552  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.        {  A%J™ri884 arm 
papers  upon  the  subject  of  "Standardizing,"  one  by  Mr.  G.  F.  Schacht  and 
the  other  by  Mr.  D.  B.  Dott.  That  Mr.  Schacht  does  not  look  with  favor 
upon  the  proposal  to  standardize  all  powerful  pharmaceutical  preparations 
is  pretty  well  known.  In  the  present  paper  he  argues  that  such  prepara- 
tions are  devisible  into  two  classes,  one  consisting  of  those  that  are  dilutions 
of  definite  chemical  substances,  and  so  allow  of  being  standardized,  and 
the  other  of  preparations  of  more  or  less  complex  substances,  concern- 
ing the  mode  of  operation  of  which  little  is  yet  known.  In  the  present 
empirical  state  of  the  practice  of  medicine,  he  maintained,  it  would  be 
worse  than  useless  to  pretend  to  standardize  such  preparations  in  respect  to 
their  contents  in  active  principle,  and  he  said  that  even  if  the  case  were 
different  it  would  be  for  pharmacy  to  assist  in  the  inquiry,  not  to  initiate 
or  conduct  it.  Mr.  Dott  also  considers  that  the  attempt  to  standardize  cer- 
tain preparations  would  be  misleading,  and  he  would  see  in  the  alleged 
variations  in  their  contents  rather  a  reason  for  their  disuse.  But  he  believes 
that,  in  nearly  every  case,  if  the  material  operated  upon  be  of  proper  quality 
the  preparations  will  be  of  the  right  strength.  These  papers,  perhaps  on 
account  of  the  hour,  did  not  give  rise  to  so  much  discussion  as  might  have 
been  expected,  but  some  disposition  was  evinced  to  concur  with  the  writers. 
Professor  Redwood,  however,  said  he  saw  no  reason  why  preparations  of 
such  drugs  as  opium,  cinchona  and  other  drugs  containing  known  active 
principles  should  not  be  standardized  as  far  as  possible,  leaving  what  was 
not  yet  understood  alone. 
The  proceedings  were  recommenced  on  Wednesday  by  the  reading  of  a 
note  by  Mr.  Key  worth,  entitled  "A  Fossil  Aloe  from  the  Wealdeu,"  in 
which  the  author  had  found  scope  for  a  flight  of  the  scientific  imagination 
and  the  executive  committee  an  opportunity  for  showing  the  extent  of  its 
faith  in  believing  the  paper  had  a  bearing  on  anything  pharmaceutical. 
Mr.  Naylor  followed  with  more  information  respecting  hymenodictyonine, 
the  alkaloid  from  Hymenodictyon  excelsum,  which  he  has  now  coaxed  to 
crystallize  and  represents  by  the  formula  C23H40N2.  It  is  inferred  from  the 
results  of  experiments  that  it  is  a  tertiary  dyamine  closely  analogous  with 
nicotine,  with  which  probably  it  is  homologous. 
Mr.  Willmott's  "Note  on  the  Filtration  of  Lard"  was  a  defence  of  the 
position  taken  by  him,  in  a  paper  read  at  the  last  previous  Conference,  that 
the  operation  of  filtering  in  the  preparation  of  lard  is  not  the  most  advan- 
tageous. His  more  recent  experiments  have  led  him  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  operation  of  filtration  is  more  honored  in  the  breach  than  the  observ- 
ance, better  results  having  been  obtained  by  straining  through  flannel, 
which  Professor  Redwood  is  inclined  to  attribute  to  the  fat  not  being 
exposed  to  atmospheric  oxidation  so  long  or  over  so  large  an  extent  of 
surface.  Mr.  Naylor  said  he  preferred  to  melt  the  flare  at  a  low  tempera- 
ture and  filter  it  as  rapidly  as  possible  through  paper.  In  the  discussion 
Professor  Redwood  incidentally  alluded  to  the  vast  number  of  communica- 
tions that  had  been  received  by  those  engaged  on  the  new  Pharmacopoeia, 
some  of  which  recommended  the  entire  exclusion  of  animal  fats;  but  he 
said  he  could  not  agree  with  the  proposition,  as,  in  his  opinion,  there  is  no 
substance  comparable,  as  a  base  for  ointments,  with  good,  well  prepared, 
