AmMay?iS6arm'}   Minutes  of the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  263 
of  some  fixed  oil,  possibly  of  sandal  tree  seed  oil,  which  is  used  for 
lamp  oil  in  Mysore.  This  question,  however,  can  only  be  settled  by 
the  distillation  of  the  wood  and  examination  of  the  oil-in  India  by  a 
competent  chemist. 
The  West  Indian  oil,  as  shown  in  '  Pharmacographia/  may  be 
detected  by  its  optical  properties,  and  is  probably  derived  from  an 
undescribed  rutaceous  tree. 
The  specific  gravities  obtained  indicate  that  the  figure  given  in  the 
B.P.  is  too  low. 
The  oil  originally  recommended  for  use  in  medicine  by  Dr.  T.  B. 
Henderson  in  the  Medical  Times  and  Gazette,  (June  3,  I860,  p.  571) 
was  that  f  S.  album  var.  /?.  myrtifolium,  the  wood  of  which  is  said 
('Pharmacographia/  2nd  edition,  p.  602)  to  be  nearly  inodorous.  But 
it  is  only  during  the  last  few  years  that  sandal  wood  oil  has  extended 
its  reputation  widely.  The  question  arises  therefore,  is  the  therapeu- 
tic property  of  the  oil  due  to  true  oil  of  sandal  wood,  to  oil  of  cedar, 
or  to  the  oil  of  the  Venezuela  tree?  The  species  of  the  genus  Juni- 
perus  are  known  to  have  physiological  effects  on  the  urinary  organs, 
and  cedar  wood  oil  may  be  possessed  of  as  great,  or  greater,  therapeu- 
tic value  than  the  sandal  wood.  oil.  Since  all  these  oils  are  to  be  met 
with  in  commerce,  it  would  be  more  satisfactory  to  know  which  is  the 
most  valuable  remedy,  but  this  point  is  one  to  be  determined  by  the 
medical  profession. — Pharmac.  Jour,  and  Trans.,  March  27,  1886,  p. 
819-822. 
MINUTES  OF  THE  PH  ABM  A  CEUTIC  AL  MEETING. 
Philadelphia,  April  20,  1886. 
The  seventh  meeting  of  the  present  series  was  held  this  day  ;  Mr.  Wallace 
Procter  in  the  chair.  The  minutes  of  the  last  meeting  having  been  read,  and 
no  corrections  being  required,  they  stand  approved. 
The  following  donations  to  the  library  from  our  fe  low  member,  Mr.  A.  B. 
Taylor,  were  placed  on  the  table:  A  copy  of  the  first  edition  of  the  United 
Stafes  Dispensatory,  by  Drs.  Wood  and  Bache;  Noads'  Chemical  Analysis,  Parts 
land  2;  Cooke's  Chemistry;  Lec'ure  Notes  for  Chemical  Students,  by  E. 
Frankland  ;  Precis  d'  Analyse  pour  rechercher  des  Alterations  et  Falsifications 
des  Produits  Chimiques  et  Pharmaceutiques,  jar  Gellee;  als  ~>  quite  a  number 
of  fire  steel  engravings  of  several  distinguished  scientis' s,  which  theaetnary  was 
ernocwered  to  have  arranged  in  a  suitable  book  for  their  better  preservation. 
The  actuary  referred  to  the  question  of  ultramarine  in  sugar,  which  had  been 
allude  1  to  in  the  last  meeting;  since  then  he  made  inquiries  at  the  Franklin 
Sugar  Refinery  and  was  informed  that  ultramarine  is  used  only  to  correct  the 
