516  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  {Am'o™*im&rm 
British  Pharmaceutical  Conference  this  year  offers  ample  material  for  discus- 
sion ;  but  whether  this  will  be  taken  advantage  of  it  would  be  unsafe  in  the 
light  of  past  experience  to  predict.  On  our  part  we  express  the  hope  that  at 
least  the  recognized  leaders  in  pharmacy,  and  especially  those  whose  names 
have  been  associated  in  the  past  with  the  subject  of  provincial  pharmaceutical 
education,  will,  as  soon  as  may  be  practicable,  express  their  opinions  upon  Mr. 
Greenish's  propositions.  In  doing  so  it  would  be  well  to  remember  that,  in 
respect  to  points  of  detail,  these  propositions  are  to  be  considered  open  to  modi- 
fication; so  far  as  we  understand  Mr.  Greenish's  intention  they  are  simply 
intended  to  form  a  nucleus  for  criticism.  Whether  there  shall  be  fifteen  or 
thirty  divisions ;  whether  the  boundaries  shall  follow  county  or  other  recog- 
nized lines,  or  remain  arbitrary  as  in  Mr.  Greenish's  map  ;  the  persons  who 
shall  constitute  the  committees,  and  how  much  they  are  to  be  allowed  to  spend, 
are  insignificant  questions  compared  with  the  one,  whether  committees  for 
organizing  centres  of  education  for  definite  districts  shall  be  appointed  at  all. 
The  advantage  of  the  present  position  is  that  an  idea  that  has  been  floating  in 
many  minds  more  or  less  definitely,  and  which  has  been  more  than  once 
hinted  at,  has  now  been  put  into  a  concrete  form  that  will  allow  of  its  proper 
discussion  with  a  view  to  its  adoption  or  final  rejection.  These  remarks  will 
apply  with  equal  force  to  the  question  as  to  special  preparations.  The  first 
thing  to  be  determined  is  whether  these  subjects  are  to  be  dealt  with  at  all  on 
the  broad  lines  indicated  in  the  presidential  address,  and  if  this  be  answered 
in  the  affirmative  the  elaboration  of  the  details  would  follow  as  a  matter  of 
course. 
The  novelty  of  the  position,  perhaps,  may  account  for  the  address  not 
having  been  dealt  with  at  once  exactly  on  the  lines  suggested ;  but  immedi- 
ately after  a  vote  of  thanks  had  been  accorded  to  the  President  by  acclama- 
tion, on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Thompson,  seconded  by  Mr.  Arblaster,  notice  was 
given  by  Mr.  Eeynolds  that  he  would  bring  forward  a  practical  motion  in 
respect  to  the  special  preparation  question  on  Wednesday  morning. 
Aconitine. — The  reading  of  papers  was  then  proceeded  with  and  notwithstand- 
ing so  much  had  been  written  about  aconitine,  an  interesting  communication 
from  Mr.  Williams  showed  that  the  last  word  has  not  yet  been  said  on  the  subject. 
In  the  first  portion  of  the  paper  Mr.  Williams  described  the  process  adopted 
by  him  in  producing  crystallized  aconitine  to  meet  the  growing  demand  for  it. 
The  material  used,  he  considers,  should  be  derived  from  Aconitum  Napellus 
only,  care  being  taken  to  exclude  the  tubers  from  other  species.  The  roots 
are  not  dried  at  a  temperature  sufficiently  high  to  allow  of  being  finely  pow- 
dered, but  a  coarse  powder  is  exhausted  with  62°  to  64°  alcohol  containing 
tartaric  acid  by  a  process  of  maceration  and  percolation.  From  the  strong 
tincture  the  spirit  is  distilled  off  at  the  lowest  possible  temperature,  and  the 
residual  thin  aqueous  extract  is  filtered  through  paper,  which  removes  some 
resinous  matter,  then  shaken  up  with  ether,  which  removes  some  oily  matter, 
and  next  treated  with  sodium  carbonate,  which  precipitates  the  crude  alkaloid. 
This  is  washed  in  moderately  hot  water,  dried  in  the  air,  powdered  and 
macerated  in  pure  washed  ether,  from  which  it  crystallizes  on  evaporation. 
It  has  been  recommended  by  Groves,  Wright  and  Mandelin  that  the  base 
should  be  converted  into  nitrate  as  a  means  of  purification.   But  although 
