AmNIo°vUri2>^rm" }  Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Associations,  557 
The  following  officers  were  elected  for  the  ensuing  year  :  A.  O.  Gates,  of  Mor- 
risville,  president;  W.  J.  Van  Patten,  of  Burlington,  R.  G.  Morton,  of  West  Ran- 
dolph, vice-presidents ;  C.  S,  Boynton,  of  Braneon,  secretary;  E.  C.  Lewis,  of 
Rutland,  treasurer. 
The  next  meeting  will  be  held  at  Burlington,  at  the  call  of  the  executive  com- 
mittee. 
The  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  we  learn  from  a  cable  despatch,  ha*, 
been  awarded  a  silver  medal  at  the  Paris  exposition  for  the  exhibit  made  of  Ameri- 
can drugs.  The  collection  will  be  presented  to  a  pharmaceutical  institution  irt 
Paris. 
The  division  of  the  students  into  two  classes  was  not  made  any  too  soon.  The 
number  has  increased  again  so  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  accommodate  them  all 
at  the  same  time  in  the  spacious  hall.  Six  lectures  are  delivered  every  week  to  the 
junior  and  the  senior  class. 
Alumni  Association,  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy.— The  First  Social 
Meeting  of  this  season  was  held  in  the  College  building,  Thursday,  October  3d*. 
1878,  with  an  attendance  of  about  fifty.  In  the  absence  of  the  president  and  both 
vice-presidents,  Mr.  R.  V.  Mattison  was  elected  chairman. 
The  minutes  of  the  last  social  meeting  were  read  and  approved. 
Mr.  Sayre  being  called  on,  spoke  of  the  great  importance  to  the  students  of  the 
study  of  Botany  and  Materia  Medica. 
Dr.  Murray  read  a  lengthy  paper  on  the  "  Metric  System,"  strongly  recommend- 
ing its  study  and  adoption,  and  explaining  the  simplicity  and  beauty  of  the  system, 
by  means  of  charts,  measures,  and  on  the  black-board. 
Mr.  Mattison  stated  that  it  was  reported  that  in  France  the  metric  system  is  little 
used.  Dr.  Murray  thought  it  was  only  in  the  rural  provinces  that  this  was  the  case. 
It  was  mentioned  that  in  New  York  and  Boston  the  physicians,  particularly  the 
younger  ones,  are  in  the  habit  of  writing  their  prescriptions  in  this  system,  and  that 
some  of  the  prominent  druggists  issue  charts  to  the  physicians  explaining  the  rela- 
tion between  the  metric  and  the  customary  weights  and  measures. 
Mr.  J.  Jacobs  presented  for  the  College  three  volumes  of  Goldsmith's  Animated 
Nature,  printed  in  1795. 
Mr.  Mattison  read  a  paper  on  "  Better  Pharmaceutical  Education,"  and  one  or* 
"  A  New  Excipient  for  Pills."   (See  page  515.) 
Mr.  Butts  spoke  of  having  used  an  excipient  made  from  elm,  which  answered 
very  well  in  most  cases,  but  failed  with  dried  sulphate  of  iron  and  with  acetate  of 
lead. 
Mr.  Sayre  has  used  for  ten  years,  with  almost  universal  success,  a  mixture  of 
tragacanth  and  glycerin,  of  which  he  keeps  two  strengths  on  hand  ;  one  contain- 
ing 80  grains  of  tragacanth  to  glycerin  ^i,  and  the  other  double  the  quantity  of 
tragacanth. 
Mr.  Mitchell  spoke  of  Scott's  codliver  oil  emulsion  being  reputed  to  be  made 
with  mucilage  of  Irish  moss,  and  inquired  if  any  one  had  any  experience  in  the 
matter. 
