March 30, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
793 - 
and concluded by describing some of the peculiarities in 
its properties, and uses to which it is put. 
The early closing question has been discussed at almost 
every meeting this session with much spirit. The assis¬ 
tants have taken up the matter themselves in earnest, 
and the result is that the chemists on the south side of 
the river commence closing at 8 o’clock on the 1st of 
April, and it is hoped that the outlying districts on the 
north side will also be induced to take the benefit of the 
early hour as well. It is but fair to say that this result 
has been attained chiefly by the efforts of the Acting 
Committee of the Chemists’ Assistants’ Association. 
% 
NORTHAMPTON CHEMISTS’ ASSISTANTS AND 
APPRENTICES’ ASSOCIATION. 
The Monthly Meeting of the above Association was 
held on March 22nd in the room in College Street; 
Mr. Masters (President) in the chair. 
The Secretary (Mr. Druce) read the minutes of the 
previous meeting, and said the Association had received 
during the month, the ‘ Calendar ’ and current number of 
the Journal, from the Pharmaceutical Society; a gas 
stove, from Mr. Clarke, and crystals of sugar of milk, from 
Mr. Berry. 
Mr. Lance read an interesting and suggestive paper 
on the “ Relation that ought to exist between Principals 
and their Assistants and Apprentices,” dealing with the 
subject in a very practical and forcible manner. He 
thought that with a little more attention paid to employes 
in domestic as well as business arrangements, a mutual 
reciprocity of feeling would ensue, alike profitable to 
the principal and pleasing to the assistant. After the 
discussion on the paper, 
Mr. Osborne exhibited through a large binocular mi¬ 
croscope, fitted "with polariscope and selenite stage, crys¬ 
tals of barii chlor., salicine, magnes. sulph., potas. nit., 
and soda tartarata, the latter being especially beautiful; 
several objects were then shown under an in. objective 
of very superior defining powders. 
A hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Lance for his paper, 
and to Mr. Osborne for the trouble he had taken, con¬ 
cluded the meeting. 
ABERDEEN SOCIETY OF CHEMISTS AND 
DRUGGISTS. 
A course of lectures for the summer session of 1872 
has been announced to be delivered by Dr. Beveridge at 
the School of Pharmacy in connection with this Society. 
They are to be of an elementary character, chiefly ap¬ 
plicable to apprentices, the subject being “ The Practical 
Study of Materia Medica with the Chemistry and Botany 
of the Pharmacopoeia.” The course is to be commenced 
on Monday, April 15th, at 9.30 a.m., and will be con¬ 
tinued every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday until 
the 13th of July. Fee for the course, 15s. There is 
also a library belonging to the Society which contains 
a selection of standard works on the above subjects, and 
is open every Friday evening from 8 to 10 o’clock. The 
employers earnestly recommend their apprentices to 
avail themselves of these lectures specially provided to 
assist them in qualifying themselves to pass the examina¬ 
tions of the Pharmaceutical Society. 
fromiiings af Smntifit Bandits. 
CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
March 21st, 1872; Dr. Odling, F.R.S., Vice-president, 
in the chair. In the course of the ordinary business the 
Chairman announced that the Faraday lecture would be 
delivered by Professor Cannizzaro, on Thursday, 30th of 
May. A communication from M. Maumene, of Paris, 
was then read by the Secretary, in which he denied the 
existence of the hyponitrous acid recently discovered by 
Dr. Divers (‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ xix. 425), 
on purely theoretical grounds, unsupported by any ex¬ 
periments or analyses. Dr. Divers, who was present, 
kindly explained M. Maumene’s theory. An interesting 
discussion took place on theoretical points connected with 
some remarks made by Dr. Debus, in which he stated that 
no organic compound existed in which the number of 
atoms of hydroxyl (HO) was greater than the number of 
carbon atoms.—The Anniversary Meeting of the Society 
for the election of officers and council will bo held on 
Saturday, the 30th of March, and the next ordinary 
meeting on Thursday, 4th of April, when Dr. Schorlem- 
mer, F.R.S., will deliver a lecture on “ The Chemistry of 
the Hydrocarbons.” 
PARIS SOCIETE DE PHARMACIE. 
A sitting of this Society w r as held on Wednesday, Fe-- 
bruary 7th, under the presidency of M. Stanislas Martin. 
M. Bussy presented a note from M. Carles upon the 
efflorescence that forms upon vanilla, in which it was 
stated that this substance is a peculiar organic acid, 
C lf) H ;j 0 4 , forming well-crystallized iodine'eompounds. 
M. Boudet presented a paper, by M. Roucher, “ On the 
Relations between Medical Men and Military Pharma- 
ciens.” He said that, notwithstanding the success with 
which M. Poggiale had formerly asserted the position of 
military pharmaciens, there had been attempts recently 
to subordinate pharmacy to medicine, or even to entirely 
suppress the pharmaceutic service in the army. 
M. Poggiale, in the name of military pharmaciens, 
thanked M. Boudet for calling attention to the subject. 
M. Bussy gave an account of the recent debates on 
fermentation in the Academy of Sciences; and M. 
Buignet described the investigations made to obtain 
crystallized digitaline which have gained the author tho 
Orfila prize for the year. 
M. Marais referred to a singular alteration observed in 
the leaves of Cerasus Iciurocerams upon the lowering of 
temperature to 22° below zero towards the end of the 
year 1871. The stem of tho plant having frozen, tho 
alteration extended from the petiole to the edge of the 
leaf, rarely from the margin to the central part. Imme¬ 
diately after the frost the leaves still yielded volatile 
products ; but the nutrition being stopped, they no longer 
furnished hydrocyanic acid upon distillation. 
M. Bussy said that it would be interesting to ascertain 
wdiether the emulsin alone underwent alteration. 
M. Bourgoin and M. Gobley remarked that that 
could easily be ascertained by treating the bruised leaves- 
with milk of sweet almonds. 
^arliamtntarj anfr State ^nimtags. 
« ————— 
Alleged Poisoning by Atropine. 
Crown Court, Manchester. 
Before Mr. Justice Lush. 
On Thursday, March 21, Hannah Steele was indicted 
for the wilful murder of Andrew Harris. 
Mr. Hopwood and Mr. Addison were for the prosecu¬ 
tion ; Mr. Torr, Q.C., and Mr. Thurlow for the defence. 
It appeared that the deceased had been senior surgeon 
of the Manchester Workhouse, and that the prisoner 
was head of the female lunatic ward there. On the 10th 
of January last the deceased, who up to that day had. 
been in perfect health, was shortly after breakfast taken 
suddenly ill, and, becoming rapidly worse, ultimately 
died at 8 o’clock in the evening; and the case lor the 
prosecution was that he was poisoned b} atiopine, 
■which had been put by the prisoner into the milk served 
to him at breakfast time. Atropine was stated to be 
