Am.  Jour.  Pbariii. 
November,  1908 
British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  523 
Phases  of  Pharmacy  in  Scotland — An  Historical  Sketch. 
By  J.  P.  Gilmour. 
This  paper  gives  a  very  interesting  account  of  the  beginning  and 
growth  of  pharmacy  in  North  Britain,  and  could  well  be  used  as  a 
model  for  a  historical  contribution  to  the  Historical  section  of  the 
A.  Ph.  A.  Every  one  present  agreed  that  it  was  the  best  paper  of 
the  series. 
Note  on  the  Strychnine  Standard  for  Galenical  Prepara- 
tions of  Nux  Vomica. 
By  Robert  Wright. 
The  writer  showed  that  a  strychnine  standard  for  nux  vomica 
preparations  is  preferable  to  one  of  total  alkaloid.  Work  on  the  rela- 
tive toxicity  of  the  two  alkaloids,  strychnine  and  brucine,  was  carried 
out  and  the  results  of  the  experiments  seem  to  indicate  a  marked 
difference  between  the  two,  so  much  so,  in  fact,  as  to  make  it  inad- 
visable to  express  the  clinical  value  of  one  alkaloid  in  terms  of  the 
other. 
Notes  on  the  Action  of  Brucine. 
By  W.  Dixon  and  W.  H.  Harvey. 
Brucine  is  generally  regarded  as  having  an  action  similar  to  that 
of  strychnine  and  for  this  reason  it  has  not  been  regarded  of  serious 
moment  that  galenical  preparations  of  nux  vomica  should  contain 
variable  amounts  of  brucine,  first,  because  its  action  is  of  the  same 
nature  as  strychnine,  and  second,  because  its  toxicity  is  SO'  much  less, 
being  as  33  to  4.  Mr.  Wright  made  some  pure  brucine  which  the 
authors  used  on  mammals  and  found  it  to  act  more  like  methyl- 
strychnine  than  strychnine. 
The  Characters  of  Official  Iron  Arsenate. 
By  F.  B.  Power  and  H.  Rogerson. 
The  authors  gave  methods  for  making  and  testing  this  salt,  and 
showed  that  the  amount  of  ferrous  iron  contained  in  a  specimen  of 
iron  arsenate  prepared  according  to  the  directions  of  the  B.  P. — 
namely  7.1 1  per  cent. — would  correspond  to  18.9  per  cent,  of  anhy- 
drous ferrous  arsenate,  the  Pharmacopoeia  test  requiring  nearly 
10  per  cent. 
