r  1 8  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  { ^™w*wt 
MINUTES  OF  THE  PHARMACEUTICAL  MEETING. 
Philadelphia,  January  21,  1896. 
The  fourth  of  the  series  of  Pharmaceutical  Meetings  was  held  in  the  Museum 
of  the  College,  at  ■•  o'clock. 
Mr.  Joseph  W.  England  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  the  reading  of  the  min- 
utes of  the  previous  meeting  was  dispensed  with. 
The  first  paper,  entitled  "Kola  and  Kolanin,"  was  presented  by  Mr.  F.  B. 
Kilmer,  of  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.  (See  page  96. )  This  paper  is  a  valuable  one, 
from  a  chemical  and  pharmacological  standpoint,  as  showing  the  results  of  the 
most  recent  research  along  these  lines,  and,  with  so  much  data  at  hand,  the  value 
of  this  drug  in  therapeutics  would  seem  to  be  pretty  thoroughly  established. 
Mr.  Kilmer  rendered  his  paper  all  the  more  interesting  by  showing  photographs 
from  the  habitat  of  the  kola  plants,  illustrating  their  appearance  as  seen  grow- 
ing in  the  native  forests,  and  the  industries  connected  with  the  collection  and 
preparation  of  the  nuts  for  market,  and  also  by  exhibiting  specimens  of  the 
fresh  and  dry  nuts  from  various  tropical  countries,  and  an  original  package  of 
the  African  nuts,  as  well  as  some  which  were  partially  decomposed,  owing  to 
the  attack  of  a  fungus  growth. 
Several  important  questions  were  presented  in  the  discussion,  which  may  be 
summarized  as  follows  :  Mr.  England  desired  to  know  whether  kolanin  can  be 
obtained  in  the  crystalline  form,  and  also  whether  the  African  nuts  are  superior 
to  those  from  other  countries.  Mr.  E.  M.  Boring  wished  to  know  in  what 
manner  the  drug  is  used  by  the  natives.  Prof.  Trimble  referred  to  the  author's 
experiment  in  cutting  the  fresh  nuts  under  ether  to  obviate  the  action  of  the 
air  on  the  glucosidal  principle,  and  mentioned  the  difficulty  of  extracting  the 
active  principle  of  drugs  with  chloroform  or  ether  in  the  presence  of  moisture, 
and  suggested  the  use  of  absolute  alcohol  in  operating  upon  the  fresh  drug. 
He  also  confessed  to  some  skepticism  on  the  subject  of  the  wonderful  physi- 
ological properties  ascribed  to  kolanin,  and  wondered,  after  all,  whether  the 
effects  of  the  drug  were  not  really  those  of  the  caffeine  which  is  produced  by 
the  action  of  the  ferments  in  the  saliva  and  gastric  liquids  on  some  of  the  con- 
stituents of  this  drug,  and  whether  the  difference  between  a  dose  of  kola  and 
one  of  caffeine  is  not  the  result  of  a  slower  absorption  of  the  caffeine  from  the 
kola,  since  the  kolanin  must  first  undergo  slow  decomposition. 
Mr.  Kilmer,  in  replying  to  the  preceding  questions,  said  that  he  had  as  yet 
been  able  to  obtain  kolanin  only  in  the  amorphous  condition  ;  and,  in  con- 
sidering the  relative  value  of  kola  nuts  obtained  from  different  localities,  the 
difference  in  the  results,  as  obtained  by  analyses,  he  thought  to  be  due  to  the 
method  of  curing  them,  and  to  the  proportion  of  diseased  nuts,  the  latter 
having  been  proven  to  be  worthless.  He  also  mentioned  the  difference  in  taste 
between  samples  that  had  been  carefully  dried  and  those  prepared  by  the 
natives.  This  industry  is  mostly  carried  on  by  native  women,  who  select  the 
most  perfect  nuts  and  place  them  in  the  ground  and  loosely  cover  them  with 
leaves  and  earth,  so  that  the  air  shall  not  be  entirely  excluded.  Here  they 
are  allowed  to  remain  about  one  month,  when  they  are  examined  again  and  the 
defective  ones  rejected.  When  the  yield  is  small,  they  are  carried  over  from 
one  season  to  another,  although,  in  some  countries,  large  quantities  are  never 
gathered.  The  natives  all  use  them  and  depend  simply  on  chewing  them  to 
obtain  the  effects. 
