502  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  {Avociobei^m.m' 
as  the  impure  white  alkaloid,  hydrastina,  became  known,  the  impure  yellow 
alkaloid,  berberina  was  shown  to  be  also  present,  and  an  active  principle.  The 
result  was  that  people  generally  adopted  the  name  berberina  for  the  alkaloid  of 
hydrastis,  substituting  it  for  hydrastina. 
J.  U.  Iyloyd  desired  to  know  if  the  experiments  were  made  with  dry  or  fresh 
hydrastis,  as  drying  might  result  in  an  alteration  of  the  construction  of  the 
constituents. 
Dr.  Dohme  replied  that  he  employed  the  dried  drug,  but  that  he  hoped  to 
experiment  with  the  fresh  drug  before  the  next  meeting. 
C.  S.  N.  Hallberg  wished  to  ask  Dr.  Bccles  why  hydrastinine  was  inserted 
into  the  U.  S.  P.  and  not  hydrastine. 
Dr.  Bccles  replied  that  both  were  intended  to  be  inserted  and  that  both  were 
employed  in  Brooklyn  and  New  York,  and  that  hydrastinine  was  found  to  be 
more  efficacious  and  used  in  smaller  doses. 
Dr.  Dohme  showed  that  hydrastinine  was  a  decomposition  product  of  hydras- 
tine,  just  as  cotarnine  was  the  same  of  narcotine,  as  follows  : 
C21H21N06  +  0  +  H20  ==  CnH13N03  +  C10H10O5 
Hydrastine.  Hydrastinine.     Opianic  acid. 
C22H23N07  +  0  +H20  =  C12H15NO,  +  C10H10O5 
Narcotine.  Cotarnine.         Opianic  acid 
Chas.  Caspari,  Jr.,  exhibited  a  new  suppository  mould. 
.  Powdered  Extracts. — C.  S.  N.  Hallberg  has  made  a  full  series  of  extractions 
with  alcohol,  methyl  alcohol  and  a  mixture  of  alcohol  and  chloroform  in 
varying  proportions.  The  best  results  were  obtained  by  the  use  of  a  mixture 
of  alcohol  75  cubic  centimetres  and  chloroform  25  cubic  centimetres.  The 
percentages  of  extracts  obtained  ranged  from  6  per  cent,  to  15  per  cent.  In 
every  case,  the  extract,  when  mixed  with  sufficient  milk  sugar  to  make  one- 
fourth  the  weight  of  the  drug,  furnished  a  nice-appearing,  homogeneous 
powdered  extract,  which,  from  present  indications  and  from  the  comparatively 
small  percentage  of  extracts  contained  in  them,  will  retain  the  pulverized  con- 
dition, with  ordinary  care,  for  any  reasonable  length  of  time.  The  author 
suggests  that  this  class  of  preparations  replace  the  abstracts,  and  suggests  the 
term  "quatract"  (already  proposed  by  the  author,  Proc:  xxxvi.,  page  105)  as  a 
synonym.  This  would  tend  to  draw  attention  to  the  strength  of  the  prepara- 
tion. 
Laboratory  Notes,  a  contribution  by  Prof.  B.  L.  Patch,  treated  of  the  quality 
of  hydrogen  dioxide,  carbolic  acid  and  reduced  iron. 
Of  thirty  samples  of  commercial  hydrogen  dioxide  examined,  about  one- 
half  were  standard  as  regards  the  U.  S.  P.  requirement  for  available  oxygen. 
All  were  too  strongly  acid  to  be  official.  Ten  samples  for  medical  use  were 
found  to  be  of  fair  quality. 
Carefully  conducted  experiments  with  the  official  process  yielded  the  con- 
tributor good  products. 
To  test  the  assertion  that  best  results  are  gotten  from  a  concentrated  solu- 
tion obtained  by  evaporating  the  official  solution  to  one-third  its  volume,  a 
series  of  experiments  were  made,  the  results  of  which  showed  that  by  this 
means  a  stronger  solution  could  be  obtained,  but  not  without  loss  of  oxygen, 
