AMjaJnUl'iP872RM  }  Minutes  of  Pharmaceutical  Meetings.  41 
A  pharmaceutical  meeting  was  held  on  the  afternoon  of  December  19th,  1871, 
Owing  to  the  general  meeting  of  Druggists,  on  the  proposed  Pharmacy  Law, 
this  meeting  did  not  assemble  till  near  5  o'clock,  and  some  of  the  business  pre- 
pared was  postponed  till  next  month. 
Dr.  Wilson  H.  Pile  presided.  The  reading  of  the  minutes  of  the  preceding 
meeting  was  dispensed  with,  these  having  been  published  in  the  Journal. 
Hance,  Brother  and  White  presented  the  College  with  one  of  their  superior 
Drug  Mills,  supported  on  an  iron  stand  ;  on  motion  a  unanimous  vote  of  thanks 
was  tendered. 
Five  bound  volumes,  from  1852  to  1856  inclusive,  of  the  American  Journal  of 
Pharmacy,  was  presented  by  J.  A.  Heintzelman. 
Prof.  Maisch  exhibited  a  large  gourd,  presented  by  Bullock  &  Crenshaw, 
which  had  been  filled  with  Barbadoes  aloes,  and  from  which  the  entire  contents 
hud  been  removed  by  tapping  after  sawing  it  in  two  ;  no  adhering  portions  of 
aloes  remained  upon  it.  A  vote  of  thanks  was  tendered  to  both  donors.  Prof. 
Maisch  also  exhibited  Jujube  Fruit  used  in  Southern  Europe  as  an  addition  to 
expectorant  remedies  ;  Myrobalans  used  for  the  preparation  of  tannin  ;  several 
varities  of  Cardamoms,  including  the  Ceylon  and  Malabar  from  the  Lon- 
•don  market,  the  latter  whitened  by  magnesia.  Fennel  seed  from  Fcenic- 
^ilurn  officinale. 
Some  fine  specimens  in  powder  and  in  pseudomorphic  masses,  of  bi-carbon- 
ate  of  soda,  as  taken  from  the  carbonating  chamber  of  the  Pennsylvania  Salt 
Works,  at  Natrona,  Pa.,  were  presented  to  the  College.  Prof.  Procter  read  a 
letter  from  Henry  Pemberton,  a  graduate  of  this  College,  now  in  charge  of 
these  extensive  works.  The  meeting  was  informed  that  a  single  charge  of  this 
chamber  weighs  525,000  lbs.  The  quality  of  the  salt  appeared  to  be  supe- 
rior ;  in  the  absence  of  Prof.  Bridges,  the  subject  was  postponed  till  the  next 
meeting. 
Prof.  Parrish  called  attention  to  the  new  excipient  for  making  pills,  intro- 
duced by  J.  B.  Barnes  at  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of 
Great  Britain — soluble  cream  of  tartar;  bitartrate  of  potash  in  a  solution  of 
borax,  inspissated  to  the  consistence  of  mucilage.*  He  also  showed  pills  of 
Dover's  powder,  of  sulphur,  and  of  chloral  hydrate,  made  with  it  and  minute 
quantities  of  tragacanth.  Those  of  chloral  hydrate,  though  round  and  firm,  are 
-covered  with  crystals,  they  are  necessarily  kept  in  a  vial. 
In  allusion  to  the  difficulty  of  making  salts  of  iron,  especially  sulphate,  into 
pill,  owing  to  the  crumbling  of  the  mass,  he  mentioned  that  if  a  paste  of  dex- 
trine is  used  as  the  excipient,  there  is  no  difficulty  in  making  a  perfectly  plastic 
mass  ;  he  exhibited  pills  of  dried  sulphate  of  iron,  each  containing  three  grains, 
very  nearly  equal  to  five  grains  of  the  crystals  made  with  dextrine ;  they 
were  of  convenient  size.  He  remarked  that  when  this  mass  crumbles  it 
is  from  a  deficiency  of  water,  and  when  water  is  again  added  it  becomes 
quite  plastic,  though  it  is  more  bulky  on  each  addition  of  water.  The 
Pee  page  17  of  the  present  number, 
