Amoc°tu,ri8?9arm'}    British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  527 
an  active  drug.  In  support  of  his  position  Mr.  Proctor  stated  that  alcohol  is 
in  this  case  an  unsuitable  menstruum  and  that,  in  fact,  he  had  taken  the  recti- 
fied spirit  extract  from  half  an  ounce  of  senna  leaves  without  producing  any 
effect ;  but  that  a  draught  made  from  the  senna  marc  that  had  been  already- 
extracted  with  rectified  spirit  produced  pretty  strong  catharsis  with  griping. 
In  respect  to  proof  spirit,  Mr.  Proctor  said  that  he  had  taken  an  ounce  of  the 
official  tincture  of  senna  without  any  effect,  and  pleaded  his  temperance  prin- 
ciples as  a  reason  for  not  taking  the  quantity  that  would  be  required  to  produce 
results  beyond  those  due  to  alcohol.  In  the  discussion  that  followed  Mr. 
Gerrard  pointed  out  the  desirability  that  the  Pharmacopoeia  should  include  a 
greater  variety  in  the  strength  of  alcohol,  a  suggestion  that  was  endorsed  by 
other  speakers. 
On  Papain  and  Pepsin. — Mr.  A.  Ball  described  the  results  obtained  in  some 
comparative  experiments  with  commercial  samples  of  papain  and  pepsin. 
From  these  it  appeared  that  the  papains  examined  by  him  were  far  inferior  to 
the  pepsins  in  digestive  power  and  that  in  addition  the  peptone  formed  by 
papain  was  deficient  in  diffusive  properties  Mr.  Ball  criticized  sharply  the 
official  test  requiring  that  two  grains  of  pepsin  should  be  equal  to  the  digestion 
of  only  one  hundred  grains  of  albumen,  whereas  he  had  found  that  "one  grain 
of  the  best  pepsins  in  the  market  will  digest  five  hundred  to  fifteen  hundred 
grains  when  subjected  to  the  prescribed  test,"  and  he  commended  "some  in- 
telligent pharmacists  "  who,  when  pepsin  is  ordered,  dispense  the  pepsin  guar- 
anteed pure  and  free  from  any  admixture.  In  the  discussion  that  followed  the 
pertinent  question  was  raised  as  to  how  much  albumen  the  pepsins  for  which 
greater  activity  was  claimed  would  digest  when  tested  strictly  under  B.  P.  con- 
ditions. But  this  point  Mr.  Ball  did  not  appear  to  appreciate  ;  at  any  rate  the 
question  remained  unanswered. 
The  Solubility  of  Glass. — A  paragraph  that  appeared  in  The  Month  (p.  163), 
relative  to  the  coloration  of  some  chloral  hydrate  by  pigment  derived  from  the 
bottle,  gave  Mr.  Eeynolds  the  opportunity  for  the  next  paper,  in  which  he  sug- 
gested that  the  question  as  to  whether  and  how  far  glass  bottles  are  soluble  was 
one  worthy  of  further  investigation.  As  a  contribution  to  the  subject  from 
personal  experience,  he  mentioned  that  a  solution  of  1  in  10,000  of  hydrochlo- 
ric acid  in  water,  which  when  freshly  made  gave  a  distinct  reaction  with  congo 
paper,  failed  to  do  so  after  being  kept  a  day  in  a  flint  glass  bottle.  This  result 
he  was  inclined  to  refer  to  the  chemical  interference  of  the  bottle  with  its  con- 
tents. Other  instances  were  mentioned  in  the  discussion,  and  Dr.  Thresh 
referred  to  an  observation  that  a  ''rainfall"  which  when  collected  on  litmus 
paper,  he  had  found  to  be  invariably  acid,  was  either  neutral  or  faintly  alkaline 
when  collected  in  a  bottle. 
Extract  of  Stramonium. — A  practical  note  by  Mr.  A.  W.  Gerrard.  It  was  the 
record  of  an  observation,  made  in  an  emergency,  that  in  the  preparation  of 
extract  of  stramonium  the  preliminary  percolation  of  the  seeds  by  ether 
might  be  omitted.  He  found  that  when  the  seeds  were  exhausted  with  hot 
proof  spirit  the  resulting  tincture  yielded  on  evaporation  a  satisfactory  extract 
containing  vpry  little  fixed  oil,  which,  if  desired,  could  be  removed  by  washing 
with  a  little  ether. 
Ferri  et  Ammonii  Citras. — The  next  paper,  by  Mr.  B.  S.  Proctor,  had  its  origin 
in  the  observation  of  changes  that  took  place  in  mixtures  containing  ferri  et 
