AmbJc°tu,ri8P78arm'}  Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Associations.  505 
water  which  is  separable  below  ioo°.  It  is  now  found  also  that  some  salts  of 
pseudaconitia  are  crystallizable  \  for  instance  the  nitrate,  which  is  described  as  being 
obtainable  by  rubbing  the  approximately  pure  alkaloid^in  a  mortar  with  dilute  nitric 
acid  in  slight  excess.  Another  result  is  the  alteration  of  the  formula  of  pseudaco- 
nina,  the  product  described  last  year  as  being  formed  by  the  action  of  acids  upon 
pseudaconitia.  The  authors  now  propose  to  represent  this  as  C27H41N09  instead  of 
C27H41N08.  This  alteration  is  of  course  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  above-men- 
tioned rectification  of  the  formula  of  pseudaconitia,  if  the  production  of  pseudaconina 
from  it  is  to  be  represented  as  consisting  in  the  splitting  up  of  pseudaconitia  into 
pseudaconina  and  dimethylprotocatechuL*  acid.  That  decomposition  of  pseudaco- 
nitia, however,  is  now  described  as  being  accompanied  by  another  alteration,  which 
consists  in  mere  dehydration  of  pseudaconitia  and  furnishes  a  product  which  the  authors 
call  apopseudaconitia.  The  composition  of  this  substance  is  represented  by  the  form- 
ula C36H4TNOu.  It  is  described  as  abase  closely  resembling  pseudaconitia  and  easily 
obtained  by  heating  that  substance  with  dilute  hydrochloric  acid,  or  with  a  large 
excess  of  tartaric  acid  solution  for  soms  hours.  The  substance  described  by  the 
authors  last  year  under  the  name  of  pseudaconina  as  resulting  from  the  splitting  up 
or  saponification  of  pseudaconitia  is  now  reported  to  have  been  in  reality  a  product 
of  another  alteration.  The  production  of  this  substance — now  termed  apopseuda- 
conina  and  represented  by  the  formula  C,7H39N08 — is  described  as  consisting  either 
in  the  splitting  up  of  apopseudaconitia  or  in  the  dehydration  of  pseudaconina  formed 
by  the  splitting  up  of  pseudaconitia  itself.  It  is  reported  not  to  be  formed  at  ali< 
when  the  temperature  is  ioo°,  or  rather  less,  but  to  be  readily  formed  at  1400.  These 
are  very  radical  modifications  of  the  results  reported  last  year,  and  they  show  that  the 
general  conclusions  arrived  at  in  these  researches  must  be  received  with  very  great 
caution. 
Another  report  on  work  done  with  the  aid  of  a  grant  from  the  Conference  research 
fund  was  that  presented  by  Mr.  W.  A.  Shenstone  on  Erucia  and  the  Constituents  of 
Strychnos  Bark.  The  principal  facts  in  this  paper  also  have  already  appeared  in  this 
journal,  having  formed  the  subject  of  a  paper  read  at  an  Evening  Meeting  of  the 
Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain  during  last  session.  It  confirms  Mr. 
Cownley's  negation  of  Professor  Sonnenschein's  alleged  conversion  of  brucia  into 
strychnia  by  the  action  of  nitric  acid,  and  states  that  the  yield  of  strychnia  steadily 
decreases  as  additional  processes  of  purification  are  employed,  until  it  completely 
disappears.  It  also  admits  the  important  fact,  previously  pointed  out  by  Mr. 
Cownley,  that  commercial  brucia  frequently,  if  not  always,  contains  an  admixture 
of  strychnia,  and  the  reporter  gives  a  method  for  the  purification  of  brucia  from  this 
contamination.  Another  point  in  the  report  is  the  statement  that  false  angustura, 
bark  does  contain  a  small  quantity  of  strychnia. 
This  concluded  the  reading  of  reports,  and  the  next  paper  read  was  On  the  Voiu~. 
metric  Estimation  oj  some  Official  Iron  Preparations,  by  Mr.  H.  N.  Draper.  The 
preparations  referred  to  in  the  paper  were  ferrous  arseniate,  ferrous  phosphate  and 
magnetic  oxide,  and  the  point  investigated  was  whether  the  quantities  of  bichromate 
of  potash  solution  ordered  in  the  British  Pharmacopoeia  to  be  used  in  the  volumetric 
estimation  of  these  bodies  are  a  fair  indication  of  the  products  yielded  by  the  Phar- 
macopoeia processes.    This  the  author  answered  in  the  negative,  and  in  the  dis- 
