Amoctu,ri884.arm'}        British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  549 
late  that  has  led  to  more  or  less  successful  attempts  to  build  them  up  arti- 
ficially. Then  came  the  important  question  whether  the  artificially  com- 
bined compounds  produced  the  same  medicinal  effects  in  the  human  system 
when  administered  as  those  they  were  designed  to  represent,  and  thera- 
peutists, no  less  than  pharmacists,  will  note  with  interest  that  a  man  of 
such  wide  practical  experience  as  Mr.  Williams  is  not  prepared  at  present 
to  answer  that  question  in  the  affirmative.  From  the  vegetable  principles 
to  the  plants  in  which  they  are  formed  was  but  a  step,  and  in  a  few  sentences 
it  was  made  evident  how  what  might  appear  to  be  most  abstruse  researches 
upon  physiological  botany  may  have  a  very  important  bearing  upon  the 
operations  of  practical  pharmacy.  In  a  like  manner,  the  successful  lique- 
faction of  gases  that  had  been  looked  upon  as  refractory  was,  after  a  paren- 
thetic reference  to  the  relatively  narrow  limits  of  temperature  within  which 
the  life  of  organized  beings  is  possible,  made  to  have  a  business  application 
that  will  probably  be  suggestive  to  many  of  the  hearers.  The  new  pharma- 
copoeias, the  justice  of  the  claim  of  pharmacists  to  be  officially  represented 
on  future  committees  charged  with  the  compilation  of  such  works  in  this 
country,  and  the  compilation  of  an  International  Pharmacopoeia  were  the 
topics  to  which  the  latter  part  of  the  Address  was  devoted,  the  treatment  of 
each  being  such  as  commended  itself  to  the  approval  of  the  audience,  as  we 
think  it  wiJl  also  to  most  who  make  their  first  acquaintance  witn  the  Ad- 
dress by  reading  it.  We  may  add  that  although  through  a  slight  misunder- 
standing the  comments  at  the  conclusion  of  the  Address  were  unusually 
few,  Mr.  Williams  had  ample  reason  to  be  gratified  by  the  manner  in  which 
the  Conference  subsequently  created  an  opportunity  for  expressing  an 
opinion  respecting  it. 
The  reading  of  communications  commenced  as  usual  with  reports  from 
gentlemen  who  had  undertaken  the  investigation  of  various  subjects,  partly 
at  the  expense  of  the  Conference.  We  shall  simply  refer  here  to  the  most 
salient  features  in  them.  The  first  two  papers  were  from  Mr.  W.  Elborne,  and 
were  upon  the  subject  of  English  Rhubarbs.  It  would  appear  that  English- 
grown  "  rhubarb  "  from  Rheum  officinale,  the  plant  which  was^first  brought 
to  Europe  about  sixteen  years  ago  (Pharm.  Joum.  [3],  iii.,  301),  has  now 
taken  its  place  side  by  side  in  commerce  with  that  from  R.  rhaponticum, 
from  which  it  may  be  distinguished  upon  fracture  by  the  comparatively 
black  color  of  the  veins  imbedded  in  a  white  parenchymatous  tissue.  The 
excessive  development  of  this  tissue,  observed  in  the  earlier  experimental 
samples  of  this  variety  by  Mr.  Holmes  (Pharm.  Journ.  [3],  vii.,  301),  was 
no  doubt  due  to  "  high  cultivation,"  and  it  has  been  found  that  with  a  slower 
growth  the  roots  become  more  dense,  and  when  prepared  are  of  a  richer  and 
darker  color.  One  of  the  reports  was  devoted  to  some  historical,  botanical, 
and  microscopical  notes  on  English-grown  rhubarb,  and  the  method  of  its 
preparation,  and  the  other  gave  the  results  of  a  series  of  analysis  showing 
to  a  certain  extent  the  constituents  of  samples  of  English  ''officinale" 
a,nd  11  rhaponticum,"  East  Indian  and  the  old-fashioned  Russian  rhubarbs. 
It  was  mentioned  that  the  production  of  English  rhubarb  now  amounts  to 
twelve  thousand  pounds  weight  yearly. 
Mr.  A.  W.  Gerrard  presented  a  final  report  upon  the  alkaloidal  value  of 
