Am'F™;*m*rm'} Minutes  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  103 
MINUTES  OF  THE  PHARMACEUTICAL  MEETING. 
Philadelphia,  January  17,  1893. 
Wm.  B.  Webb,  Ph.M.,  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  on  motion  of  Professor 
Trimble  the  reading  of  the  minutes  of  the  last  meeting  was  dispensed  with. 
Professor  Remington  spoke  of  the  use  of  sixty  per  cent,  acetic  acid  in 
exhausting  drugs  of  their  active  principles,  and  exhibited  a  number  of  speci- 
mens of  the  fluid  preparations  thus  made,  and  also  the  drugs  that  had  been 
subjected  to  this  treatment.  The  use  of  this  acid  is  becoming  more  important, 
as  it  affords  a  most  reliable  and  economical  escape  from  the  exorbitant  and 
increasing  tax  to  which  druggists  and  pharmacists  have  been  subjected  through 
the  internal  revenue  tax  on  alcohol,  and  through  the  recent  action  of  the  Whis- 
key Trust  in  forcing  up  the  price  of  whiskey  and  consequently  that  of  alcohol . 
The  acid  may  be  used  for  solid  as  well  as  for  fluid  extracts ;  equal  weights  of 
this  sixty  per  cent,  acid  and  water  make  an  acid  of  the  same  strength  as  the 
^No.  8  acetic  acid  of  commerce.  It  was  inquired  whether  the  liquid  prepara- 
tions of  the  aromatics,  and  of  similar  drugs,  when  mixed  with  water  were 
-clear ;  this  was  shown  to  be  the  fact. 
Messrs.  J.  Ellwood  Lee  &  Co.  exhibited  samples  of  the  aseptic  gauzes,  and 
their  improved  method  of  keeping  them  in  that  condition  ;  these  gauzes  are 
packed  in  cartons,  sterilized  by  means  of  a  thorough  immersion  in  paraffin  ; 
the  ligatures,  made  of  sterilized  silks,  are  put  on  spools  and  then  packed  in 
glass  tubes  surrounded  with  alcohol  ;  in  withdrawing  them  through  pierced 
rubber  stoppers  they  are  completely  dried  and  ready  for  use. 
Professor  Trimble  presented,  on  behalf  of  Parke,  Davis  &  Co.,  to  the  museum 
a  handsome  collection  of  soft  capsules.  Professor  Remington  explained  the 
method  of  making  them  over  bone  moulds,  great  care  being  necessary  in 
having  the  proportion  of  gelatin,  glycerin  and  water  just  right  to  produce  a 
film  which  shall  be  sufficiently  elastic  to  slip  off  the  mould  ;  the  filling  is  done 
by  means  of  a  burette  and  pinch-cock. 
The  following  paper  was  then  read  by  the  author  : 
Some  Curious  Experiences  of  a  Month  in  a  Drug  Store  may  be  said  to 
confirm  the  wisdom  of  the  college  in  maintaining  the  pharmaceutical  meetings. 
It  is  an  admitted  fact  that  all  advance  workers  in  professional  and  mechanical 
sciences  do  find  no  method  so  prolific  of  good  as  the  face  to  face  meet  and 
interchange  of  thought.  We  are  all  asked  questions  upon  subjects  which  are 
new  to  us  and  have  not  the  time,  and  sometimes  not  the  ability,  to  investigate 
or  answer.  To  all  such  this  is  a  good  place  to  have  such  problems  solved. 
While  it  is  advisable  to  read  the  numerous  journals  claiming  to  be  exponents 
of  progress  and  exact  knowledge  in  matters  pharmaceutic,  it  is  more  than 
necessary  that  the  busy  pharmacist,  who  finds  his  time  engaged  in  multitudi- 
nous ways  of  maintaining  not  only  his  professional  but  his  mercantile  stand- 
ing, should  be  able  to  discriminate  when  the"  subject  matter  is  not  altogether 
free  from  a  business  bias. 
Our  neighbors,  the  grocers,  realizing  the  advantage,  hold  annually  an  Expo- 
sition, with  paid  admissions  and  liberal  expenditure  of  money  for  demon- 
strators in  the  culinary  art. 
Many  of  the  experiences  may  not  be  new,  yet  not  devoid  of  some  interest, 
