96 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
i  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I    February,  1904. 
as  well  as  those  relating  to  his  own  specialty,  that  of  making  in- 
struments of  precision  for  chemical,  pharmaceutical  and  medical 
work. 
The  subject  of  clinical  thermometers  was  brought  up  by  Mr. 
Boring,  who  said  that  many  persons  had  an  impression  that  a  two- 
minute  thermometer  was  not  reliable,  because  they  do  not  give 
it  time  to  respond.  In  reply  to  Dr.  Lowe,  Mr.  Pile  said  that 
the  one-minute  thermometers  were  of  thinner  glass,  and  there- 
fore conducted  the  heat  more  rapidly.  Mr.  Pile  said  that  owing  to 
the  variation  in  thermometers,  particularly  those  used  for  clinical 
purposes,  the  Government  at  Washington  had  asked  all  manufac- 
turers to  send  their  standards  for  comparison,  as  there  is  considerable 
difference  in  the  expansion  of  different  kinds  of  glass  as  well  as  a 
difference  of  expansion  of  mercury  and  glass.  In  this  connection, 
Mr.  Wilbert  stated  that  the  Bureau  of  Standards  at  Washington 
offer  to  standardize  clinical  thermometers  for  pharmacists  at  the  rate 
of  six  for  twenty-five  cents  each,  and  that  the  work  is  quite  accurate. 
On  motion  of  Mr.  Wiegand,  a  special  vote  of  thanks  was  tendered 
Mr.  Pile  for  his  paper  and  the  apparatus  which  he  presented. 
A  paper  on  "  Some  Rare  Fixed  Oils,"  by  Dr.  George  R.  Pancoast 
and  Willard  Graham  (see  page  70),  was  presented  by  Mr.  Graham. 
In  the  discussion  of  this  paper  Mr.  Boring  asked  if  oils  of  the 
various  nuts  were  articles  of  commerce,  to  which  Mr.  Graham 
replied  that  they  were  but  were  not  easily  obtainable.  Mr.  Boring 
also  spoke  of  an  early  experience  of  his  in  making  fluid  extract  of 
ergot.  He  said  that  he  followed  the  U.S.P.  directions  and  packed 
the  drug  very  thoroughly  in  the  percolator  and  obtained  at  first  a 
colorless  liquid  which  was  the  oil  of  ergot.  He  also  stated  that 
they  used  to  powder  the  ergot  in  cold  weather.  Dr.  Lowe  called  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  the  German  Pharmacopoeia  directs  the  oil  of 
ergot  to  be  extracted  from  the  drug  before  using  it.  Mr.  Wiegand 
called  attention  to  some  experiments  that  were  made  by  the  late 
Mr.  Charles  Bullock  on  the  oil  of  nux  vomica  and  said  that  the  oil 
gave  the  alkaloidal  reactions. 
Mr.  Wilbert  read  a  paper  on  "  Lime  Water  "  (see  page  66)  and 
exhibited  some  specimens  of  commercial  oyster-shell  lime.  Mr. 
Boring  said  that  if  he  was  not  mistaken  Professor  Procter  recom- 
mended the  filtering  of  lime  water.  Mr.  Wiegand  said  that  his 
custom  had  been  to  remove  the  lime  water  by  means  of  a  syphon, 
