Am"oc°tu,r  iST"'  }  Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Associations.         5  2 1 
taining  undissolved  powders,  oils,  resins,  etc.,  uniformly  suspended.  The  results 
tended  to  show  that  the  presence  of  such  substances  does  not  affect  the  indications 
of  carefully  made  hydrometers. 
The  last  paper  read  at  Tuesday's  sitting  of  the  Conference  was  by  Mr.  Gerrard, 
on  the  extraction  of  pilocarpine  by  ammoniated  alcohol,  which  he  has  found  to  be  a 
much  more  convenient  solvent  than  those  hitherto  used,  it  furnishing  a  larger 
amount  of  product  and  effecting  the  separation  of  the  alkaloid  from  the  dark  color- 
ing matter  much  more  readily.  It  was  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Williams,  in  the  course 
•of  the  discussion  on  this  paper,  that  the  use  of  ammoniated  alcohol  may  possibly  be 
adopted  with  advantage  in  the  extraction  of  alkaloids  from  other  materials. 
On  the  second  day's  sitting  the  business  was  commenced  by  the  reading,  by  Mr. 
Allen,  of  some  "Notes  on  Petroleum  Spirit,"  describing  some  characteristic  reac- 
tions of  petroleum  spirit  as  compared  with  those  of  benzene  from  coal  tar,  as  well 
as  a  method  of  testing  mixtures  of  petroleum  spirit  and  benzol.  The  different 
behaviour  of  these  substances  when  treated  with  nitric  acid  furnished  the  basis  for 
this  method  of  testing. 
Mr.  F.  W.  Fletcher  then  read  a  paper  on  the  "  Valuation  of  Citrate  of  Iron  and 
'Quinia."  After  adverting  to  the  circumstance  that  the  Pharmacopoeia  test  fur- 
nished no  indication  whether  the  alkaloid  obtained  by  its  directions  was  or  was  not 
quinia,  the  author  suggested  the  application  of  the  plan  of  fractional  crystalliza- 
tion to  the  sulphate  as  a  means  of  detecting  the  presence  of  cinchonidia.  The 
necessity  of  employing  this  test  was  shown  by  the  mention  of  the  circumstance  that 
certain  foreign  makes  of  "sulphate  of  quinia"  invariably  contain  a  large  propor- 
tion of  cinchonidia  sulphate. 
Two  papers  by  Mr.  E.  Davies  were  then  read.  The  first,  on  the  "Estimation  of 
Water  in  Iodine,"  by  combining  a  known  quantity  of  iodine  with  a  weighed  excess 
of  mercury,  and  weighing  the  dried  residue,  elicited  some  useful  information.  The 
other  paper,  on  the  "  Presence  of  Tannin  in  Gentian  Root,"  suggested  the  possi- 
bility that  the  tannin  contained  in  the  root  is  liable  to  decomposition  when  the 
gentian  is  powdered,  or  that  tannin  is  not  a  uniform  constituent  of  gentian  root. 
A  paper  on  "Amylic  Alcohol  and  Amylic  Nitrite,"  by  Mr.  Dott,  consisted 
mainly  of  a  reply  to  certain  criticisms1  of  the  paper  read  by  Mr.  Dott  upon  this 
subject  at  the  meeting  of  the  Conference  last  year.2  The  author  maintained  the 
correctness  of  the  statements  in  his  original  paper,  and  he  was  supported  in  that 
position  by  speakers  who  stated  their  experience  in  the  course  of  the  discussion. 
The  "  Gelatinization  of  Tincture  of  Kino"  formed  the  subject  of  a  paper  by 
Mr.  Bamford.  The  author  suggested  frequent  agitations  of  the  tincture  as  an 
efficient  remedy  of  the  inconvenience  experienced  by  many  dispensers  from  the 
behavior  of  tincture  of  kino.  In  the  course  of  the  discussion  that  followed  the 
reading  of  this  paper  it  soon  became  evident  that  gelatinization  of  tincture  of  kino 
is  not  by  any  means  invariably  experienced.  Some  of  the  speakers  had  never  seen 
a  case  during  many  years  ;  others  had  observed  it  only  on  one  or  two  occasions,  and 
it  was  suggested  that  the  result  was  probably  due  to  some  peculiarity  in  the  kino 
1  "American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,"  for  February,  and  "  Pharm.  Jour.,"  vol.  ix,  p.  899. 
2  "Pharm.  Jour.,"  [3],  vol.  ix,  p.  172.    "Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,"  1878,  p.  499. 
