572 
PHABMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
Wednesday^ March 6th^ 1867. 
MR. SANDFORD, PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR, 
Mr. Morson asked permission of tke President to contradict a statement 
which had been circulated and communicated to him, with reference to the new 
British Pharmacopoeia, to the effect that he had used the knowledge he was 
supposed to have obtained relating to that work, by preparing in advance some 
of the newly introduced preparations. He begged to assure the meeting that 
such was not the fact, and that he had not manufactured any of the prepara¬ 
tions that were proposed to be adopted in the forthcoming work. His position 
in relation to Dr. Redwood, who had been engaged in preparing the new Phar¬ 
macopoeia, had probably given rise to the report, but this very circumstance, if 
no other, would have prevented his using any opportunity occurring in that 
way ; in addition to which, he thought such a proceeding would have operated 
to his loss rather than gain, as the work was not yet published, and the processes 
might still be modified. 
The following papers were read :— 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PREPARATIONS OE 
CONIUM, and THE EXTRACTION OE CONIA. 
BY JOHN HARLEY, M.D., F.L.S. 
So much uncertainty attends the use of a particular class of old-established 
vegetable preparations, that few, doubtless, of those practitioners who frequently 
prescribe them, would be able to state accurately what effects would follow the 
exhibition of a given dose of them. I allude particularly to the preparations of 
the succulent vegetables, digitalis, henbane, and conium. Indeed, we cannot but 
feel convinced that, in respect of these, we are at present in almost total ignorance 
as to the relative medicinal value of the recent and dried plant. Nay, I 
believe I may go still further, and assert that we have, without sufficient ex¬ 
perimental proof, attributed to the dried plant the virtues which cases of acci¬ 
dental poisoning, or more rarely direct experiment, have proved that the recent 
plant possesses. 
These remarks apply very forcibly to Hemlock, and I shall avail myself of this 
opportunity, so courteously afforded to me by the Council, of calling the atten¬ 
tion of the Society to a few practical points respecting the preparations of hem¬ 
lock, which bear out the foregoing general assertions. 
In some communications, lately made in the ‘Pharmaceutical Journal,’ I 
have shown that the tincture of the fruit of conium and the tincture of the 
dried leaf may be taken in such doses as to induce inconvenient effects from the 
alcohol contained in them; that, in fact, they are practically useless. In in¬ 
vestigating a number of preparations prescribed for our use, it would be suffi¬ 
cient, as far as these are concerned, to show what are useless and what useful; 
but it is, at the same time, desirable to go a step further, and determine why a 
given preparation is useless. 
Take, for example, the tincture of the dried leaf. It is inert; why ? It may 
be that the dried herb contains none of the active principle of the recent 
plant. It may be that the alkaloid exists in undiminished quantity, but that its 
effects are destroyed by the action of the alcohol. To prove the point, I have 
