144 
Phar mac eutical  Meeting . 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\      March,  1915. 
difficulty  with  such  preparations  is  that  they  are  most  unstable ;  while 
active  at  first,  they  soon  lose  their  digestive  power.  An  examina- 
tion of  certain  pharmaceutical  preparations  supposed  to  contain  defi- 
nite ferments  showed  that  they  contained  little  or  none  of  these  bodies. 
Where  manufacturers  had  used  proper  amounts  of  the  various  en- 
zymes, such  as  pepsin,  pancreatin,  diastase,  and  similar  ferments,  no 
attempt  had  been  made  to  determine  their  activity.  Manufacturers 
are  warned  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  through  the  Bureau 
of  Chemistry,  that  combinations  claiming  to  contain  digestive  en- 
zymes must  be  active  when  sold.  Such  preparations  should  be 
dated,  and  not  sold  after  they  become  inactive.  "  The  Council  on 
Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  nearly  seven  years  ago  called  attention  to 
the  various  digestive  impossibilities  on  the  market.  Practically  all 
of  these  are  still  sold.  To  sell  a  sick  patient  a  mass  of  inert  material 
which  he  believes  to  be  active  is  not  only  perpetration  of  a  fraud  on 
the  patient,  but  does  gross  injury  to  the  physician  who  prescribes  for 
him  and  endangers  still  further  the  patient's  health.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  government  will  adopt  measures  that  will  prevent  the  sale 
of  such  useless  and  scientifically  absurd  combinations." — Jour.  A. 
M.  A.,  Dec,  19,  1914. 
PHARMACEUTICAL  MEETING. 
At  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting  held  at  the  Philadelphia  College 
of  Pharmacy  on  Friday,  January  15th,  at  3  p.m.,  in  the  Chemical 
Lecture  Room,  Mr.  Warren  H.  Poley  presided  and  introduced  Prof. 
Charles  H.  La  Wall,  who  gave  a  talk  upon  the  subject  of  Bermuda, 
which  was  occasioned  by  a  recent  visit  to  the  island. 
The  talk  was  illustrated  with  lantern  reproductions  of  nearly  100 
photographs,  which  had  been  arranged  in  chronological  order  and 
which  showed  the  principal  features  of  interest,  geographical,  topo- 
graphical, architectural,  aesthetic,  and  scientific. 
Views  were  shown  of  the  growing  plants  which  are  of  interest 
during  the  winter  season,  and  specimens  of  some  of  the  native  fruits, 
including  the  pawpaw,  were  given  especial  attention.  The  lecture 
was  remarkable  in  that  no  mention  whatever  was  made  of  the  three 
products  for  which  Bermuda  is  particularly  noted,  viz.,  arrowroot, 
onions,  and  lilies.  This  omission  was  occasioned  by  the  fact  that 
arrowroot  is  no  longer  grown  for  the  market,  and  the  onion  and  lily 
crops  are  just  being  planted  at  this  time  of  the  year. 
