^m*oStlfiS3.arm'}  Titration  as  a  Means  of  Assaying  Drugs.  473 
macopoeia  of  1 880,  a  curious  mistake  was  made  regarding  Witch-hazel. 
Under  the  title  of  Hamamelis,  the  leaves  were  introduced  and  a 
formula  for  a  fluid  extract  thereof.  True,  the  so-called  distilled 
extract  or  water  had  been  made  from  the  freshly-gathered  twigs 
and  leaves,  but  under  the  official  title  of  the  drug,  the  dispensato- 
ries described  the  medicinal  action  of  the  bark.  The  writer  knows 
that  the  bulk  of  the  fluid  extract,  made  up  to  that  time,  and  even 
since,  has  been  made  from  the  bark.  In  the  report  of  the  Commit- 
tee on  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy, 
which  was  presented  to  the  Convention  in  1890,  it  was  recommended 
that  the  bark  be  admitted  into  the  Pharmacopoeia  and  that  a  fluid 
extract  of  the  same  be  also  introduced.  Yet  the  present  revision 
continues  this  error. 
Oil  of  Anise,  from  Anisum,  is  alone  recognized  under  that  title, 
the  description  being  such  as  to  exclude  the  oil  from  Illicium. 
Although  the  oil  from  anisum  has,  in  recent  years,  been  produced 
in  very  much  larger  quantities  than  formerly  and  at  greatly  reduced 
prices,  the  bulk  of  the  oil  consumed  is  still  that  obtained  from  the 
star  anise. 
Our  Western  pulsatilla  from  Anemone  patens  L.  var.,  Nuttalliana, 
Gray,  is  no  longer  recognized,  Pilocarpus  includes  both  the  Rio 
Janeiro  and  the  Pernambuco  Jaborandis.  In  the  botanical  classifica- 
tion of  the  plants  it  is  to  be  noted  that  sub-orders  are  not  given 
and  that  several  of  the  natural  orders  given  in  the  U.  S.  P.  1880 
have  been  reduced  from  their  ordinal  standing,  so  that  plants 
previously  classified  as  natural  order  Zingiberacese  are  suppressed 
into  Scitamineae,  Granataceae  into  Lythrarieae,  Erythroxylaceae  into 
Lineae,  Melanthaceae  into  Liliaceae,  and  Aurantiacese  into  Rutaceae. 
[  To  be  continued.^ 
THE  VALUE  OF  TITRATION  WITH  VOLUMETRIC  ACID 
SOLUTION  AS  A  MEANS  OF  ASSAYING  ALKA- 
LOIDAL  DRUGS  AND  GALENICAL 
PREPARATIONS. 
By  Charles  Caspari,  Jr.,  Ph.G.,  and  Alfred  R.  L.  Dohme,  A.B.,  Ph.D. 
Read  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association. 
Some  time  since  one  of  us  (C.)  made  mention 1  of  the  fact  that  a 
series  of  investigations  was  in  course  of  progress  upon  the  subject 
1  Caspari,  "A  Few  Remarks  about  Alkaloidal  Assays  of  Drugs,"  Phar- 
maceutical Review,  Vol.  I,  page  211. 
