522  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  {Am-(feu^87h7arm* 
of  the  past  a  demonstration  that  the  profit  as  well  as  the  honor  from  such  an  occu- 
pation will  mainly  depend  upon  the  qualifications  of  those  following  it  to  render 
valuable  and  efficient  service  to  the  public.  In  doing  so  he  traced  the  rise  of  the 
barber  surgeons  and  physicians,  the  origin  of  the  apothecaries  in  the  need  of  the 
physicians,  and  their  subsequent  antagonism  to  them,  how  a  sense  of  the  public 
requirements  was  too  strong  to  allow  of  the  restriction  of  the  apothecaries  to  the 
mere  dispensing  of  medicines,  and  how  the  apothecaries  in  their  turn,  having 
attained  a  higher  position  by  virtue  of  their  recognized  utility  to  the  public,  became 
the  assailants  instead  of  the  assailed.  This  led  to  the  opposition  of  the  chemists 
and  druggists,  organized  in  1 813,  which  left  a  mark  upon  the  Apothecaries  Act 
passed  two  years  later,  not  without  interest  at  the  present  time.  Professor  Redwood's 
address  was  listened  to  with  deep  attention,  and  will  no  doubt  be  read  with  much 
interest  by  many  who  were  not  present  to  hear  it. 
The  first  paper  was  a  Report  read  by  Dr.  Wright,  in  the  names  of  Mr.  Groves, 
Mr.  Williams,  and  himself,  who  constituted  a  committee,  appointed  at  the  last  meet- 
ing to  continue  investigation  upon  the  aconite  alkaloids.  It  was  pointed  out  that 
in  past  reports  the  existence  of  two  well  defined  alkaloids  in  A.  Napellus  had  been 
established,  viz.  :  aconitine,  C33H43N012,  and  picraconitine,  C31H45NO10,  while  from 
Aconitum  ferox  a  third  alkaloid  had  been  isolated,  expressed  by  the  formula  C36H49NOu. 
The  results  which  formed  the  chief  features  of  the  present  communication  illus- 
trated the  decompositions  undergone  by  aconitine  and  pseudaconitine  under  influ- 
ences resulting  in  the  assimilation  of  water,  for  instance,  treatment  with  dilute  acids 
and  alkalies.    These  decompositions  Dr.  Wright  expressed  as  follows  : 
(1)  C33H43N012+H20=.C7H602-fC26H39N011 
Aconitine.  Benzoic.  Aconine. 
(2)  C36H49N0n+H20-cX'0irC27H11N08 
Pseud-  Dimethyl-  Pseud- 
aconitine. protocate-  aconine. 
chuic  acid. 
Among  other  matters  treated  of  in  this  paper  Dr.  Wright  detailed  a  method  for 
assaying  the  commercial  aconite  alkaloids,  which  he  claimed  to  yield  approximately 
accurate  results. 
In  the  next  paper,  Dr.  Paul  and  Mr.  C.  T.  Kingzett  described  the  alkaloid  of 
Japanese  aconite,  which  was  shown  to  be  different  from  anything  described  by 
Wright  or  other  observers.  A  sample  of  the  crystalline  base  was  exhibited,  the 
formula  attributed  to  it  being  C29H43N09.  The  authors  gave  their  reasons  for 
believing  that  the  various  alkaloids  which  had  been  universally  described  and 
analyzed  as  alkaloids  of  aconite  were  probably  salts  of  the  bases  in  combination  with 
an  acid  perhaps  aconitic.  In  the  course  of  the  discussion  following  the  reading  of 
these  two  papers  Mr.  Kingzett  criticized  the  analytical  data  submitted  by  Dr. 
Wright  in  his  various  reports  on  this  subject. 
"  The  Active  Principle  of  Cayenne  Pepper  "  was  the  title  of  the  third  paper,  by 
Mr.  J.  C.  Thresh.  The  author  reported  that  he  had  found  free  palmitic  acid  to  be 
a  natural  and  predominating  constituent  of  cayenne  pepper  fat,  and  further 
described  capsaicin  or  the  active  principle  which  is  obtained  in  small  amount  from 
cayenne  pepper,  and  which  has  a  formula  near  to  C6Hlt02.  In  the  discussion  which 
followed  the  imperfectly  known  physiological  action  of  capsaicin  formed  the  chief 
topic. 
