^^oct^^m^^^^  }     American  Phmmaceutioal  Association.  521 
The  delegation  of  the  Illinois  Pharmaceutical  Association  presented 
credentials  and  was  admitted.  Invitations  for  holding  the  next  Annual 
Meeting  were  received  from  San  Francisco,  New  Orleans,  Atlantic  City, 
Cincinnati,  and  Washington,  and  a  committee  of  five  was  appointed  to 
report  thereon. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Council  read  the  minutes  of  the  six  sessions  held 
by  that  body  since  last  year.  These  minutes  inform  of  the  election  of  Dr. 
Charles  Rice  as  the  second  member  for  the  United  States  of  the  Interna- 
tional Pharmacopoeia  Commission  ;  a  plan  for  using  the  income  from  the 
Centennial  Fund  had  been  adopted ;  the  traveling  arrangements  to  and 
from  the  annual  meeting  had  been  referred  to  the  Entertainment  Commit- 
tee ;  a  plan  for  the  general  management  of  the  financial  affairs  of  the  Asso- 
ciation by  the  Treasurer,  under  the  supervision  of  the  Finance  Committee, 
had  been  perfected ;  the  accounts  of  the  Treasurer  had  been  audited,  show- 
ing a  cash  balance  in  his  hands  amounting  to  $1,981.10;  the  Ebert  fund, 
the  Centennial  fund  and  the  life-membership  fund  are  separately  invested 
in  IT.  S.  4  per  cent,  registered  government  bonds.  The  Committee  on  Mem- 
bership reported  the  roll  to  contain  20  honorary  and  1,286  active  members ; 
ten  of  the  Iktter  had  died  since  last  year. 
The  various  committee  rej^orts  were  read  and  referred,  and  the  reading 
of  papers  was  then  proceeded  with. 
On  thymol  from  oil  of  thyme  was  the  subject  of  a  paper  read  by  Mr.  Jos. 
Li.  Lemberger,  who  purchased  nine  separate  lots  of  the  oil,  one  of  which 
was  known  to  have  been  distilled  from  Thymus  vulgaris  in  this  country. 
By  treatment  with  soda  four  of  the  oils  yielded  less  than  1  per  cent.,  the 
remaining  samples,  all  of  which  liad  a  red  color,  1*67,  6*67,  7*92,  16"67  and 
38*75  per  cent,  of  crude  thymol ;  from  the  American  oil,  which  was  white, 
•84  per  cent,  was  obtained. 
Considerable  discussion  took  place  on  this  subject,  in  which  the  i^roper- 
ties  of  commercial  thymol,  its  antiseptic  value,  its  chemical  nature  as  an 
alcohol  and  phenol,  its  yield  and  its  occurrence  in  other  volatile  oils  was 
alluded  to.  In  regard  to  the  latter,  Prof.  Maisch  stated  that  thymol  could 
be  obtained  in  considerable  (juantity  from  the  volatile  oil  of  an  American 
plant,  Monarda  punctata,  from  which  it  frequently  crystallized  on  stand- 
ing. The  yield  of  volatile  oils  and  the  relative  proportion  of  their  proxi- 
mate constituents  were  not  constant,  but  were  subject  to  the  nature  of  the 
soil,  the  climate  and  atmospheric  influences  generally  ;  the  volatile  oils 
distilled  from  thyme  raised  in  different  localities  must  therefore  be 
exi)ected  to  vary  in  the  amount  of  thymol.  Since  the  oil  consisted  also  in 
part  of  hydrocarbons,  which  have  a  lower  boiling  point,  it  was  natural  to 
expect  oil  of  thyme  distilled  from  the  fresh  herb  to  contain  relatively  less 
thymol  than  such  which  had  been  obtained  from  the  dry  herb,  which 
would  yield  a  smaller  percentage  of  volatile  oil,  containing,  however,  most 
likely,  a  larger  percentage  of  thymol. 
Mr.  G.  W.  Kennedy  read  a  paper  on  Commercial  Mercurial  Ointment, 
giving  the  assays  of  15  samples.  The  mercury  was  determined  by  remov- 
ing the  fat  by  means  of  ether,  also  by  Thein's  metluul  ("Amer.  Jour. 
Phar.,"  1882,  p.  809) ;  12  samples  from  retail  stores  yielded  from  21  5  to  40, 
