266         Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Associations,  {AmM°y*\w*rm' 
Mr.  Gerrard  said  that  the  croton  oil  now  in  use  at  the  University  College  Hospital 
had  been  there  five  years,  and,  from  the  fact  that  physicians  continued  to  prescribe 
the  minim  dose,  he  thought  it  might  be  inferred  that  age  did  not  increase  the  activity 
of  the  oil.  Mr.  Holmes,  however,  thought  that  if  the  increase  of  the  soluble  portion 
was  due  to  the  production  of  resinified  oil,  it  would  necessarily  follow  that  the  oil 
would  be  more  purgative. 
Mr.  E.  M.  Holmes  read  a  paper  on  Duboisia  Myoporoides,  R.  Br.,  a  shrub  or  small 
tree,  which  is  a  native  of  Eastern  Australia,  New  Caledonia  and  New  Guinea.  Its 
leaves  are  alternate,  shortly  stalked,  quite  smooth  and  entire,  lanceolate,  3  to  4  inches 
long  and  about  an  inch  broad  in  the  middle.  It  has  very  small  pale  lilac  or  white 
flowers,  arranged  in  terminal  panicled  cymes,  and  produces  a  small  succulent  berry- 
like fruit.  Its  didynamous  stamens  make  it  related  to  the  scrophulariaceae,  but  on 
account  of  its  regular  coralla  it  is  now  placed  in  the  solanaceae.  The  extract  of  the 
leaves  closely  resembles  atropia  in  its  action  ;  the  active  principle  has  not  been  isolated, 
but  the  aqueous  extract  has  been  used  in  Sydney  and  Brisbane,  and  found  to  be  more 
prompt  and  energetic  than  atropia,  and  certainly  very  much  more  so  than  the  strongest 
extract  of  belladonna. 
At  the  pharmaceutical  meeting  held  April  3,  Mr.  John  Williams  read  a  paper  on 
salicylic  acid.  The  author  had  prepared  this  acid  from  oil  of  wintergreen,  and 
exhibited  samples  of  it,  the  neutral  portion  of  the  oil  and  the  methylic  alcohol 
separated  from  the  acid.  In  compaiing  this  natural  salicylic  acid  with  that  arti- 
ficially made,  considerable  differences  were  observed;  one  drachm  of  the  former  was 
found  to  require  three  ounces  of  boiling  water  to  effect  complete  solution,  the  latter 
two  or  even  only  one  and  a  half  ounces.  On  adding  to  these  concentrated  solutions 
one-fifth  alcohol  and  allowing  to  cool,  the  natural  acid  will  crystallize  in  separate, 
distinct  crystals,  while  the  artificial  will  form  a  network  of  fine  needles,  or  the  lower 
grades  a  woolly-looking  mass.  The  artificial  salicylic  acid  was  dissolved  in  boiling 
water,  and  neutralized  by  carbonate  of  calcium  ;  on  cooling,  salicylate  of  calcium  is 
deposited,  and  after  several  recrystallizations,  when  decomposed  by  hydrochloric 
acid  and  recrystallized  from  weak  alcohol,  yields  salicylic  acid  absolutely  identical 
with  the  natural  acid.  The  uncrystallizable  mother-liquor  from  the  calcium  salicy- 
late, on  being  decomposed  by  hydrochloric  acid,  yields  silvery  plates  of  an  acid  quite 
distinct  from  salicylic  acid,  and  more  soluble  in  hot  and  cold  water  than  the  latter, 
also  more  than  paraoxybenzoic  acid.  Its  solution  with  perchloride  of  iron  does 
not  give  a  yellow  precipitate,  characteristic  of  the  last-named,  but  gives  the  so-called 
characteristic  reaction  of  salicylic  acid,  probably  due  to  not  being  entirely  free  from 
it.  The  quantity  of  this  new  acid,  for  which  the  name  of  cresyl-salicylic  acid  is  for 
the  present  proposed,  is  estimated  at  from  15  to  25  per  cent,  of  the  artificial  acid. 
The  author  will  continue  his  investigations. 
Mr.  Plowman  stated  that  the  artificial  salicylic  acid  given  in  doses  of  20  grains 
every  two  or  three  hours  had  frequently  caused  delirium,  but  although  it  sometimes 
appeared  to  derange  the  system,  at  the  same  time  it  had  the  required  effect  of  low- 
ering the  general  temperature. 
Mr.  E.  M.  Holmes  read  a  paper  on  Grindelia  robusta.    Referring  to  the  observa- 
