508        Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Associations  {^m'&™\l%Tt*~ 
The  next  paper,  by  Mr.  Geo.  Brownen,  was  one  of  practical  pharmaceutical  interest,, 
as  it  dealt  with  the  Recovery  of  the  Emetia  contained  in  the  unsightly  deposit  that 
forms  in  ipecacuanha  wine.  This  may  be  done,  the  author  says,  by  making  the 
semi-crystalline  mass  into  a  paste  with  water,  which  is  rendered  alkaline  with 
calcined  magnesia,  dried,  powdered  and  exhausted  with  alcohol.  The  alcohol  is 
evaporated,  and  the  crude  alkaloid  purified  by  dissolving  it  in  dilute  acetic  acid  and 
precipitating  with  ammonia.  The  emetia  is  thus  obtained  tolerably  pure,  as  a 
fawn-colored  powder.  Mr.  Brownen  also  suggests  whether  the  uncertainty  and 
partial  inertness  of  old  ipecacuanha  wine  may  not  have  another  cause  in  the  conver- 
sion of  the  emetia  into  the  gallo-tannate  of  the  alkaloid,  which,  according  to  Wattsr 
is  "  neither  emetic  nor  poisonous." 
In  a  lively  paper  on  the  Adulteration  of  Drugs,  Professor  Tichborne  quoted 
several  instances  of  adulterated  drugs  that  had  come  under  his  notice,  some  of  them 
being  substances  of  such  low  price  as  to  appear  hardly  to  allow  of  gain  being  made 
by  their  sophistication.  Although  the  author  stated  that  the  gathering  of  the 
materials  used  in  the  paper  had  gone  on  during  many  years,  and  indeed  some  of 
them  are  hardly  to  be  met  with  now,  a  vigorous  and  well-founded  protest  was 
uttered  by  Mr.  Boileau  and  succeeding  speakers  against  any  inferences  being  drawn 
from  it  or  from  some  remarks  made  by  Dr.  McSwiney  adverse  to  the  commercial 
morality  of  the  drug  grinders  or  druggists  of  Dublin.  The  paper  gave  rise  to  the 
most  prolonged  discussion  that  took  place  during  the  Conference,  in  the  course  of 
which  more  than  one  speaker  expressed  an  opinion  that  the  subject  had  been  treated 
in  a  somewhat  exaggerated  and  one-sided  manner  by  the  author. 
A  method  of  distinguishing  the  presence  of  Carbolic  Acid  or  Cresylic  Acid  in 
Creasote  was  then  described  by  Mr.  A.  H.  Allen.  The  necessity  of  including 
cresylic  acid  was  explained  on  the  ground  that  if  wood  tar  creasote  were  adulterated 
with  coal  tar  acids,  not  pure  carbolic  acid  would  be  "used,  but  a  low  class  product 
containing  a  considerable  quantity  of  cresylic  acid,  which  in  many  respects  behaves 
more  like  creasote  than  carbolic  acid.  The  method  is  based  upon  the  difference  in 
the  boiling-points  of  these  bodies  and  the  difference  of  the  solubility  in  glycerin  and 
in  collodion. 
Two  papers  by  Mr.  R.  Reynolds  and  Mr.  C.  H.  Bothamley  followed.  The  first 
referred  to  the  pink  coloration  produced  in  Orange  Flo-iver  Water  by  Nitric  Acidy. 
which  the  authors  had  found  was  no  longer  produced  when  the  essential  oil  had 
been  removed  from  the  water  by  ether.  The  question  was  started  during  the  dis- 
cussion as  to  what  ought  to  be  dispensed  when  orange  flower  water  is  ordered  in  a. 
prescription,  the  "  triple  water,"  as  imported,  or  diluted.  Some  diversity  of  prac- 
tice was  disclosed,  dependent  apparently  upon  the  speaker  looking  upon  the  water 
as  being  ordered  simply  as  a  flavoring  agent,  or  possibly  for  its  hypnotic  properties. 
The  other  paper,  by  the  same  authors,  was  a  report  on  the  Examination  of  Various 
Samples  of  Dialyzed  Iron.  Mr.  Gerrard  communicated  the  results  of  an  investiga- 
tion of  the  New  Zealand  drug  "  pituri,"  and  announced  that  he  had  succeeded  in 
separating  from  it  an  alkaloidal  substance,  which  he  thinks  will  probably  prove  to 
be  the  active  principle  and  proposes  to  call  "  pituria."    Mr.  Gerrard  also  commu- 
