Am' juiy! lS.™'}    Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association.  355 
first  tried  to  have  the  bill  dropped  on  account  of  some  preliminary  work  that 
had  been  done  on  a  new  poison  bill,  in  which  they  thought  it  was  probable 
that  the  wishes  of  the  friends  of  House  Bill  No.  153  could  be  met.  As  it  was  im- 
possible to  draw  a  bill  of  this*  class  without  careful  study  of  every  detail,  it 
would  not  have  been  possible  to  have  it  ready  to  present  at  the  last  session  ; 
this  proposition  did  not  meet  with  agreement  from  the  friends  of  the  measure, 
as  they  claimed  that  the  conditions  existing  in  York  needed  prompt  legislative, 
treatment.  Your  committee  then  submitted  the  following  as  an  amendment 
of  the  original  bill.    (See  this  Journal,  April,  1899.) 
"The  matter  finally  dragged  along  until  the  close  of  the  session,  and  the  bill 
was  referred  and  re-referred,  until  it  was  not  acted  upon  through  the  lack  of 
time.  Your  committee  specially  wish  to  refer  to  the  intelligent  aid  given  by 
two  members  of  the  House,  Mr.  E.  H.  Fahey,  of  Philadelphia,  and  Mr.  Win. 
C.  Nisbet,  of  Pittsburg,  who  are  both  pharmacists." 
Charles  L.  Hay,  Chairman  of  the  delegation  to  the  convention  at  St.  Louis, 
at  which  was  organized  the  National  Association  of  Retail  Druggists,  made  a 
report  on  the  causes  leading  up  to  this  step  and  the  progress  of  the  new 
organization. 
Immediately  following  this  report,  the  Committee  on  Recommendations  in 
the  President's  Address  made  its  report,  which  was  adopted  seriatim  and  as  a 
whole. 
The  report  of  the  Committee  on  Adulterations  was  read  by  Prof.  F.  X. 
Moerk  in  the  absence  of  Professor  Emanuel,  Chairman,  which  dealt  prin- 
cipally with  individual  cases  of  errors  in  prescription  work.  The  President, 
Mahlon  N.  Kline,  said  that  he  was  disappointed  in  the  usual  reports  of  the 
Committee  on  Adulteration,  dealing,  as  they  do,  with  minor  mistakes  in  pre- 
scriptions, whereas  a  large  amount  of  adulteration  is  going  on  in  competi- 
tion with  legitimate  houses. 
In  connection  with  the  Committee  on  Adulterations,  Mr.  Kebler  reported 
some  recent  adulterants  met  by  him  in  the  course  of  his  work. 
On  examining  some  vanillin  recently,  he  came  across  a  sample  that  had  a 
melting  point  of  770  C,  and  upon  further  examination  it  was  found  to  consist 
of  6  per  cent,  of  vanillin  and  94  per  cent,  of  acetyl  iso-eugenol,  so  broken  as 
to  resemble  vanillin  ;  the  direct  antecedent  of  vanillin.  More  recently  there 
has  come  to  his  notice  vanillin  that  consisted  of  about  90  per  cent,  of  benzoic 
acid  and  10  per  cent,  of  vanillin,  and  was  informed  that  this  article  is  quite 
largely  used  in  the  manufacture  of  vanilla  extract,  a  sample  of  which  was 
shown.    Another  sample  of  vanillin  sent  in  was  nothing  but  simple  coumarin. 
He  also  has  met  with  a  double  fluoride  of  potassium  and  antimony  that  could 
be  employed  as  an  adulterant  of  tartar  emetic  to  advantage,  and  the  present 
requirements  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  would  not  indicate  it  at  all,  not  even  in 
estimating  the  amount  of  antimony  present,  because  the  double  salt  of  potas- 
sium antimony  fluoride  could  be  so  made  that  the  percentage  of  antimony 
would  be  identical  with  that  contained  in  tartar  emetic. 
He  also  reported  that  ferrous  oxalate  would  form  a  dangerous  substitute  as 
an  adulterant  of  bismuth  subgallate,  from  the  fact  that  it  has  a  color  identical 
with  that  of  the  article  just  mentioned. 
The  Committee  on  Chemistry  recommended  that  the  Association  take  action 
on  the  nomenclature  to  be  adopted  by  the  next  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia,  especially 
in  connection  with  the  halogen  alkaloidal  salts. 
