6i8         Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Associations.  {k^™-J%*m 
Resolved,  We  believe  the  stringency  of  the  present  drug  laws  of  Missouri  is 
unnecessary,  so  far  as  legitimate  druggists  are  concerned  that  it  is  detrimental  to 
the  commonwealth  of  the  State,  and  impracticable  in  many  cases  which  necessarily- 
come  up  in  dispensing  medicine. 
Resolved,  That  this  convention  present  to  Governor  Phelps  a  memorial  request  - 
him,  that  if  he  should  call  the  Legislature  together  prior  to  the  sitting  of  the  next 
general  assembly  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  to  embody  in  his  proclamation  the  con- 
sideration of  a  law  tending  to  elevate  our  profession  and  protect  us  against  intrusion 
by  designing  persons. 
The  Executive  Committee  was  directed  to  secure  a  seal  for  the  association  and  to 
select  delegates  to  attend  the  next  meeting  of  the  American  Pnarmaceutical  Asso- 
ciation at  Saratoga.  Five  hundred  copies  of  the  proceedings  were  ordered  to  be 
printed,  and  the  President  was  requested  to  correspond  with  members  with  a  view 
of  securing  several  essays  at  the  next  meeting,  which  is  to  be  held  at  Moberly  on 
the  fourth  Tuesday  in  October,  1880. 
Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain. — At  the  pharmaceutical  meeting, 
held  November  7th,  Mr.  Thos.  Greenish  in  the  chair,  a  large  number  of  specimens 
presented  to  the  museum  were  exhibited,  among  them  a  collection  of  over  one 
hundred  American  drugs,  presented  by  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy  j, 
Mozambique  opium  containing  4  per  cent,  of  morphia,  4-3  of  narcotina  and  a  large  per- 
centage of  water  j  a  stomach  of  the  South  American  ostrich,  Rhea  americana,  which 
is  used  in  the  same  manner  as  pepsin,  but  apparently  has  very  little  digestive  power  ;, 
Jajerabad  aloes,  sold  in  the  bazaars  in  India  in  the  form  of  flat  cakes,  and  not  like 
the  Aden  aloes  reddened  by  nitric  acid  ;  the  fruit  of  Luff  a  agyptiaca,  which,  with 
the  outer  skin  and  seeds  removed,  is  coming  into  use  as  a  flesh  glove,  for  which  it 
answers  admirably  well  and  is  very  lasting.  A  specimen  of  oil  of  ginger  grass  or 
rusa  oil,  prepared  by  Dr.  Dymock,  was  ascertained  to  have  been  distilled  from  a 
plant  differing  from  Andropogon  Schoenanthus,  Lin  ,  and  to  have  a  slightly  differ- 
ent, somewhat  caraway-like  odor,  and  a  rotatory  power  of  4"39*^5°>  whereas  the 
true  oil  of  ginger  grass  rotates  polarized  light  only  -j-ryz0. 
Several  specimens  of  spurious  matico  were  shown,  one  being  Artanthe  adunca 
("Am.  Jour.  Pharm.,"  1864,  p.  118),  while  another  was  a  singular  variety  of  the 
true  matico  (0.  cordulatum,  D.  C),  which  differs  from  the  typical  plant  in  having 
the  leaves  nearly  smooth  and  without  the  wrinkled  appearance  of  the  true  drug.  A 
third  kind  was  a  species  of  pepper,  which  had  been  imported  as  "  matico  aromatica 
it  has  a  strong  aromatic  odor,  somewhat  resembling  anise,  and  the  leaves  are 
smooth  and  nearly  ovate  in  outline. 
Mr.  Davies  called  attention  to  a  series  of  specimens  showing  the  results  obtained 
in  dispensing  a  prescription  containing  tincture  of  sumbul,  carbonate  of  ammonium 
and  camphor  water,  with  tincture  of  sumbul  obtained  from  various  sources.  In  some 
cases  there  had  been  a  green  coloration  due  possibly  to  the  presence  of  umbelliferon, 
and  in  others  not,  and  there  were  other  differences.  He  also  showed  specimens  of 
the  roots  from  which  the  tinctures  had  been  made.  Prof.  JBentley  found  the  prin- 
cipal part  of  the  root  to  be  true  sumbul.  In  the  discussion  attention  was  called  to 
the  false  sumbul  root,  noticed  by  Peieira,  J.  B.  Allen  and  F.  J.  Hanbury,  and  by 
