522  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  {Am,octuyi887arm' 
ceous  plant,  native  of  Nepal,  was  described  as  having  an  exceedingly  agree- 
able and  intense  odor  similar  to  bergamot.  Its  specific  gravity  does  not 
exceed  '840,  and  it  is  soluble  in  ether  and  alcohol  and  has  a  pungent  taste. 
The  fruit  on  distillation  yields  about  4  per  cent,  of  the  oil.  Some  conversa- 
tion arose  as  to  a  possible  supply  of  the  oil,  but  this  was  somewhat  checked 
by  the  doubt  expressed  by  the  president,  after  examining  the  samples, 
whether  the  oil  answered  to  the  claim  put  forward  on  its  behalf. 
Oryptopine  and  its  salts  are  substances  not  very  familiar  as  a  rule  to  even 
accomplished  pharmacists,  although  some  attention  has  been  directed  re- 
cently to  the  alkaloid  in  respect  to  its  remarkable  gelatinizing  property. 
In  the  paper  next  read,  Dr.  Kauder  contributed  the  results  of  his  chemical 
experience  in  preparing  the  alkaloid  and  its  salts.  The  physiological 
history  of  the  compounds,  however,  does  not  seem  to  have  been  yet  begun. 
This  brought  the  second  sitting  of  the  Conference  and  the  first  day's  busi- 
ness to  an  end,  a  large  number  of  members  upon  the  adjournment  of  the 
meeting  proceeding  in  carriages  provided  for  the  purpose  to  visit  the  Jubilee 
exhibition. 
Relation  of  pharmacy  to  medicine. — The  third  sitting  of  the  Conference  was 
held  on  Wednesday  morning,  the  proceedings  commencing  with  the  read- 
ing of  a  paper  on  the  relation  of  Pharmacy  to  Medicine  by  Professor  Leech, 
lecturer  on  Materia  Medica  in  Owens  College.  At  first  it  seemed  as  if  the 
paper  was  intended  as  a  panegyric  upon  wholesale-made  "  palatable " 
preparations  of  medicine ,  but  after  a  time  this  found  an  explanation  in 
the  evident  impression  of  the  speaker  that  the  "new  commercial  industries  " 
that  have  arisen  and  "  have  absorbed  some  of  the  work  formerly  done  by 
individual  pharmacists  "  always  result  in  an  output  of  definite  preparations 
of  known  composition.  According  to  Professor  Leech  "  the  present  system 
of  education  leads  medical  men  to  prefer  ordering  medicines  which  they 
know  are  made  up  in  a  palatable  form  to  devising  combinations  which  may 
not  be  so  pleasant  for  their  patients  as  they  would  wish  ;"  whilst  "  a  large 
proportion  of  those  on  whom  powers  to  practice  are  conferred  have  little 
idea  of  the  best  methods  of  ordering  medicines  or  of  the  physical  results 
they  may  obtain  by  the  association  of  the  drugs  they  wish  to  give."  This 
necessity  for  a  devolution  of  responsibility  however,  though  it  may  be 
urgent,  can  hardly  be  fairly  charged  against  the  pharmacist.  We  think 
it  may  be  correctly  asserted  that  it  will  be  only  necessary  for  the  medical 
profession  to  formulate  exactly  what  it  wants  to  ensure  a  supply  as  far  as  is 
possible  from  the  ordinary  pharmacist,  and  that  the  difficulty  is  evaded 
rather  than  overcome  by  the  prescribing  of  "palatable"  or  "  convenient " 
preparations  the  exact  composition  of  which  in  many  cases  is  known  only 
to  the  manufacturer.  As  Professor  Leech's  argument  was  developed,  how- 
ever, it  became  evidentthat  his  demand  is  for  pure  medicaments  of  definite  or 
known  composition,  and  the  necessity  for  these  he  illustrated  experiment- 
ally in  a  most  interesting  manner,  by  showing  the  influence  of  a  very  dilute 
solution  of  veratrine  on  muscle.  It  seems  to  us  that  a  greater  part  of  the 
author's  argument  might  be  appropriately  addressed  to  the  representatives 
of  the  medical  profession.    If  it  be  true  that  "  the  want  of  reliance  on  the 
