574  Minutes  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  {Am'^;miTm' 
MINUTES  OF  THE  PHARMACEUTICAL  MEETING. 
Philadelphia,  October  19th,  1886. 
Pursuant  to  notice  the  first  of  the  series  of  pharmaceutical  meetings  was 
held  this  day ;  on  motion  of  Professor  Maisch,  Mr.  Wm.  B.  Webb  was  called  to 
preside. 
The  reading  of  the  minutes  of  the  last  meeting  was,  on  motion,  dispensed 
with. 
The  following  works  were  reported  as  having  been  received  since  the  last  meet- 
ing :  Vol.  VII.  of  the  Index  of  the  library  of  the  Surgeon -General's  office  from 
the  Surgeon-General,  IT.  S.  A.,  and  a  copy  of  part  II.  of  the  Report  of  the  Smithso- 
nian Institution  for  the  year  1884  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Institution.  A  num- 
ber of  volumes  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association, 
with  fifteen  bound  volumes  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  were  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  Andrew  Blair.  Four  volumes  of  Cours  Elementaire  de  Chimie 
by  Regnault;  one  volume  Mineral  Resources  of  the  United  States ;  one  volume 
Barnard  Proctor's  Lectures  on  Pharmacy ;  a  copy  of  Hare's  Chemical  Philoso- 
phy, and  one  of  Hare's  Chemistry,  from  the  Actuary.  A  vote  of  thanks  of  the 
College  was  offered  to  the  givers  of  the  various  works. 
Mr.  J.  W.  England  read  a  paper  upon  Solution  of  Magnesium  Bromide,  which 
was  referred  to  the  Publication  Committee.  Mr.  Mclntyre  thought  it  was  a 
matter  of  gratulation  that  one  of  our  General  Hospitals  should  be  willing  to 
diffuse  information  about  what  is  going  on  in  their  wards. 
Professor  Maisch  alluded  to  the  squill  bulb  which  was  exhibited  to  the 
pharmaceutical  meeting  last  year ;  the  bulb  was  presented  to  the  College  by 
Mr.  G.  I.  McKelway,  and  while  it  was  destitute  of  leaves,  the  flower  stalk 
shot  up  and  in  three  and  a  half  weeks  it  attained  a  height  of  six  and  three- 
quarter  feet,  the  raceme  alone  being  twenty-seven  inches  in  length.  The 
allusion  to  the  squill  elicited  a  conversation  upon  its  poisonous  properties,  and 
it  was  stated  that  although  quite  a  number  of  papers  have  been  written  upon 
the  subject,  the  active  principles  had  not  been  fully  isolated.  Merck  has 
described  several  principles,  but  has  not  published  the  process  for  preparing 
scillipicrin,  scillitoxin  and  scillin.  The  physiological  action  of  these  principles 
has  not  been  definitely  settled. 
Professor  Maisch  exhibited  specimens  of  benzoin  of  remarkably  fine  quality, 
which  was  recovered  about  a  year  ago  from  the  wreck  of  a  Dutch  East  Indian 
Company's  vessel  lost  in  Table  Bay  about  the  year  1691.  The  cargo  had  re- 
mained there  undisturbed  till  a  party  obtained  license  to  raise  whatever  they 
could  of  the  cargo.  Among  the  goods  recovered  were  some  cases  of  benzoin 
which,  on  being  offered  to  London  dealers,  was  at  first  looked  upon  with  sus- 
picion, as  its  appearance  was  so  different  from  that  usually  seen  in  commerce. 
Examination  proving  it  to  contain  fully  ninety-two  per  cent,  of  matter  soluble 
in  alcohol,  and  to  be  quite  superior  in  regard  to  its  benzoic  acid  strength,  it  was 
readily  disposed  of.  Several  of  the  cases  were  well  preserved,  with  the  marks 
and  numbers  plainly  visible,  giving  the  name  of  the  drug,  the  net  weight  and 
the  year  1691.  The  sample  had  been  obtained  from  Mr.  William  Saunders, 
London,  Canada. 
