354 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
A.m.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1908. 
many  years  by  Squibb,  Rice  and  others,  and  that  experiments 
showed  that  in  the  diluted  fluidextracts,  precipitation  occurs  and 
carries  down  the  active  ingredients. 
Mr.  Ambrose  Hunsberger  pointed  out  that  certain  manufacturers 
give  the  alkaloidal  strength  of  powdered  drugs. 
A  conjoint  paper  on  "  A  Chemical  and  Microscopical  Examination 
of  Commercial  Ginger,"  by  Prof.  Henry  Kraemer  and  Mr.  Harry  E. 
Sindall,  was  presented  in  abstract  (see  p.  303). 
Mr.  Sindall  stated  that  Circular  13,  issued  by  the  Government, 
permitted  a  yield  of  8  per  cent,  of  ash  in  ginger;  but  in  Circular  19 
the  allowable  percentage  of  ash  was  reduced  to  6,  which  latter 
standard  excludes  Calcutta  ginger.  He  stated  that  of  eleven  com- 
mercial samples  which  he  examined,  only  one  yielded  less  than 
6  per  cent,  of  ash,  and  this  sample  was  found  to  be  adulterated. 
Professor  Kraemer  stated  that  he  would  not  attempt  a  resume  of 
his  work  on  ginger  in  the  time  at  his  command,  but  desired  to  refer 
to  one  or  two  points  only. 
Mr.  Hunsberger  presented  to  the  College  an  old-fashioned  brass 
hand  prescription  scale,  and  a  spring  lance  formerly  used  by  phar- 
macists as  well  as  by  physicians  for  bleeding  their  patients  and  for 
lancing  ulcers. 
J.  N.  Limbert  &  Co.  exhibited  a  cutting  of  Vanilla  planifolia  re- 
cently received  from  Mexico,  bearing  a  young  green  vanilla  pod. 
Dr.  J.  Henry  Allen,  of  Savannah,  Ga.,  presented  a  hand  prescrip- 
tion balance  used  a  century  ago  in  the  South.  The  balance  is  a  fine 
one  and  has  been  carefully  kept. 
Professor  Kraemer  exhibited  a  specimen  belonging  to  the  College 
collection,  which  he  said  appeared  to  be  very  rare  indeed,  namely, 
a  clustered  or  multiseriate  ovulate  cone  of  probably  Pinus  rigida. 
He  said  that  he  had  become  interested  in  the  specimen  through 
reading  a  recent  article  by  Wieland,  in  the  American  Journal  of 
Science  (Vol.  25,  page  102).  Instead  of  the  usual'  cluster  of  up  to 
half  a  dozen  cones,  this  compound  cone  consists  of  about  fifty  cones, 
and  according  to  Wieland,  there  are  only  four  other  known  speci- 
mens, viz.,  one  found  in  the  Silliman  collection  at  Harvard  University, 
and  three  in  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  Paris.  These  compound  cones 
are  considered  to  represent  a  primitive  type,  and  are  of  interest 
more  especially  to  the  student  of  evolution. 
Florence  Yaple,  Secretary  pro  tern. 
