ANovemberfi™'}      British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  569 
The  president  expressed  the  gratitude  of  the  conference  for  the 
kind  words  of  welcome. 
Address  by  the  President,  Mr.  G.  Claridge  Druce,  Hon.  M.  A. 
Oxford.  This  was  devoted  to  an  interesting  review  of  the  history 
and  development  of  Scottish  botany.  After  recounting  the  work 
of  the  early  Scotch  botanists  he  devoted  considerable  time  to  a  plea 
for  the  proper  recognition  of  the  work  done  by  George  Don  (1764- 
1814).  The  speaker  mentioned  the  names  of,  and  the  work  done 
by,  a  number  of  botanists  that  have  contributed  materially  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  fauna  and  flora  of  Scotland.  After  which  he 
enumerated  a  number  of  species  peculiar  to  Scotland,  giving  some 
suggestions  as  to  their  probable  origin.  In  concluding,  Mr.  Druce 
deplored  the  fact  that  field  botany  had  lost  much  of  its  old-time 
interest  for  the  apothecary,  but  expressed  the  hope  that  in  coming 
years  an  increasing  number  of  pharmacists  would  again  devote  some 
of  their  leisure  hours  to  this  interesting  science,  and  by  recording 
such  facts  as  nature  may  reveal  to  them,  do  something  to  explore 
at  least  a  small  portion  of  that  vast  forest  of  the  unknown  by  which 
we  are  still  surrounded. 
After  the  reading  of  a  cablegram  from  Professor  Remington,  who 
sent  "Hearty  Greetings,"  and  the  subsequent  transaction  of  routine 
business,  including  reports  of  committees, 
The  Formulary  Committee  Report  was  submitted  by  Mr.  N.  H. 
Martin,  who  said  that  a  steady  demand  for  the  new  edition  of  the 
formulary  had  been  maintained.  This  would  indicate  that  the 
number  of  prescribers  who  accepted  the  B.P.C.  formulary  as  the 
standard  for  the  preparations  contained  in  it  were  on  the  increase. 
The  reading  of  the  papers  was  then  proceeded  with,  the  first  one 
being : 
Alkaloidal  Stability  of  Certain  Standard  Preparations  of  the  Phar- 
macopoeia.— W.  A.  Naylor,  F.I.C.,  F.C.S.,  and  C.  Huxtable,  demon- 
strate that  there  is  a  steady,  though  slow,  depreciation  in  alkaloidal 
value  of  standardized  galenical  preparations.  Of  the  five  prepara- 
tions that  were  assayed  every  month  for  nine  months,  the  loss  varies 
from  5-66  per  cent,  for  liquid  extract  of  ipecacuanha  to  133  per 
cent,  for  liquid  extract  of  nux  vomica. 
Standardized  Tinctures  and  Ipecacuanha  Wine  of  the  B.P. — E.  H. 
Farr,  F.C.S.,  and  R.  Wright,  F.C.S.,  give  the  results  of  a  study  of 
a  number  of  commercial  samples  of  tinctures  and  wine  of  ipecacu- 
