September ,hi897°'}    American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  485 
desired  to  estimate  the  alkaloids  of  this  compound,  1  gramme  of  "kolanin," 
1  gramme  of  calcium  hydroxide,  and  3  grammes  of  chalk,  -with  a  little  70  per 
cent,  alcohol,  are  mixed  together,  and  evaporated  on  the  water-bath  to  about  6 
grammes  and  extracted  with  alcoholic  chloroform  in  the  manner  already 
described.  The  objections  to  this  method  are  in  part  among  those  already 
mentioned  in  the  discussion  of  Jean's  method.  The  use  of  lime  or  other  alka- 
lies in  the  assay  of  a  caffein-bearing  drug  is  to  be  deprecated.  The  solvent 
used  is  not  a  proper  one,  for  the  reason  that  sufficient  alcohol  is  present  to 
extract  other  constituents,  in  addition  to  the  alkaloids,  which  are  not  removed 
from  caffein  during  the  subsequent  treatment  of  the  residue,  and  which  when 
weighed  with  the  caffein  lead  to  erroneous  results.  Moreover,  the  manner  of 
applying  the  menstruum  is  inconvenient,  does  not  insure  complete  extrac- 
tion, and  is  in  no  way  preferable  to  the  ordinary  extraction  by  the  use  of 
Soxhlet's  apparatus.  The  addition  of  the  sulphuric  acid  is  unneces- 
sary, and  does  not  add  to  the  purity  of  the  final  product,  which  is  dark-colored 
and  very  plainly  impure.  The  objection  to  weighing  a  final  residue  as  caffein 
finds  especial  application  in  this  method.  As  the  properties  of  caffein  kola- 
tannate  had  not  been  made  known  very  generally  at  the  time  of  publication  of 
these  methods,  there  is  some  excuse  for  the  assumption  of  both  these  writers, 
that  it  is  wholly  insoluble.  Carles  has  proceeded  on  this  hypothesis,  in  direct- 
ing the  drug  to  be  extracted  with  cold  water,  to  remove  the  water-soluble  con- 
stituents before  exhausting  it  with  alcohol  to  remove  the  caffein  compound  ; 
but  inasmuch  as  caffein  kolatannate  is  not  only  somewhat  soluble  in  water,  but 
considerably  more  soluble  in  solutions  of  caffein  and  of  tannin,  the  extraction 
of  kola  by  water  will  remove  a  considerable  amount  of  it.  The  same  is  to  be 
said  of  the  final  washing  of  the  caffein  compound  with  water,  which  is  quite 
inadmissible  in  quantitative  work.  Carles  seems  to  have  recognized  the  uncer- 
tain value  of  gravimetric  determinations  of  caffein  kolatannate,  and  is  to  be 
commended  for  offering  an  alternate  method  providing  for  its  valuation 
according  to  the  amount  of  its  alkaloids.  Both  methods  give  very  low  results 
as  compared  with  those  obtained  by  the  method  proposed  at  the  meeting  last 
year  by  the  authors.  The  paper  was  received  and  referred  to  the  Publication 
Committee.  During  the  discussion  that  followed,  Prof.  Kremers  referred  to 
a  late  contribution  to  the  knowledge  of  the  tannin  of  coffee  by  Kuntz-Krause, 
in  which  caffetannic  acid  is  said  to  be  a  glucoside. 
The  subject  of  the  next  paper  was  : 
WHY  A  PHARMACIST  SHOULD  BH  A  BACTERIOLOGIST. 
By  O.  W.  Krueger. 
He  said  because  physicians  are  employing  bacteriology  more  and  more  as  a 
means  in  determining  the  nature  of  diseases  and  the  selection  of  proper  reme- 
dies, and  because  they  do  not  possess  the  required  laboratories  and  apparatus 
which  the  pharmacist  should  always  have  ;  therefore,  and  in  order  to  be  an 
up-to-date  co-worker  with  an  up-to-date  physician,  a  pharmacist  should  be  a 
bacteriologist. 
The  paper  was  discussed  by  Messrs.  Whelpley,  Alpers,  Prescott  and  Hall- 
berg.  It  was  received  and  referred  to  the  Publication  Committee.  Then  fol- 
lowed the  report  of  Professor  Kremers,  a  member  of  the  Special  Research 
Committee,  on  the  volatile  oils  which  were  considered  last  year  in  the  report 
