"^""'ocrrisss*'''"'}        British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  521 
no  opportunity  for  a  profitable  discussion  of  the  subject  brougiit  forward 
by  Mr.  Davies. 
Tlie  time  for  adjournment  having  now  arrived,  the  President  stated  that 
he  had  just  had  placed  in  his  hands,  by  Dr.  Paul,  a  print  of  the  Inter- 
national Pharmacopoeia,  which  he  understood  had  been  adopted  by  the 
International  Pliarmaceutical  Congress  assembled  at  Brussels  last  week,, 
and  he  called  upon  Dr.  Paul  to  report  what  had  taken  place  in  regard  to  it. 
Dr.  Paul  then  stated  that  the  document  he  had  placed  in  the  President's- 
hands  was  the  result  which  had  been  so  far  obtained  in  the  work  undertaken 
four  years  ago  when  the  International  Pliarmaceutical  Congress  was  held 
in  London.  On  that  occasion  a  Commission  consisting  of  the  represen- 
tatives of  various  nationalities  was  appointed  and  charged  with  the  duty 
of  preparing  a  draft  of  an  International  Pharmacopoeia  upon  the  lines  that 
had  been  agreed  to  at  the  Congress.  That  work  had  been  carried  out  in  the 
interim  by  Mr.  von  Waldheim,  President  of  the  Commission,  who  had  by 
correspondence  ascertained  the  views  of  other  members  of  the  Commission 
as  to  the  preparations  that  should  be  included  in  an  International  Pharma- 
copoeia. These  views  had  been  embodied  in  the  printed  document  handed 
to  the  President,  and  at  the  meeting  of  the  Congress  in  Brussels  last  Satur- 
day the  adoption  of  the  International  Pharmacopoeia  thus  drawn  up  had 
been  decided  upon,  a  resolution  having  been  adopted  that  the  work  should 
be  edited  and  ])ublished  as  soon  as  possible.  It  was  not  to  be  supposed  that 
this  International  Pharmacopoeia  had  any  further  purpose  at  present 
beyond  serving  as  a  guide  for  those  who  were  willing  to  be  guided  in  the 
direction  of  obtaining  international  uniformity  of  potent  medicinal  pre- 
parations. It  was  to  be  hoped,  however,  that  the  opportunity  thus  afforded 
would  be  taken  advantage  of,  and  as  an  indication  that  this  would  be  done 
he  might  mention  that  Mr.  von  Waldheim,  speaking  as  the  official  repre- 
sentative of  the  Austrian  Government,  had  stated  that  the  Pharmacopoeia 
authorities  of  that  country  intended  to  adopt  the  decisions  arrived  at  by 
the  Congress,  and  with  that  object  had  in  the  meantime  withheld  the  new 
issue  of  the  Austrian  Pharmacopoeia  now  under  revision.  There  was, 
therefore,  now  a  distinct  prospect  of  the  work  done  by  the  International 
Congress  in  London  bearing  some  useful  fruit. 
The  first  paper  read  at  the  meeting  on  the  following  day  was  on  "  The 
Presence  of  Metallic  Impurities  in  Materials  employed  for  the  Manufactuj'e 
of  Aerated  Waters,"  by  Mr.  W.  J.  Macadam,  showing  the  presence  of  lead 
in  sugar,  citi'ic  acid,  tartaric  acid,  and  essence  of  lemon,  and  suggesting  the 
desirability  of  the  perfect  elimination  of  such  impurity.  In  the  discussion 
that  followed,  Mr.  Umney,  Mr.  MacEvvan  and  others  deprecated  the  creation 
of  .another  scare  upon  this  subject  and  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  had 
been  exhausted  some  years  ago,  with  the  result  that  the  quantity  of 
impurity  thus  likely  to  be  introduced  into  aerated  water  would  be  quite 
infinitesimal.  Mr.  Allen,  however,  on  the  other  hand,  considered  that 
the  habitual  use  of  water  containing  a  very  minute  quantity  of  lead  might 
produce  ill  effects  in  certain  peculiar  constitutions. 
Mr.  A.  H.  .lackson  next  read  a  paper  on  "Analyses  of  Tartar  Emetic,'' 
giving  results  which  appeared  somewhat  alarming  from  the  amount  of 
impurity  indicated.    In  the  discussion  of  this  paper  Mr.  Macadam  stated 
