AmJUJneU,r'I8P7h8arm•}  Minutes  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  313 
and  redness,  which  go  on  increasing  for  about  three  hours,  when  they  remain  sta- 
tionary. The  plaster  may  be  applied  for  eight  to  ten  hours  in  children,  and  for 
twenty  to  twenty-four  in  adults.  No  great  irritation  capable  of  impeding  occupa- 
tion ensues,  and  it  may  be  best  compared  with  that  of  a  sinapism  arrived  at  half  its 
power,  and  so  maintained  for  the  twenty-four  hours. — Med.  Press  and  Circ,  April  3. 
Destruction  of  a  Turkish  Industry. — Kezanlik,  the  city  of  roses,  which  has 
not  long  been  relieved  from  the  presence  of  the  marauding  Cossack,  was  until 
lately  the  centre  of  the  traffic  in  attar  of  roses;  but  the  beautiful  plain,  with  its 
vineyards  and  its  clumps  of  walnut  trees,  and  its  great  gardens  of  roses,  has  been 
passed  over  four  times  by  alternate  waves  of  battle.  The  march  of  armies  and 
bivouacs  of  100,000  men  have  ruined  the  gardens,  and  the  town  itself  was  lately 
burned,  the  Turkish  part  first,  and  then  the  Bulgarian  part. 
It  has  been  suggested  that  India  is  quite  able  to  supply  the  deficiency,  but  this  is 
doubtful,  and  there  is  a  significance  in  the  fact  that  the  price  of  "  rose  oil  "  has 
made  a  great  leap  upwards  within  the  last  few  weeks,  the  best  being  quoted  in  the 
British  market  at  40  shillings  per  ounce,  with  every  probability  of  a  further  advance. 
Dr.  Septimus  Piesse,  an  authority  on  all  matters  relating  to  perfumes  states  the 
average  yearly  production  of  attar  in  the  now  devastated  districts  to  have  been  as 
follows:  District  of  Kezanlik,  1,736  pounds  ;  Gucupso,  754  pounds;  Karadja- 
Bahg,  384  pounds  ;  Yeni-Saghra,  108  pounds;  Zoaghra,  98  pounds  ;  say  a  total  of 
3,470  pounds,  or  55,520  ounces. — Confectioners''  Journal. 
The  Rain  Tree. — At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Linnsean  Society,  Prof.  Thistleton 
Dyer  described  the  "rain  tree  11  of  Mogobamba,  South  America,  under  the  name 
of  Pithecolobium  saman.  The  so-called  "  rain  "  is  the  fluid  excreta  of  cicadas  which 
feed  on  the  juices  of  the  foliage,  and  its  dropping  is  therefore  analogous  to  the 
"honey-dew"  which  sometimes  drops  from  the  leaves  of  lime-trees  by  the  agency 
of  aphides. — Dublin  Med.  Press  and  Circ,  April  17. 
MINUTES  OF  THE  PHARMACEUTICAL  MEETING. 
Philadelphia,  May  21st,  1878. 
In  absence  of  the  President  Mr.  Ed.  Gaillard  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  Mr. 
J.  L.  Patterson  was  elected  to  act  in  place  of  the  Registrar,  who  was  engaged  in 
other  duty  for  the  college.    On  motion  the  reading  of  minutes  of  last  meeting  was 
dispensed  with. 
Prof.  Maisch  exhibited  a  specimen  of  crystallized  chloral  hydrate  which,  when 
received  in  this  country,  two  years  ago,  was  colorless,  but  now  had  a  uniform 
reddish  tinge,  intermixed  with  small  spots  of  a  deeper  color  ;  as  the  vial  had  never 
been  opened  all  were  at  a  loss  to  account  for  such  a  change. 
A  specimen  of  spiegeleisen  (mirror-iron)  was  presented  to  the  cabinet;  it  contains 
much  carbon  and  manganium  and  is  largely  used  in  the  manufacture  of  cast  steel 
at  the  present  time. 
