3o8 
PJiarmaceutical  Meeting. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1902. 
(myoserum),  tetranitrol  (tetranitrate  of  erythrite)  and  vasoliments. 
Under  many  of  the  medicaments  is  given  information  concerning 
their  preparation,  properties,  therapeutics,  pharmacology  and  doses. 
The  work  is  well  done  and  will  be  appreciated,  especially  on  account 
of  the  treatment  of  the  glycerophosphates  and  allied  compounds. 
PHARMACEUTICAL  MEETING. 
The  last  of  the  series  of  Pharmaceutical  Meetings  of  the  Philadel- 
phia College  of  Pharmacy  for  1901-1902  was  held  on  Tuesday, 
May  20th.  Mr.  Wallace  Procter,  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees, presided. 
The  first  paper  announced  on  the  program  was  on  "  The  New 
Contact  Method  for  the  Manufacture  of  Sulphuric  Acid,"  by  Prof. 
Samuel  P.  Sadtler  (see  page  285),  in  which  he  referred  to  the  reac- 
tions involved  in  the  lead  chamber  process,  and  said  that  in  this  new 
process  the  reactions  are  fundamentally  the  same,  the  principal 
difference  in  the  process  being  that  the  gaseous  carrier  of  oxygen  is 
replaced  by  a  solid  contact  material,  which  by  its  catalytic  action 
changes  the  sulphur  dioxide  to  the  trioxide. 
The  next  paper  was  on  "The  History  and  Commerce  of  Coffee," 
by  William  B.  Marshall,  formerly  Curator  of  the  Philadelphia 
Commercial  Museums.  In  the  discussion  which  followed  the 
reading  of  this  paper  Dr.  Miller  said  that  perhaps  the  Moham- 
medans were  the  most  inveterate  drinkers  of  coffee,  and  that  they 
simply  added  hot  water  to  the  pounded  and  roasted  coffee,  and 
then  drank  dregs  and  all.  He  said  that  Mohammed  forbade  the 
use  of  alcoholic  stimulants  of  any  kind,  and  while  his  teachings  are 
not  strictly  followed  by  the  higher  classes,  still  the  Bedouins  and 
lower  classes  are  still  abstemious  in  their  habits.  Some  of  them 
have  taken  kindly  to  coffee,  hashish  and  opium,  and  of  these  coffee 
seems  to  be  the  least  harmful,  although  when  first  introduced  it  was 
placed  under  a  religious  ban. 
Dr.  Lowe  said  that  while  coffee  could  not  be  looked  upon  as  a 
food,  it  was  a  stimulant  of  considerable  advantage,  and  that  he 
thought  the  better  it  was  clarified  the  less  harmful  it  was.  Mr.  Mar- 
shall further  said  that  few  people  could  be  said  to  be  addicted  to  the 
coffee  habit  as  to  alcoholic  stimulants,  and  that  among  life  insurance 
companies  the  use  of  coffee  was  not  given  any  consideration  except 
