Am.  Jour.  Pharni. ) 
January,  1908.  J 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
49 
"  Ethereal  Oils,"  English  translation,  page  542),  but  that  as  high 
a  percentage  of  oil  did  not  appear  to  be  obtainable  with  the  com- 
mercial fruits. 
Mr.  Charles  E.  Vanderkleed  read  a  paper  on  "  Some  Tests  for 
Gurjun  Balsam  in  Copaiba,"  and  demonstrated  the  manner  of 
applying  them  (see  page  11). 
During  the  discussion  of  his  paper  Mr.  Vanderkleed  stated  that 
the  fluorescent  property  of  copaiba  is  not  regarded  as  a  reliable 
indication  of  its  quality.  Mr.  Pearson  remarked  that  his  experience 
with  the  tests  for  Gurjan  balsam  in  copaiba  coincided  with  that  of 
Mr.  Vanderkleed,  except  that  he  had  always  thought  that  the  United 
States  Pharmacopceial  test  was  sensitive  to  less  than  10  per  cent,  of 
Gurjun  balsam.  The  D.  and  O.  test  he  had  found  quite  reliable  if  the 
solution  were  allowed  to  stand  overnight.  He  said  that  he  was 
making  an  analysis  of  African  copaiba,  which  was  low  in  acid  resin 
and  total  resins,  but  otherwise  answered  the  U.  S.  P.  requirements. 
Mr.  Pearson  then  alluded  to  the  recent  paper  on  copaiba  by  E.  J. 
Parry,  in  which  he  stated  that  the  optical  rotation  cannot  be  relied 
upon  to  indicate  the  quality  of  copaiba  and  that  he  had  found  the 
United  States  Pharmacopceial  tests  satisfactory. 
A  conjoint  paper  on  "  The  Microscopical  and  Chemical  Examina- 
tion of  Black  Pepper,"  was  presented  by  Henry  Kraemer  and 
Harry  E.  Sindall,  the  latter  being  the  chemist  for  the  Weikel  &  Smith 
Spice  Company  (see  page  1).  Professor  Kraemer  stated  that  this 
was  the  first  of  a  series  of  similar  papers  which  he  and  Mr.  Sindall 
intended  to  present.  Then  taking  up  the  subject  of  the  paper,  he 
said  that  while  pepper  is  official  in  several  of  the  pharmacopoeias, 
little  of  it  is  used  in  medicine,  its  chief  use  being  as  a  condiment, 
and  it  is  being  dropped  from  the  pharmacopoeias.  He  pointed  out 
that  there  are  a  number  of  products  official  in  the  United  States 
Pharmacopoeia  which  are  used  as  spices  or  for  flavoring  purposes, 
for  which  no  definite  standards  are  given,  while  the  United  States 
Government  has  adopted  exact  standards  relating  to  the  quality  of 
these  products.  This,  the  speaker  said,  emphasized  the  desirability 
of  the  revisers  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  taking  advantage  of  scientific 
investigations  pertaining  to  every  official  product,  and  of  fixing  high 
standards  for  them.  Professor  Kraemer  demonstrated  the  histologi- 
cal structure  of  the  pepper  fruit  by  means  of  blackboard  drawings, 
at  the  same  time  calling  attention  to  the  microscopical  characters 
