626 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
an adulteration of myrrh, and is picked out from the latter, and I believe is sold 
as second or cheap myrrh. I have a specimen on the table, which will afford a 
very good notion of what it is; it really possesses none of the fine fragrance of 
good myrrh. The Natural Order is given as Terebinthacees-burseracees. Lindley 
places it amongst the Anacardiacese, and Bentley, Arayridacese. Several of 
these little differences occur, and I merely mention it, not that I think it very 
important, but that it is sometimes puzzling when these diversities of arrange¬ 
ment are met with. 
■^Belladone, Atropa Belladonna Linn.; Solanacees. Root, Leaf. Observation 
as Codex.—The root of belladonna should be recently dried and freed from the 
broken pieces of stalk often found intermixed. No remark is made as to the 
condition of the leaf, for comparison sake turn to the P. B. and it runs thus : 
—The leaves, fresh and dried, and the fresh branches gathered, when the fruit 
has begun to form, from wild or cultivated plants in Britain. 
Characters :—Leaves alternate, three to six inches long, ovate, acute, entire, 
smooth, the uppermost part in pairs, and unequal. The expressed juice, or an 
infusion, dropped into the eye, dilates the pupil. Again, the root, dried; im¬ 
ported from Germany. Characters :—From one to two feet long, and from 
half an inch to two inches thick, branched and wrinkled, brownish-white. An 
infusion dropped into the eye dilates the pupil. I should much regret if these 
descriptions of characters should be taken away in any edition of the P. B., 
although they may not always be as clear as some wish. It is true that the 
Codex supplies directions, and very good ones, such as may be found in some 
of our Pharmacopoeias and Dispensatories for the gathering, collecting, and 
preserving of roots, bulbs, corms, buds, barks, leaves, flowering tops, flowers, 
fruits, and seeds, but these cannot take the place of individual descriptions of 
character ; it may with some truth be said that every educated pharmaceutist 
should be thoroughly acquainted with the substances upon which he operates, 
and should know them at sight. I need not ask if it is really so, or if the 
memory and the eye-sight do not require frequent jogging, or whether the 
commercial article always answers to the description. 
*Benjoin de Sumatra Amygdaloide. Solid balsam extracted from Sty rax 
Benzoin^ Dryander. Styracinees. 
Ben join de Siam, with a Vanilla odour. 
The description here given of the Sumatra Benzoin is that of an amygdaloidal 
character ; and earlier JNIateria Medica writers gave the same; if a greyish mass, 
with white pieces embedded here and there as specimen can be so described, then 
it is correct to say so, but the real amygdaloidal benzoin of commerce of the 
present day is the so-called Siam benzoin, but still it does not follow that all the 
Siam partake of the amygdaloidal character. I have here three excellent 
samples of Siam benzoin, one having the true amygdaloidal character, as you 
may clearly see a representation of the sections of blanched almonds, surrounded 
by a pale brown cortical wall; in the others, the resemblance is more of a light 
brown granite. 'PBhse three partake largely of the fine Vanilla odour, but I do 
not find that the almond representative is at all superior in odour to the other 
two, but when powdered it is whiter. I am induced to dwell upon this subject, 
because, as you all know, benzoin is now so much employed in the preparation 
of benzoinated lard used in many ointments; in the Codex it is also introduced, 
so that it is not only interesting commercially, but also pharmaceutically; the 
grey Sumatra of which I have spoken answers well enough for tinctures and 
general purposes—incense, for instance, amongst others—but it does not possess 
qualities entitling it to be used for the benzoinated lard. The prices of the 
specimens I have on the table run thus :—Grey Sumatra, 35 . 3iZ.; granite Siam, 
55 . and 65 .; and amygdaloidal Siam, Is. 6<i. per lb.; so that it is clear if we wish 
to crack a nut with Siam we must pay for it. 
