Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
April,  1907.  1 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
195 
MARCH  PHARMACEUTICAL  MEETING. 
The  stated  pharmaceutical  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  College 
of  Pharmacy  was  held  on  March  19th,  with  William  Mclntyre  in 
the  chair. 
A  conjoint  paper  on  "  The  Determination  of  Acetanilid  and  Phe- 
nacetin  in  Pharmaceutical  Preparations,"  by  Joseph  L.  Turner  and 
Charles  E.  Vankerkleed,  chemists  of  the  H.  K.  Mulford  Company, 
was  read  by  the  former.  The  authors  presented  two  methods  for 
the  estimation  of  acetanilid  and  phenacetin  in  complex  mixtures 
containing  organic  substances,  and  stated  that  such  methods  are 
made  necessary  by  that  provision  of  the  Food  and  Drugs  Act  which 
requires  an  accurate  statement  on  the  label  of  the  amount  of  acet- 
anilid or  phenacetin  present  in  a  preparation.    (See  page  151.) 
C.  M.  Kline  sent  a  communication  from  the  research  laboratories 
of  the  Smith,  Kline  &  French  Company,  entitled  "  Some  Notes  on 
Opium  from  the  Commercial  Standpoint,"  which  was  read  by  W.  A. 
Pearson,  a  member  of  the  laboratory  staff.  The  author  described 
various  commercial  varieties  of  opium,  and  said  that  opium  is 
produced  in  many  countries  in  the  East  and  differs  largely  in  ap- 
pearance, odor  and  strength  according  to  the  country  or  district  in 
which  it  is  produced,  both  on  account  of  natural  causes  and  differ- 
ences in  the  method  of  handling.    (See  page  156.) 
Dr.  C.  B.  Lowe  described  the  methods  of  incising  the  poppy  cap- 
sule, and  said  that  in  order  to  prevent  the  admixture  of  opium  with 
the  tissues  of  the  capsule  considerable  care  is  necessary  in  scraping 
off  the  opium.  A  question  arising  as  to  the  number  of  seeds  in  the 
poppy  capsule,  Dr.  Lowe  said  that  it  had  been  estimated  that  they 
average  about  40,000. 
Mr.  Pearson  said  that  last  season  in  Michigan  he  had  been  suc- 
cessful in  growing  the  opium  poppy,  both  the  white  and  red  varieties, 
from  seeds  furnished  by  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture.  He, 
however,  only  collected  about  two  drachms  of  opium,  as  a  rain 
coming  on  soon  after  the  incising  of  the  capsules,  washed  away  the 
product. 
Attention  was  directed  to  a  collection  of  commercial  opiums 
which  had  been  presented  to  the  College  some  years  ago  by  Messrs. 
Gilpin,  Langdon  &  Co. 
Relerring  to  the  U.S.P.  assay  method  for  opium,  Mr.  Pearson  said 
