206  Minutes  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  { Am-/££  ffirm- 
one  acting  by  antisepsis,  and  the  other  by  destruction  of  the  microbe  through 
using  up  its  food  supply.  Dr.  Kane  thought  that  it  was  in  the  same  train  of 
experiment  as  that  of  Dr.  Jenner  in  vaccination  being  a  preventive  of  small- 
pox. Mr.  Brown  said  that  he  had  paid  considerable  attention  to  the  detection 
of  bacilli  as  a  means  of  determining  the  character  of  disease  ;  many  who 
examined  the  sputa  of  sick  persons  were  unable  to  discover  the  bacillus,  failure 
being  due  to  the  instrument  used  not  being  suitable  for  the  work,  for  which 
an  immersion  objective  should  be  used.  Regarding  the  staining  of  these 
objects,  Mr.  Brown  said  he  used  a  diluted  solution  of  borax,  drying,  coloring 
with  fuchsine  and  counterstaining  blue. 
A  paper  on  aristol  by  Mr.  Beringer  was  read,  giving  a  method  of  its  prepara- 
tion. The  paper  was  accompanied  with  samples  of  the  product.  In  reply  to  a 
question  as  to  its  cost,  he  stated  that  he  had  not  figured  that  out,  but  that  it 
was  much  inside  of  the  price  of  the  foreign-made  article. 
Prof.  Remington  inquired  to  what  extent  the  National  Formulary  is  made 
use  of  by  physicians  and  pharmacists  ;  his  own  opinion  was  that  it  was  the 
most  largely  used  formulary  that  had  been  published  for  a  very  long  term  of 
years,  and  that  it  was  a  great  advantage  for  pharmacists  to  bring  it  to  the 
attention  of  physicians  as  it  would  tend  to  secure  greater  uniformity  in  the  use 
of  special  preparations. 
The  following  prescription  had  been  presented  at  the  last  meeting  : 
Liq.  plumbi  subacetatis,  3  ss 
Ext°Pii-'  •  •     }  aagr.  iiss 
"    belladonnae,  > 
01.  theobromae,   ^iss  s 
M.  ft.  suppos.  vi. 
Replies  as  to  the  best  method  of  compounding  had  been  received  from  two 
pharmacists,  one  of  whom  suggested  gss  lanolin  to  be  used  in  place  of  as 
much  butter  of  cacao,  and  the  other  advised  the  concentration  of  the  lead 
solution  and  the  increase  of  the  butter  of  cacao. 
Inquiry  had  been  made  as  to  zoltat  extent  physicians  use  the  Pharma- 
copoeia ;  this  was  replied  to  by  Mr.  W.  Mclntyre",  by  some  very  interesting 
tabulated  statistics,  covering  1,000  consecutive  prescriptions. 
These  had  been  written  by  78  physicians  in  Philadelphia,  and  called  for  386 
different  drugs  or  preparations,  the  total  number  of  items  in  these  prescrip- 
tions being  3,393,  or  on  an  average  a  trifle  over  items  for  each  prescrip- 
tion. Of  the  drugs  ordered,  there  were  275,  or  71*24  per  cent,  of  the  total 
number,  recognized  by  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  ;  76,  or  19*69  per  cent,  of 
the  whole,  published  in  the  National  Formulary,  the  American  Journai,  of 
Pharmacy,  or  other  readily  accessible  publications  ;  and  only  35,  or  9*07  per 
cent,  of  the  total  number,  consisted  of  proprietary,  trade-marked  and  similar 
preparations.  Regarding  the  proportion  of  each  class  to  the  total  number  of 
3,393  specifications,  it  had  been  ascertained  that  pharmacopoeial  articles  had 
been  ordered  2,979  times,  equal  to  87*80  per  cent,  of  the  total  number ;  non- 
pharmacopoeial  and  non-proprietary  articles  273  times,  equal  to  8*05  per 
cent,  and  proprietary  and  trade-marked  preparations  141  times,  equal  to  4*15 
per  cent,  of  the  total  number  of  items. 
During  the  same  period,  in  which  these  prescriptions  had  been  put  up,  there 
had  been  calls,  by  customers,  without  prescriptions,  for  what  are  known  more 
