Am.  Jour.  Pnarm.  \ 
October,  1911.  f 
British  Pliar.  Conference. 
491 
Lactating  animals  cannot  be  depended  upon  as  they  seem  to 
possess  a  greater  tolerance  for  the  drug,  the  degree  depending  on 
the  stage  of  lactation. 
While  individual  results  will  not  infrequently  check  each  other 
very  closely,  considering  the  results  of  an  entire  assay,  great  varia- 
tions will  often  be  observed,  amounting  in  some  cases  to  more  than 
100  per  cent. 
When  testing  a  preparation  one  has  tO'  consider  six  or  more 
unknown  factors,  ndmely : 
1.  Toxicity  of  ouabain. 
2.  Power  of  ouabain  to  exactly  replace  the  digitalis  bodies. 
3.  Amount  of  digitalis  to  be  injected. 
4.  Amount  of  ouabain  to  be  injected. 
5.  Rate  of  injection. 
6.  Time. 
This  method  has  perhaps  one  point  of  superiority  over  all  others 
in  that  the  matter  of  absorption  is  entirely  eliminated. 
Laboratory  of  Pharmacology, 
Eli  Lily  &  Co., 
Indianapolis,  Indiana. 
ABSTRACTS  OF  PAPERS  READ  AT  THE  BRITISH  PHAR- 
MACEUTICAL CONFERENCE 
By  John  K.  Thum,  Ph.G.  Pharmacist  at  German  Hospital,  Philadelphia. 
Portsmouth,  the  great  naval  port  of  the  United  Kingdom,  was 
the  scene  of  the  forty-eighth  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  the 
British  Pharmaceutical  Conference. 
The  sessions  opened. on  Tuesday  morning,  July  25,  191 1.  Mr. 
William  Frederick  Wells,  the  President  of  the  Conference,  who  is 
one  of  the  best  known  ]>harmaceutical  chemists  of  Ireland,  and 
whose  knowledge  of  the  laws  pertaining  to  pharmacy  in  the  Emerald 
Isle  is  most  comprehensive,  devoted  a  considerable  portion  of  his 
his  presidential  address  to  a  discussion  of  the  laws  appertaining  to 
pharmacy  in  the  United  Kingdom. 
He  commenced  his  address  by  speaking  feelingly  of  the  irrep- 
arable loss  which  I>ritish  pharmacy  sustained  through  the  death  of 
