy, laryngeal spasm and facial neuralgia, 
and that his investigations lead him to suppose that 
amyl is an antidote to the poison of chloral and ergot, 
and that it is likely to be a valuable agent in cases of 
overdosing by chloroform.* 
A most singular and striking experiment follows, which 
clearly shows the effect of the nitrite upon the circulation. 
Dr. Jones having cupped a patient suffering from 
dangerous illness, found the blood flow very slowly, and 
at length it ceased to run. At that moment it occurred 
to him that it would be interesting to watch just then 
the effects of the nitrite. Ten drops were immediately 
applied on some lint to the nostrils. Soon the radial 
pulse throbbed, then the face became flushed, and at the 
same instant Mood Jloivcd freely into the cupping-glasses. 
It seems probable, gentlemen, that this remedy may 
become extensively employed; it is needful t.o be very 
cautious as to its absolute purity, as some of the speci¬ 
mens examined by Mr. Umney appear to have been very 
imperfectly prepared. 
Some considerable attention has also been drawn to- 
the wood and bark of a shrub known as “ Condurango,” 
grown in the province of Loja, Ecuador, and which is 
said to possess powerful medicinal virtues, and in the 
hands of Dr. Bliss and several other American phy¬ 
sicians to have proved almost a specific for cancer. 
Upon examination no crystalline alkaloid or active 
principle was separable by the usual methods, and by 
distillation no volatile oil or acid was obtained. 
A small supply has been sent over to this country, and 
it has been tried at Middlesex and St. Bartholomew’s 
Hospitals, and there does not appear to bo any confirma¬ 
tion of its alleged virtues. Physiologically it appears to- 
be practically inert, and its therapeutic effects in the 
treatment of cancer nil. The fear is lest some speculative 
and unscrupulous Yankees should vaunt it as a specific,, 
and by a vile system of exaggerated puffing lead many 
unhappy victims of one of the worst diseases to which flesh 
is heir to seek impossible relief in a useless drug. It this 
should prove the case, it is well that wo should know 
that condurango is pronounced most decidedly by 
English surgeons who have fairly tired it, and notably 
by Mr. Hulke, of Middlesex Hospital, to be worthless. 
Passing to discoveries of apparently much greater 
value, you have probably many of you followed to some 
extent the interesting experiments of Dr. Richardson on 
the organic hydrides. Within the last month he has 
introduced to notice a new anaesthetic, which appears 
likely to prove very useful in short surgical operations.. 
* See page 215, Case 1, Practitioner for October, 1871. 
