38  Minutes  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  { Am jj^aJJ™** 
1.  Strychnia  and  nicotin  are  in  no  degree  antagonistic  poisons. 
2.  Strychnia  increases  the  convulsive  action,  and  does  not  diminish  the  motor 
paralysis  of  nicotin. 
3.  Nicotin  (even  in  paralyzing  doses)  increases  the  convulsive  action  of  strychnia. 
4.  Both  poisons  cause  death  by  paralyzing  the  respiratory  apparatus.  They  may 
affect  respiration  in  different  ways,  but  the  result  is  the  same. 
5  Animals  may  be  killed  by  injecting  together  doses  of  the  two  drugs,  which 
singly  are  not  fatal. — American  Med.  Journal — Pac.  Med.  and  Surg.  Jour  ,  Nov. 
John  Broughton,  the  chemist  of  the  cinchona  plantations  in  British  India,, 
has  not  been  heard  of  since  undertaking  a  journey  from  Ootacamund  to  Madras 
during  last  year.  As  he  was  known  to  have  a  large  sum  of  money  in  his  posses- 
sion, it  is  supposed  that  he  has  been  waylaid  and  murdered. — Dublin  Med.  Press 
and  Circ,  Nov.  14. 
MINUTES  OF  THE  PHARMACEUTICAL  MEETING, 
Philadelphia,  Dec.  18,  1877. 
The  third  pharmaceutical  meeting  of  the  series  was  held  at  the  College  Hall, 
President  Dillwyn  Parrish  calling  the  meeting  to  order  5  the  minutes  of  the  last 
meeting  were  read  and  approved.  The  history  of  the  origin  of  these  meetings  was 
briefly  stated  by  the  president  :  Prof.  Wm.  R.  Fisher,  in  1842,  having  suggested  to 
several  of  the  most  active  members  of  the  College  the  great  advantage  that  would 
almost  certainly  accrue  to  those  attending  them  and  to  the  readers  of  the  "Journal," 
induced  seven  of  them  to  sign  a  paper  asking  for  the  use  of  the  hall  and  library  to 
carry  out  the  plan. 
The  following  donations  to  the  library  were  made  by  Prof.  Maisch  in  behalf  of 
the  publishers:  "Transactions  of  the  International  Medical  Congress  of  1876," 
"The  Chemists'  and  Druggists'  Diary  for  the  year  1878"  and  "  Farquarhson's 
Guide  to  Therapeutics."  On  motion  of  Wm.  B.  Webb,  the  Registrar  of  this  meet- 
ing was  directed  to  return  the  thanks  of  the  meeting  to  the  respective  donors. 
Chas.  J.  Biddle,  Ph.G.,  read  a  paper  upon  the  use  of  glycerin  in  pharmacy,  which, 
elicited  some  discussion  and  was  referred  to  the  publication  committee  (seepage  19). 
Mr.  Shinn  asked  whether  any  of  the  members  had  experimented  upon  the  removal 
of  the  fixed  oil  from  ergot  when  preparing  the  fluid  extract  ?  In  reply,  Prof.  Maisch 
stated  that  the  fixed  oil  was  generally  acknowledged  to  be  inert,  and  his  rule  was  to 
remove  it  by  filtration  ;  the  British  Pharmacopoeia  directed  it  to  be  removed  by 
ether,  previous  to  preparing  the  extract,  and  very  likely  petroleum  benzin  would  be 
found  serviceable  for  this  purpose. 
Salicylate  of  lithia  has  been  prescribed  lately  to  considerable  extent,  and  it  was 
stated  that  the  salt  was  now  made  by  several  manufacturing  chemists,  and  that  it 
was  used  as  a  remedy  for  rheumatism. 
