Am'jJneri£oarm'}    American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  297 
-states  that  the  latter  declared  "  that  he  would  abolish  materia  medica  from  the 
medical  curriculum,  and  cannot  understand  the  arguments  for  obliging  a 
medical  man  to  know  all  about  drugs  and  where  they  come  from."  Evidence 
is  not  wanting  that  many  of  the  physicians  of  our  own  country  hold  the  same 
opinion.  In  the  light  of  these  facts  there  need  be  no  fear  for  scientific  phar- 
macy, and  this  Association  will  supply  willing  and  able  workers,  as  it  has  in  the 
past,  to  meet  the  emergencies  as  they  may  arise." 
The  address  was  referred  to  a  committee  consisting  of  Messrs.  F.  E.  Stewart, 
J.  M.  Good  and  A.  B.  Stevens. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Association,  Chas.  Caspari,  Jr.,  announced  that  the 
Committee  on  the  Ebert  Prize  recommended  the  award  of  the  prize  to  Edward 
Kremers  and  Oswald  Schreiner  for  their  paper  presented  at  the  meeting  last 
year  on  "  Nitroso  Derivatives  of  Caryophyllene  and  Cadineneand  their  Bearing 
on  the  Characterization  of  the  Sesquiterpenes." 
The  papers  of  this  section  were  for  the  most  part  presented  in  groups,  dis- 
cussion being  deferred  until  all  the  papers  of  a  group  were  read. 
APPLICATION  OF  THE  MODIFIED  ALKALIMETRIC  METHOD  TO 
THE  ASSAY  OF  DRUGS  AND  GALENICALS. 
By  H.  M.  Gordin. 
The  drugs  to  which  the  method  was  applied  were  opium,  nux  vomica  and 
•cinchona,  and  the  galenicals  were  the  fluid  extracts  of  nux  vomica,  hydrastis 
and  cinchona.  The  results  obtained  showed  the  method  to  be  quite  satis- 
factory. 
SHORT  DIRECTIONS  FOR  THE  ASSAY  OF  OPIUM. 
'    By  H.  M.  Gordin  and  A.  B.  Prescott. 
According  to  a  statement  by  the  authors,  this  method  is  a  modification  of 
-one  proposed  by  them  last  year,  with  the  exception  that  they  now  titrate  by 
standard  acid  after  removal  of  the  alkaloid,  and  employ  hot  extraction  with 
chloroform  alone. 
ALKALOIDS  OF  BOCCONIA  CORDATA. 
By  Paul  Murrill  and  J.  O.  Schlotterbeck. 
The  plant  is  a  native  of  Japan,  and  belongs  to  the  Papaveraceae.  It  has 
"been  introduced  into  the  United  States,  and  is  commonly  known  as  Tree  Celan- 
dine. All  the  parts  of  the  plant  examined  by  the  authors  contained  alkaloids, 
these  being  present  in  largest  amount  in  the  rhizome.  Three  distinct  alkaloids 
were  isolated  and  subjected  to  combustion  analysis.  These  were  Protopine 
<C20H19NO5),  /3-Homochelidonine  (C21H21N05)  and  Chelerythrine  (C21HnN04  + 
C2H5OH).  Sanguinarine  has  been  reported  as  present  in  the  plant,  but  the 
authors  have  not  been  able  to  identify  the  free  alkaloid. 
EXTRACTION  AND  ESTIMATION  OF  COLCHICINE. 
By  H.  M.  Gordin  and  A.  B.  Prescott. 
After  having  tried  a  number  of  solvents,  the  authors  found  that  extraction 
of  the  drug  with  hot  alcohol  for  two  hours  completely  removed  the  colchicine. 
The  estimation  of  this  principle  was  easily  accomplished  by  saponification 
