Am'oc0tu'i8S9.arm'}    British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  529 
demand  the  formula  of  the  "  Extra  Pharmacopoeia  '  should  be  followed,  re- 
ducing the  quantity  of  sugar  (37*5  per  cent.)  10  per  cent.  Mr.  Cbgue  also 
expressed  regret  that  there  should  have  been  introduced  into  the  B.  P.  C. 
Unofficial  Formulary  a  preparation  bearing  the  same  name  as  East  on  gave  to 
his  syrup,  though  only  containing  three-fourths  as  much  quinine  phosphate. 
In  commenting  upon  the  paper,  the  President  said  he  felt  inclined  to  attribute 
the  present  relatively  frequent  occurrence  of  solidification  in  such  syrups  to 
cane  sugar  having  been  displaced  in  the  market  by  beet  sugar. 
Nitrous  Vitriol  and  Aerated  Waters. — The  note  of  Mr.  Pattinson  on  the  effect 
of  using  vitriol  containing  a  nitrous  contamination, in  the  manufacture  of  cer- 
tain aerated  waters,  although  having  a  valuable  practical  application,  contained 
nothing  that  had  not  been  published  before.  It  was  to  the  effect  that  the 
author  had  traced  an  opalescence  in  a  sample  of  ginger  ale  to  the  action  of  a 
nitrous  impurity  derived  from  the  vitriol  used  for  generating  carbonic  acid 
upon  the  ginger  essence,  the  color  of  which  it  eventually  discharged.  The  same 
subject  was  brought  before  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  at  an  evening  meeting 
in  March,  1885  (Pharm.  Journ.,  [3],  xv,  731),  when  Mr.  Naylor  recorded  the 
much  more  important  observation  that  [the  nitrous  impurity  is  also  capable  of 
rapidly  destroying  the  pungency  of  both  ginger  essence  and  capsaicin. 
Standardized  Ipecacuanha  Preparations. — The  standardization  of  the  fluid  ex- 
tract and  wine  of  ipecacuanha  was  the  subject  of  the  next  paper  read,  wiiich 
was  the  joint  production  of  Mr.  J.  0.  Braithwaite  and  Mr.  J.  C.  TJmney. 
For  th^ir  experiments,  the  authors  had  used  a  root  estimated  to  contain  1*32 
per  cent,  of  emetine,  and  the  menstruum  selected  as  giving  the  best  results 
was  rectified  spirit.  An  extract  was  obtained,  which  estimated  by  a  modifi- 
cation of  Ransom's  process  yielded  1*28  per  cent,  of  alkaloid.  It  is  therefore 
proposed  that  a  standard  extract,  prepared  by  a  process  consisting  essentially 
of  a  first  maceration  and  percolation  with  spirit,  and  then  after  addition  of 
slaked  lime  to  the  mark,  of  a  second  maceration  and  percolation  with  spirit, 
should  be  so  adjusted  in  strength  that  100  fluid  parts  should  contain  T25  parts 
by  weight  of  emetine.  From  this  it  is  proposed  to  prepare  a  standardized 
wine  by  dissolving  one  fluid  part  of  the  extract  in  sufficient  sherry  wine  to 
produce  twenty  fluid  parts. 
Ipecacuanha  Wine. — Finding  that  the  modified  Ransom  process  of  assay  re- 
ferred to  in  the  previous  paper  could  be  applied  directly  to  the  wine,  Messrs. 
Braithwaite  and  Umney  made  some  experiments  as  to  the  effect  of  the  condi- 
tions obtaining  in  the  official  process  for  ipecacuanha  wine  in  the  amount  of 
alkaloid  present  in  the  finished  preparation.  From  their  results  they  conclude 
that  the  present  official  process  extracts  practically  all  the  alkaloid  from  the 
root,  but  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  it  is  afterwards  lost  in  the  drying 
and  powdering  of  the  acetic  extract,  so  that  the  wine  produced  is  far  inferior  in 
relative  alkaloid  strength  to  the  root  from  which  it  is  prepared.  They  further 
express  the  opinion  that  the  wine  of  the  present  Pharmacopoeia,  although  a 
more  elegant  preparation  than  that  of  the  B.  P.,  1867,  is  considerably  inferior 
to  it  in  its  chief  therapeutic  ingredient.  Samples  of  the  preparations  referred 
to  in  this  and  the  preceding  paper  were  shown,  and  the  authors  were  strongly 
complimented  on  their  contribution  towards  the  solution  of  a  troublesome 
problem. 
Assay  of  Ipecacuanha  Wine. — In  another  contribution  to  the  literature  of 
