Amjui°yi;ri8^7arm"}  Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Associations.  381 
free  from  arsenic;  the  fatty  base  appears  to  be  mutton  suet  combined  with  12  per 
cent,  oxide  of  mercury.  He  also  criticized  the  use  of  yellow  wax  in  the  officinal 
Ung.  Hydrarg.  oxidi  rub.,  but  overlooked  the  fact  that  it  has  greater  preservative 
properties  than  white  wax;  as  a  base  for  this  ointment  he  recommended  vaselin. 
Dr.  Auchinleck  gave  a  description  of  the  aloes  plants  found  in  Egypt,  and  of  the 
method  adopted  in  collecting  and  preparing  the  juice  for  the  market. 
A  specimen  of  a  spurious  long  buchu,  consisting  of  the  leaves  of  Empleurum  ser- 
rulatum,  was  exhibited  at  this  meeting. 
The  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference  will  hold  its  next  annual  meeting  in 
Plymouth,  commencing  on  Tuesday,  August  14,  at  10  A.M. 
Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Paris — Mr.  Haaxman  reported  at  the  March  meet- 
ing on  the  preparation  of  neutral  tannate  of  quinia,  and  Mr.  Husson  on  the  detec- 
tion of  foreign  coloring  matters  in  wine,  maintaining  his  previous  statement  that  they 
are  not  precipitated,  but  partly  altered  on  the  addition  of  sugar  of  lead  and  alum. 
A  communication  of  Mr.  Bretet  corroborated  the  precipitation  of  arsenic  from 
Fowlers  Solution  as  previously  observed  by  Meniere  ("Am.  Jour.  Phar.,"  1876,  p. 
217);  the  difference  by  titration  with  iodine  was,  however,  greater  than  the  weight 
of  the  sediment.  Mr.  Vigier  proposed  in  preparing  that  solution  to  substitute  the 
aromatic  spirit  by  alcohol. 
The  following  articles  were  exhibited  :  Sebo  de  Palo,  a  fat  said  to  be  obtained  from 
a  seed,  is  used  in  Brazil  for  killing  vermin  ;  Boracic  acid,  contaminated  with  a  con- 
siderable proportion  of  lead,  and  muriate  of  pilocarpina,  which  was  obtained  by  Mr. 
Petit  in  colorless  crystals  by  evaporation  in  vacuo. 
Society  of  the  Apothecaries  of  Berlin. — At  the  meeting  of  April  17th,  Dr. 
Schacht  discussed  the  characteristics  of  reduced  iron,  as  given  by  the  different  phar- 
macopoeias, and  the  various  methods  suggested  for  determining  the  impurities,  by 
measuring  the  hydrogen  gas  evolved  on  dissolving  in  an  acid,  and  by  weighing  the 
undissolved  portion  after  digestion  or  maceration  with  solutions  of  iodine,  bromine 
and  ferric  chloride.  The  best  results  were  obtained  by  macerating,  at  the  ordinary 
temperature,  a  weighed  sample  of  the  reduced  iron  with  bromine  water,  or  with 
solution  of  bromine  in  potassium  bromide,  or  with  solution  of  ferric  chloride,  sp.  gr. 
1  "30;  the  results  of  the  former  method,  as  compared  with  those  of  the  last  one,  did 
however  not  sufficiently  correspond  with  each  other.  The  author  believes,  how- 
ever, that  a  good  reduced  iron  should  be  characterized  as  follows  :  "A  very  fine 
grey  powder,  without  gloss ;  when  heated  in  the  air  it  burns  to  ferric  oxide.  It  is 
completely  soluble  in  warm  diluted  pure  muriatic  acid,  with  the  evolution  of  hydro- 
gen, which  is  indifferent  to  lead  paper.  When  treated  for  half  an  hour,  at  the  ordi- 
nary temperature  and  with  occasional  agitation,  with  25  times  its  weight  of  solu- 
tion of  ferric  chloride,  sp.  gr.  1*30,  it  is  completely  dissolved." 
Mr.  Hobe  directed  attention  to  the  very  variable  proportions  of  drugs  as  directed 
for  the  syrups  of  the  "German  Pharmacopoeia,"  many  of  which  will  not  keep  for  a 
reasonable  length  of  time.    He  opposed  the  addition  of  salicylic  acid  because  too 
