356       Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association.  {Am,jJluy^iS!,)arn1' 
PAPERS  AND  QUERIES. 
The  presentation  of  reports  was  interspersed  with  the  reading  of  papers, 
which  served  to  maintain  the  interest  throughout  the  business  sessions.  They 
were  as  follows  : 
'   WOOD  TAR  CREOSOTE. 
By  Toyman  F.  Kebler. 
The  author  gave  a  communication  which  was  of  considerable  interest,  and 
said  that  formerly  the  popular  opinion  appeared  to  be  that  creosote  was  simply 
a  mixture  of  guaiacol  and  creosol,  of  which  the  former  predominates  in  some 
cases,  and  the  latter  in  others,  but  the  demand  for  the  salts  of  guaiacol  recently 
have  made  such  inroads  upon  guaiacol,  that  in  place  of  finding  creosote  con- 
taining as  high  as  60  per  cent,  of  guaiacol  to-day,  it  is  very  difficult  to  find  an 
article  containing  as  much  as  20  per  cent,  of  guaiacol. 
According  to  his  results  it  would  appear  that  the  commercial  creosote  was 
almost  entirely  devoid  of  guaiacol.  The  per  cent,  varied  from  none  to  sixteen. 
According  to  his  experiments  the  author  is  of  the  opinion  that  creosote  has 
never  contained  as  much  as  60  per  cent,  of  guaiacol.  This  is  evidenced  by  not 
only  his  work,  but  also  by  the  work  of  A.  Behal  and  E.  Choay,  who  found  that 
the  fraction  obtained  by  distilling  crude  wood  tar  creosote  between  200  and 
2100  C.  contained  at  the  most  only  about  25  per  cent.  He  also  suggested  that 
the  requirements  in  the  boiling  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  be  extended  so  that  they 
would  range  between  2co°  and  2200  C,  instead  of  the  present  range  of  boiling 
point,  since  it  is  evident  that  guaiacol  comes  overboiling  2050  C.  There  were 
also  quite  a  number  of  methods  given  for  distinguishing  between  the  genuine 
creosote  and  the  spurious  articles. 
THE  ASSAY  OF  BELLADONNA  LEAVES. 
By  Frank  X.  Moerk. 
This  paper  is  printed  in  full  (see  page  320,  of  this  Journal).  In  the  discussion 
which  followed,  Mr.  Kebler  said  that  he  heard  the  paper  with  considerable 
interest,  but  that  he  did  not  entirely  agree  with  the  author,  and  that  he  con- 
sidered the  method  of  percolation,  as  described  by  the  author,  as  too  cumber- 
some and  too  lengthy  for  practical  application  with  a  large  number  of  assays. 
Professor  Moerk  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  by  his  method  uniformly 
higher  results  were  obtained,  and  that  the  discrepancies  of  Keller's  method 
were  overcome  by  the  time  required  in  this  process. 
ODOR  AS  AN  AID  IN  THE  RECOGNITION  OF  DRUGS. 
By  Clement  B.  Iyowk. 
The  author  has  endeavored  to  work  out  a  classification  of  drugs  based  on 
their  odors,  though  on  account  of  the  personal  element  involved  no  two  inves- 
tigators will  probably  agree  to  all  of  the  conclusions  reached.  The  bulk  of  the 
paper  was  taken  up  with  a  proposed  classification  of  drugs  according  to  their 
characteristic  odor. 
William  C.  Alpers,  of  New  York,  thought  that  the  scientific  method  of  classi- 
fying odors  of  drugs  would  be  to  trace  them  to  the  chemical  compounds  which 
produce  these  odors.  He  said  that  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  the  term  "  character- 
istic "  is  frequently  used,  which  indicates  that  we  do  not  know  what  the  odor  is. 
