^°'ocr,'"i8^82*™ }       British  Plmrmaoeutical  Conference.  533 
is  employed.  The  Pharmacopoeia  opens  with  a  new  class  of  preparations 
termed  "  Abstracts,"  which  are  alcoholic  extracts  mixed  with  sufficient 
sugar  of  milk  to  make  one  part  of  the  preparation  represent  two  parts  of 
the  original  drugs.  The  class  includes  abstracts  of  aconite,  belladonna, 
conium,  digitalis,  hyoscyamus,  ignatia,  jalap,  nux  vomica,  podophyllum, 
senega  and  valerian.  A  list  of  the  additions  and  omissions  was  given, 
which  cannot  be  referred  to  here  further  than  to  notice  that  "  aconitia  "  is 
omitted,  notwithstanding  the  assistance  afforded  to  the  Pharmacopoeia 
Committee  by  Dr.  Wright  in  respect  to  a  definition  of  that  substance.  Fur- 
ther, the  doses  of  drugs  are  not  given,  temperatures  are  stated  in  Centi- 
grade degrees  with  Fahrenheit  equivalents  in  brackets,  chemical  formulae 
are  inserted  as  in  the  British  Pharmacopoeia,  and  the  molecular  weight  is 
appended  to  eayh  formula.  The  interest  excited  by  this  paper  was  increased 
by  the  fact  that  Professor  Redwood  took  the  opportunity  of  stating  that 
the  preparation  of  a  new  edition  of  the  British  Pharmacopoeia  is  now  in 
contemplation.  He  said  that  he  had  little  doubt  that  in  it  the  same  system 
of  nomenclature  would  be  adoj^ted  as  in  that  of  the  United  States,  but  he 
spoke  with  less  certainty  as  to  the  adoption  of  the  plan  of  indicating  quan- 
tities in  parts  by  weight,  although  he  approved  of  the  system  and  had 
himself  worked  it  out  years  ago.  He  remarked  that  with  respect  to  the 
Pharmacopoeia  of  Great  Britain  a  greater  conservatism  was  exercised  by  the 
Medical  Council  than  by  the  body  that  controlled  the  United  States  Phar- 
macopoeia, since  it  did  not  introduce  any  unproved  remedies.  The  reading 
of  this  paper  brought  the  first  day's  business  to  a  close. 
In  the  evening  a  visit  was  made  to  the  picturesque  ruins  of  Netley  Abbey 
by  upwards  of  sixty  members  and  visitors,  carriages  having  been  provided 
by  the  Local  Committee.  The  pleasure  of  the  excursion  was  slightly 
marred  by  atmospheric  influences,  the  splendid  view  of  Southampton 
Water  and  the  opposite  coast  being  nearly  destroyed  by  the  driving  rain 
and  mist;  but  notwithstanding  this  untoward  circumstance  the  trip 
proved  a  very  enjoyable  one,  and  much  interest  w^as  excited  by  the  ruijis. 
On  Wednesday  morning  the  proceedings  were  resumed  by  the  reading 
of  a  paper  on  "Some  Reactions  of  Arsenic,"  by  Messrs.  Nay  lor  and 
Braithwaite.  The  first  portion  of  the  j^aper  w^as  devoted  to  the  results  of 
some  experiments  made  to  test  a  statement  of  M.  Patrouillard,  and  intro- 
duced into  some  text-books,  to  the  effect  that  arsenic  acid  is  easily  reduced 
to  arsenious  acid  by  the  action  of  oxalic  acid.  The  authors  failed  to  obtain 
any  confirmation  of  this  statement  and  expressed  an  opinion  that  oxalic 
acid  exerts  no  reducing  action  under  the  conditions  described  by  M. 
Patrouillard.  The  remainder  of  the  paper  was  devoted  to  an  account  of 
the  method  followed  in  employing  the  copper-test,  which  is  based  upon 
the  fact  of  the  solubility  of  cupric  arsenate  in  the  double  tartrate  of  potas- 
sium and  sodium,  and  to  a  description  of  the  decomposition  which  takes 
place  between  arsenious  acid  and  mercuric  salts. 
The  next  paper  read  was  entitled  "Some  Results  of  the  Action  of  the 
Digestive  Ferments  on  Drugs,"  and  was  by  Mr.  G.  Brownen.  It  described 
the  effect  produced  by  solutions  of  the  gastric  ferment  and  pancreatic  solu- 
tions upon  a  nuinber  of  drugs  and  their  preparations.  The  results  obtained 
