n8 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\    February,  1897. 
La  Composition  des  Peptones  de  Viande.  Par  A.  Denaeyer.  A  com- 
munication to  the  second  International  Congress  of  Applied  Chemistry  at 
Paris.    1896.    Reprinted  from  A nnales  de  Pharmacie. 
Prospectus  of  the  Twenty-fifth  Annual  Session  of  the  California 
College  of  Pharmacy.    Session  of  1897. 
MINUTES  OF  THE  PHARMACEUTICAL  MEETING. 
Philadelphia,  January  20,  1897. 
The  regular  Pharmaceutical  Meeting  was  held  in  the  Museum  of  the  College. 
Mr.  J.  W.  England  was  chairman.  The  minutes  of  the  previous  meeting  were 
allowed  to  stand  as  published. 
Professor  Trimble  called  attention  to  a  sample  of  the  genuine  kino  of  Euca- 
lyptus rostrata,  which  had  been  sent  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Maiden,  of  Sydney,  New 
South  Wales  ;  also  to  a  sample  of  Texas  rhatany  Kramerie  secundiflora,  which 
was  collected  in  Mexico  and  presented  by  Prof.  Alfonso  Herrera  ;  and  also  to 
some  specimens  of  cultivated  canaigre  root,  which  were  grown  in  California 
and  were  unusually  large. 
Mr.  Lyman  F.  Kebler  read  a  paper  on  the  "Volumetric  Estimation  of 
Acetone"  (see  p.  65),  which  was  considered  to  be  particularly  opportune, 
inasmuch  as  the  various  applications  of  acetone  as  a  solvent  have  only  just 
begun. 
The  author  stated  that  the  methods  for  estimating  the  percentage  of  acetone 
were  not  yet  perfected,  and  that  only  the  amount  of  iodoform  producing 
bodies  could  be  determined  in  the  commercial  product. 
Mr.  Edward  T.  Hahn  read  a  paper  on  "  Terpin  Hydrate  "  (see  p.  73),  and 
said  that  his  experiments  had  been  made  with  a  view  of  producing  the  crystals 
of  this  substance,  rather  than  studying  its  therapeutic  properties,  or  of  deter- 
mining its  ultimate  composition.  Samples  which  had  been  made  with  ethyl 
alcohol  and  also  with  methyl  alcohol  accompanied  the  paper. 
After  the  reading  of  the  papers,  an  interesting  discussion  on  the  subject  of 
the  manufacture  of  some  galenicals  from  fluid  extracts  ensued,  and  was  par- 
ticipated in  by  Mr.  Kebler,  Mr.  England,  Professor  Remington  and  others. 
The  question  was  introduced  at  the  December  meeting  by  Mr.  Kebler,  but  was 
deferred  on  account  of  lack  of  time,  and  in  the  meantime  he  received  letters 
on  the  subject  from  Dr.  E.  R.  Squibb  (see  p.  98),  Dr.  Chas.  Rice  (see  p.  99)  and 
Prof.  J.  U.  Lloyd  (see  p.  102). 
Mr.  Kebler  prefaced  his  remarks  by  saying  that  the  commercial  aspect  of  the 
question  could  not  be  taken  into  consideration  ;  that  human  life  was  too  valua- 
ble for  this  phase  of  the  subject  to  merit  any  attention  in  this  connection. 
He  said  in  considering  the  merits  and  demerits  of  the  main  subject  that 
"  when  it  comes  to  the  question  of  making  infusions  from  the  fluid  extracts, 
it  must  be  admitted,  on  the  one  hand,  that  it  is  wrong  in  many  cases,  in  the 
light  of  our  present  knowledge  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  remains  to  be 
demonstrated  that  an  infusion  made  from  a  fluid  extract  is  less  active,  thera- 
peutically, than  one  from  the  drug  direct.  In  some  cases  an  aqueous  menstuum 
will  educe  active  constituents  that  are  insoluble  in  alcoholic  solutions  and  vice 
