378  Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Aswciations.  { '^"'july'iSr™' 
An  essay  on  The  Therapeutic  Pi^operties  of  Hhamiius  purshiana  was- 
read  by  Dr.  L.  Wolff',  of  Philadelphia,  The  conclusions  arrived  at  are  that 
cascara  sagrada  is,  in  moderate  doses,  a  useful  mild  laxative  of  some  chola- 
gogue  action,  and  in  larger  doses  decidedly  cathartic,  and  that  an  addition, 
of  mandrake  or  other  substances,  with  the  view  of  increasing  its  cathartic 
action,  seems  totally  superfluous. 
An  excellent  and  thoroughly  digested  paper  on  The  Effect  of  the  Whole- 
sale Manyfacture  of  Pharmaceutical  Preparations  upon  the  Proper  Edu- 
cation and  Training  of  the  Pharmacists  of  the  Future  was  read  by  Mr. 
William  L.  Turner,  of  Philadelphia.  While  giving  full  credit  to  the  skill 
manifested  by  many,  and  in  some  rare  instances  the  high  degree  of  merit 
attained,  yet  it  is  antagonistic  to  the  best  interests  of  pharmacy,  present 
and  future,  and  should  be  discountenanced  and  discouraged  by  individual 
enterprise  and  associated  effort  as  an  insidions  enemy,  whose  gradual 
approach  and  close  environnjent  will  nltimately  reduce  what  we  now 
regard  and  take  pride  in,  as  a  profession,  to  a  subordinate  trade,  a  petty 
traffic. 
Equally  interesting  and  exluiustive  was  the  discourse  on  The  Proper 
Training  of  A2y2^rentices  by  Mr.  William  B.  Thompson,  of  Philadelphia. 
It  is  impossible  to  give  an  abstract  of  the  arguments  and  propositions,  of 
the  character  of  which,  however,  a  fair  conception  may  be  formed  from 
the  following  closing  sentences:  "It  doubtless  is,  in  many  instances,  for 
the  want  of  the  personal  interest  and  the  kind  of  training  that  we  have 
endeavored  to  indicate,  that  so  many  young  men,  assuming  to  be  druggists,, 
are  found  so  illy  qualified  lor  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  their  call- 
ing ;  this  class  drift  aimlessly  over  our  country  and,  after  a  restless  moving 
from  place  to  j^lace,  settle  finally  down  into  low-rate  positions  as  confirmed 
underlings,  preferring  to  lead  a  life  of  ennui  before  the  counter,  rather  than, 
a  useful  one  of  activity  behind  it.  The  world  is  apt  to  form  its  estimate  of 
a  man  by  his  success  ;  the  elements  of  character  needed  to  i^roduce  such 
results  are  numerous  ;  they  are  seldom  if  ever  born  in  man  ;  they  are  rather 
determined  by  the  circumstances  which  surround  him  and  by  energy. 
Give  the  circumstances  the  most  favorable  oi)23ortunities,  and  give  to  this, 
energy  the  help  it  needs  at  times  to  stimulate  and  encourage  it,  and  the 
rising  generation  of  our  profession  will  possess  the  way  to  a  successful 
future  and  mark  the  path  with  brilliant  achievements," 
Mr.  Charles  T.  George  read  a  paper  on  The  Comparative  Value  of  Com- 
mercicd  Extracts  of  Beef.    The  results  obtained  were  as  follows  :  ^ 
1  Dr.  B.  C.  Niederstadt  reports,  in  Archiv  d.  Phar.,  1881,  March,  p.  19G,  the  followiag  results  with 
Johnston's  tiuid  beef  (7  analyses)      and  with  the        Fray  Bentos  extract  (10  analyses): 
44-OU  per  cent,  watei-,  13'2  — 29'2  per  cent,  water, 
5-8  —  7"2  percent,  nitrogen,  200 —  904  jier  cent,  nitrogen, 
24    — 28"25  per  cent,  proteids  insoluble  in  alcohol         49"5  — f;8'7  per  cent,  organic  substance, 
(albumin,  etc.}, 
22    — 2  *     per  cent,  extract  soluble  in  alcohol,  r)0"7  per  cent,  extract  soluble  in  alcohol,. 
9"2  — 10'34per  cent,  ash,  containing  10"5  — 21'4  per  cent,  ash,  containing 
32  5— 34'0  per  cent,  potassa,  30'1 — 32'5  per  cent,  potassa, 
21-0 — 23  3  per  cent,  phosphoi  ic  acid.  36-5 — 38*0  per  cent,  phosphoiic  acid. 
The  smaller  amount  of  nitrogen  and  the  larger  amount  of  water  in  Johnston's  preparation  are  about 
compensated  for  by  the  presence  of  the  proteids  and  compounds  directly  nutritive. 
