Am.  Joitr.  Pharm.  \ 
Oct.  1, 1874.  j 
Pharmaceutical  Colleges,  etc. 
487 
showing  by  experiment,  that  lard,  for  instance,  in  the  cold,  was  not  wholly 
soluble  in  ether,  and  therefore  separated  from  the  normal  butter  fat.  The 
perfection  of  this  test  was,  however,  questioned,  especially  by  Dr.  Redwood, 
who,  admitting  that  the  test  might  detect  a  clumsy  adulteration  with  lard  or 
.suet,  was  of  opinion  that  there  was  no  proof  that  it  would  expose  a  skilful 
admixture  of  fats  more  nearly  approaching  butter  in  its  physical  character. 
"  This  concluded  the  business  of  the  first  day's  meeting.    In  the  evening, 
the  members  dined  together  at  the  Cannon  Street  Hotel 
"  On  Friday,  the  first  paper  read  was  a  '  Note  on  Cortex  Rharnni  Frangulse," 
by  Mr.  H.  C.  Baildon.  In  continuation  of  his  own  and  other  previous  remarks 
on  this  bark,  Mr.  Baildon  urges  the  importance  of  selecting  good  samples,  i.e., 
-corresponding  to  such  a  description  as  that  of  the  German  Pharmacopoeia,  and 
for  administration  he  reccommends  concentrated  decoction  (or  liquid  extract) ;  f 
also  a  concentrated  tincture.  The  paper  led  to  the  expression  of  a  consider- 
able amount  of  personal  testimony  to  the  value  of  black  alder  bark  as  an 
aperient. 
"Mr.  Louis  Siebold  mentioned  the  important  fact  that  the  concentrated 
Liq.  Ammon.  Acetatis  exerts  a  very  evident  solvent  power  on  any  lead  which 
may  be  present  in  the  glass  vessel  containing  it,  and  suggested  the  propriety 
of  keeping  such  solutions  in  bottles  of  Bohemian  glass. 
"  In  a  '  Note  on  Scammony,'  by  Mr.  T.  Greenish,  the  use  of  the  microscope 
was  recommended  in  preference  to  iodine  for  examining  starch  present  in 
scammony,  to  ascertain  whether  it  was  derived  accidentally  from  the  scam- 
mony root,  or  from  wheat,  etc. ;  the  shapes  of  the  granules,  and  especially  of 
the  hilum,  being  quite  characteristic.  He  has  found  samples  of  lump  virgin 
scammony  invariably  free  from  all  starches,  whilst  every  sample  in  powder  as 
•uniformly  contained  scammony  starch,  and  some  of  them  wheat  starch  in 
addition,  which  he  attributes  to  the  powder  being  prepared  from  the  smaller 
fragments  contained  in  cases  of  mixed  qualities  of  the  drug. 
"  Hydrocyanic  acid  furnished  the  topic  of  not  less  than  four  papers.  Mr. 
Barnard  S.  Proctor  recorded  the  results  of  some  experiments  having  for  their 
object  the  discovery  of  a  process  for  extemporaneous  preparations  of  official 
acid,  and  also  of  a  solvent  that  would  diminish  the  variation  in  strength  de- 
pendent on  evaporation.  Of  three  solvents, — water,  alcohol,  and  ether, — the 
latter  he  found  to  maintain  most  nearly  its  percentage  of  hydrocyanic  acid. 
Two  substitutes  for  the  B.  P.  hydrocyanic  acid  were  discussed  by  Mr.  W.  A. 
Shenstone,  namely,  the  double  cyanide  of  zinc  and  potassium  proposed  by  Mr. 
Towerzey,  and  the  hydrocyanic  acid  (one  tenth  of  B.  P.  strength),  proposed 
by  Dr.  Tilden.  Experiments  by  Mr.  Shenstone  indicates  that  acid  of  0  2  per 
-cent,  suffers  trifling  (if  any)  loss  from  volatilization  or  decomposition.  Mr. 
Shenstone  also  found  solutions  of  the  double  cyanide  perfectly  stable.  He  did 
not,  however,  approve  of  its  substitution  for  the  B.  P.  preparation,  but  he 
thought  the  0  2  per  cent,  acid  would  be  legitimate.  Mr.  J.  Williams  stated 
that  he  had  found  that  20  per  cent,  of  glycerin  preserves  acid  up  to  the  strength 
of  about  5  per  cent.  This  application  of  glycerin  was  suggested  by  the  knowl- 
edge of  its  effectiveness  in  the  case  of  solution  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen. 
