5§4  Progress  in  Pharmacy.  { ADecJember!  im' 
The  recommendations  of  the  Brussels  Convention  for  the  unifica- 
tion of  potent  remedies  were  unanimously  adopted. 
To  obviate  any  possible  conflict  with  manufacturers  or  owners  of 
patents  on  synthetic  chemicals,  it  was  proposed  to  omit  the  publica- 
tion of  trade  names  of  patented  or  registered  preparations  as  syno- 
nyms, but  to  include  instead  the  following  phrase:  "  The  above 
described    substance   is   chemically   identical  with    that  known 
as  ."    It  was  also  agreed  to  retain  the  names  of  authors  of 
plant  species ;  to  designate  the  allowable  ash  of  organic  drugs,  and 
to  give  the  solubility  of  chemicals  in  as  nearly  as  possible  exact 
figures. 
The  seventy-sixth  annual  meeting  of  the  German  Naturalists  and 
Physicians  was  held  in  Breslau  from  the  18th  to  24th  of  September, 
and  was,  as  usual,  well  attended.  The  meetings  of  the  section 
on  Pharmacy  and  Pharmacognosy  were  held  in  the  hall  of  the  Phar- 
maceutical Institute,  and  were  presided  over  by  Professor  Gademer, 
the  present  director  of  the  Institute. 
Among  the  papers  presented  was  one  on  "  Matico  Oil  and  Matico 
Camphor,"  by  Processor  Thorns,  of  Steglitz,  who  reported  on  the 
examination  of  a  sample  of  matico  oil  that  had  been  distilled  from 
genuine  matico  leaves  derived  from  Piper  Angustifolium  Ruiz  et 
Pav.  This  oil  on  standing  separated  out  a  mass  of  crystals  that  on 
closer  examination  proved  to  be  identical  with  asaron,  the  total  was 
estimated  as  being  in  the  neighborhood  of  10  per  cent.  Former 
samples  of  oil  of  matico  that  had  been  examined  contained  apiol ; 
this  did  not.  Other  physical  characteristics  of  the  oil  were  also 
quite  different  in  this  particular  specimen.  (Slid.  Deut.  Apoth.  Zeit 'g, 
1904,  page  678.) 
German  Opium. — Professor  Thorns,  in  another  paper,  reviewed 
the  experiments  that  had  been  made  to  produce  opium  in  Germany, 
and  then  gave  some  interesting  details  of  an  experiment  that  he 
had  conducted  during  the  past  summer.  From  white-seed  poppy 
he  was  able  to  obtain  an  average  of  1-27  grams  of  air-dry  opium 
from  IOO  poppy  heads ;  this  opium  was  found  to  contain  6-6  per 
cent,  of  morphine  corresponding  very  closely  to  what  Biltz  had 
found  in  1829  (6-85  per  cent.).  From  these  figures  it  would  require 
80,000  poppy  heads,  or  the  double  scarification  of  40,000,  for  I  kilo 
of  opium.    {Phar.  Zeit.,  September,  1904,  page  812.) 
Tin  Plague  or  Tin  Disease. — Dr.  Hamburger  called  attention  to 
