324         Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Associations,  {^jSSi^!^ 
Mr.  Hancock  exhibited  a  machine  for  compounding  powders,  consisting  of  a. 
slightly  conical  cylinder,  into  which  a  sieve  fits  5  a  brush  fitted  to  a  spindle  mixes 
the  ingredients  together,  at  the  same  time  driving  them  through  the  sieve. 
Mr.  Barnard  S.  Proctor,  in  a  paper  on  medicine  measures,  advocated  to  abandon 
the  various  spoons  for  giving  medicines,  and  to  divide  liquids  by  the  fluid  drachm 
and  half  ounce,  cheap  measures  to  be  furnished  with  each  medicine.  As  might  have 
been  expected,  the  proposition  elicited  much  diversity  of  opinion,  but  all  agreed 
that  it  was  a  dangerous  practice  on  the  part  of  physicians  to  order  powerful  and  even 
poisonous  medicines  in  a  concentrated  form.  Mr.  Holmes  very  properly  censured 
pharmacists  for  the  introduction  of  such  preparations,  but  Mr.  Carteighe  excused 
this,  because  in  these  railway  times  everything  was  wanted  in  the  most  portable 
form  ;  as  to  the  size  of  the  dose,  the  primary  responsibility  rested  on  the  prescriber. 
Mr.  Greenish  made  some  remarks  on  glycerite  of  tragacanth,  pronouncing  it  to  be 
one  of  the  best  excipients  that  could  be  kept  at  the  dispensing  counter,  and  specially 
useful  for  quinia,  valerianate  of  zinc  and  sulphate  of  iron  and  aloes  ;  he  prepares  it 
by  rubbing  together  1  part  by  weight  of  tragacanth  and  8  parts  by  measure  of 
glycerin  [which  is  one  to  10  parts  by  weight. — Editor.]  and  allowing  it  to  stand  for 
a  day  or  two  to  gelatinize.  Pills  made  up  with  this  glycerite  did  not  become  at  all 
damp. 
Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Paris.— Prof  Wurtz  reported  at  the  February  meet- 
ing that  he  had  obtained  a  considerable  quantity  of  strychnia  from  the  so-called 
hoang  nau  bark. 
Messrs.  P.  Cazeneuve  and  O.  Caillol  described  an  apparatus  for  exhausting  vege- 
table poivders  with  volatile  liquids,  called  digesto- still  for  continued  displacement 
(digesto  destillateur  d  deplacement  continu).  Its  modification  from  the  apparatus 
usually  employed  for  the  purpose  will  be  apparent  from  the  following  description; 
It  consists  of  a  glass  flask,  surmounted  by  a  percolator,  in  the  centre  of  which  a 
glass  tube  is  inserted,  being  fastened  at  the  lower  end  by  means  of  a  notched  coik 
and  terminating  above  in  the  tubular  end  of  a  curved  adapter;  this  adapter  points 
obliquely  upwards,  its  mouth  being  connected  with  a  reversed  Liebig's  condenser,, 
and  this  with  two  WoulPs  bottles  in  such  a  manner  that  the  glass  tube  connecting 
the  condenser  with  the  first  bottle  reaches  to  the  bottom  of  the  latter,  so  as  to  act 
as  a  syphon  for  the  liquid  which  may  be  condensed  or  forced  into  the  bottle.  The 
two  bottles  may  be  kept  in  cold  water  or  ice,  the  last  one  terminating  with  an 
Q  safety  tube  containing  some  mercury. 
In  using  the  apparatus,  some  cotton  is  placed  upon  the  notched  cork  in  the  perco- 
lator and  upon  it  is  packed  the  powder,  suitably  moistened  with  the  menstruum  j 
a  sufficient  quantity  of  the  latter  is  put  into  the  flask,  and  after  all  the  connections 
have  been  made  the  flask  is  placed  in  a  water  bath.  The  vapors  of  the  boiling 
menstruum  ascend  and  pass  through  the  glass  tube  (in  the  percolator)  and  the 
adapter  into  the  condenser,  from  whence  the  liquid  flows  back  again  through  the 
adapter  upon  the  material  contained  in  the  percolator.  If  alcohol  is  used,  it  will 
rarely  pass  into  the  Woulf's  bottle ;  but  liquids  like  ether  and  carbon  bisulphide 
will  oscillate  in  the  condenser,  being  forced  upward  by  the  ascending  vapors  during 
