522  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  {^™o°t"'i882*^'"' 
and  only  one  50  per  cent,  of  mercury,  while  3  samples  obtained  at  wJiole- 
sale  gave  41 '75,  46  and  48  per  cent. 
In  the  discussion  attention  was  drawn  to  the  facts  that,  as  prepared  on  a 
large  scale,  when  mercurial  ointment  is  filled  while  warm,  as  is  often  the 
case,  a  certain  amount  of  variation  must  be  expected  in  the  contents  of 
the  first  and  last  jars ;  that  ointment  kept  in  a  warm  place  will  contain 
different  amounts  of  mercury  in  the  upijer  and  lower  layers,  and  that  it  i& 
customary  in  many  places  to  dispense  the  officinal  ointment  only  upon 
prescriptions,  while  for  the  ordinary  retail  trade  a  weaker  ointment  is 
sold.  That  in  cases  of  sharp  competition,  this  article  is  occasionally^  adul- 
terated had  been  observed  by  Dr.  Menninger,  who  had  met  with  an  oint- 
ment containing  only  a  very  small  amount  of  mercury,  the  deficiency  in 
color  being  concealed  by  the  admixture  of  powdered  charcoal.  It  was  also 
stated  that  at  wholesale  two  kinds  of  mercurial  ointment  are  kept,  one 
containing  J,  the  other  I  mercury,  the  difference  being,  as  a  rule,  indicated 
upon  the  label. 
A  paper  by  Prof.  Emlen  Painter  on  the  preparation  of  mecurial  ointment 
was  read,  giving  a  process  by  which  one  person  can  easily  prepare  from  40 
to  50  lbs.  a  day.  Four  j^ounds  of  mercury  and  four  ounces  of  mustard-seed 
oil,  or  other  limpid  fixed  oil,  are  stirred  tegether  with  a  spatula  in  a  flat 
iron  dish,  until  uniformly  divided  into  small  globules,  for  which  five 
minutes  or  less  is  required  ;  next,  four  ounces  of  tallow,  or  of  a  mixture  of 
tallow  and  lard,  is  added,  cold,  and  rubbed  together  until  uniformly  mixed. 
The  granular  mixture  is  then  transferred  to  a  marble  slab,  two  feet  square, 
and  rubbed  with  a  spatula  loosely  at  first,  afterwards  with  more  pressure, 
a  little  tincture  of  benzoin  being  added,  until  the  globules  of  mercury  are 
no  longer  visible,  when  it  is  returned  to  the  iron  dish,  stirred  together  with 
eight  ounces  of  oil  and  then  with  a  mixture  of  equal  parts  of  tallow  and 
lard,  melted  together  and  cooled  to  about  170°F.,  when  merely  continuous 
stirring  will  be  required  until  the  whole  stiffens.  The  ointment  is  now 
again  transferred  to  the  slab  and  rubbed  in  divided  portions  to  insure  uni- 
form mixture. 
In  the  remarks  following  the  reading  of  this  paper  it  was  stated  that 
Professor  Remington's  process  ("Anier.  Jour.  Phar.,"  1881,  p.  192)  which 
had  been  adopted  in  the  new  pharmacopoeia,  appeared  to  be  more  expedi- 
tious and  less  troublesome. 
Mr.  P.  C.  Candidus  read  a  paper  on  the  solubility  of  ehemieaU  in  alcoholy 
both  at  15o°C.  (60°F.)  and  at  the  boiling  point.  The  correctness  of  the 
results  more  particularly  of  those  obtained  at  the  elevated  tem|ierature, 
was  questioned,  because  during  the  heating  which  was  conducted  in  a  test 
tube  loosely  stopi>ered,  strong  alcohol  was  most  likely  evaporated,  leaving 
a  more  aqueous  liquid  behind;  the  results  with  alum  (1  in  5),  burnt  alum 
(1  in  6),  potassium  chlorate  (1  in  8-5)  and  others  seem  to  prove  the  corect- 
ness  of  the  objection. 
After  paying  a  visit  to  the  exhibition  room  the  Association  adjourned 
until  Thursday  morning. 
Third  Session— Thursday,  Skptembkr  14th. 
The  minutes  of  the  second  session  having  been  read  and  approved,  those 
