118 
BEITISII PHARMACEUTICAL CONPERENCE. 
arran^^emeiits wliick they had made for holding the Conference. The Presi¬ 
dent said that they had all had an opportunity of judging how successfully 
one of the great features of the meeting, the Exhibition, had been carried out. 
He believed that Exhibition had originated with, and had been almost en¬ 
tirely carried out by, the Nottingham Committee. He must allude to one 
other matter before he concluded. They had before them the bust of one of 
the noblest, the most liberal, and the most unselfish of men that ever lived. 
It must be a great satisfaction to them—all more or less connected with the 
pharmaceutical profession—to know that that maiiAvas one of their own body. 
He was sure that all the members, especially the younger ones, would bo 
pleased to have an opportunity of seeing the bust of the lamented Jacob Pell, 
and they were all much indebted to Mr. Hills for forwarding it to the Exhi¬ 
bition. He (the President) had enjoyed Mr. Pell’s acquaintance for ne|irly 
twenty years, and he felt sure that had he been amongst them at the present 
time, no one would have taken greater interest than he in the proceedings of 
that Conference. 
IMr, Carteighe (London) moved the best thanks of the meeting to the Presi¬ 
dent for his able and interesting address. He thought that he had fully esta¬ 
blished the case he had laid down, of the necessity to the pharmaceutist of an ade¬ 
quate knowledge of the science of botany. Whatever limitations might be agreed 
upon to the extent to which its cultivation should be pushed, there could be no 
doubt that its study was an essential part of the education of our profession. 
Mr. Lewis (Nottingham) seconded the motion, and expressed the pleasure 
which the members resident in Nottingham would feel in looking back upon 
such a gathering as now met in their town. 
Mr. Ince (London) also supported the motion, which was warmly carried. 
klr. AxiiEiiTOisr, the hon. local secretary, on behalf of his fellow-townsmen, 
expressed the pleasure they felt that their endeavours, as alluded to by the 
President, to jrromote the comfort and convenience of the members of the Con¬ 
ference, were held to be successful. 
The President acknowledged the vote of thanks. 
The reading of papers then commenced. 
ON ACONITE. 
BY THOS. B. GROVES, E.C.S. 
Of the two questions relating to aconite, on which I have undertaken to 
report, the first is, “ Hoes Aconite owe any of its activity to the volatile 
acrid body said to exist in it ?” I cannot find that this acrid body said to 
exist in aconite has yet been isolated. Its existence has simply been inferred 
from certain circumstances observed in the pharmaceutical treatment of the 
plant, and from analogy. 
M. Geiger was the first to start the theory that aconite owed its acridity to 
one body, its narcotic property to another; and affirmed that the former 
was easily destroyed, the latter not so easily. This ready destructibility is 
supposed by M. Geiger to be a sufficient reason for its non-production * but 
Mr. Wesse states that ordinary aconite, containing, as he also asserts, the 
two principles intimately combined, can be purified from the acrid principle 
by several solutions in acid and precipitations by alkali. He did not, how¬ 
ever, succeed in isolating it. Query, whether he did not really, by this mode 
of procedure, simply lose the greater portion of the aconitine (which is well 
known to be soluble in 150 parts of cold water), leaving only the inert matter 
with which the commercial article is so largely contaminated. 
