^"'■ja'li!^!!!'''""''}    Minutes  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  53 
as  required.  Should  it  be  necessary,  it  may  be  used  hypodermatieally  in  doses 
of  fi'om  five  to  fifteen  minims. 
Finally.    The  adranfages  of  ustilago  over  ergot. 
Dr.  Frank  H.  Potter  in  a  paper  on  the  "  Proper  Use  of  Ergot  in  Obstetrical 
Practice,"  ^  closes  his  article  with  a  series  of  ten  conclusions.  In  these  he  states 
that  when  administered  during  labor  the  action  of  ergot  is  uncertain,  producing 
irregular  contractions,  rigidity  of  the  os,  with  interference  of  the  placental  circu- 
lation, or  too  rapid  expulsion  of  the  foetus,  jeopardizing  the  maternal  tissues. 
He  also  asserts  that  the  life  of  the  child  is  endangered  through  absorption  of  the 
oil  of  ergot,  and  that  indirectly  the  drug  may  prove  a  cause  of  puerperal  septi- 
caemia by  preventing  the  removal  of  every  portion  of  the  placenta  and  mem- 
branes. His  last  conclusion  is  as  follows :  "The  proper  use  of  ergot  in  obstetrical 
practice  is  limited  to  those  cases  in  which,  after  the  expulsion  of  the  placenta, 
the  uterus  refuses  to  contract,  or  having  once  contracted,  shows  a  tendency  to 
secondary  relaxation.  Even  in  these  cases  reliance  should  not  be  placed  upon 
it  alone,  but  its  action  should  be  supplemented  by  the  other  means  used  to  pro- 
voke uterine  contraction. 
When  compared  to  this  formidable  array  of  objections  the  employment  of 
ustilago  seeni<  much  to  be  preferred  to  that  of  ergot.  It  does  not  produce 
irregular  contractions  with  all  the  consequent  complications  and  sequelae;  con- 
taining but  two  and  a  half  per  cent,  of  fixed  oil,  while  ergot  contains  fi-om 
twenty-five  Y)er  cent,  to  twenty-eight  per  cent.,  the  dangers  of  absorption  are 
reduced  to  a  minimum ;  and,  finally,  as  it  can  be  procured  at  a  cost  of  fifty  per 
cent,  less  than  that  of  ergot,  it  seems  to  be  on  a  fair  highway  toward  the  sup- 
planting of  the  latter  in  obstetrical  practice,  should  the  results  of  the  investiga- 
tions thus  far  be  confirmed  by  subsequent  researches. — ^fed.  News,  Xov.  5,  1887. 
Philadelphia  Hospital. 
MINUTES  OF  THE  PHARMACEUTICAL  MEETING. 
Philadelphia,  December  20,  18(S7. 
The  third  of  the  present  series  of  pharmaceutical  meetings  was  held  this  day, 
Mr.  William  B,  AVebb  in  the  chair.  The  report  of  the  Survey  of  the  Inter- 
oceanic  Canal  Eoute  in  Nicaragua ;  the  report  of  the  Burea'i  of  Ethnology  ;  the 
report  of  Education  in  Alaska;  and  several  public  documents  issued  by  the 
Treasury  Department,  were  reported  as  having  been  received  for  the  library 
since  the  last  meeting,  from  the  Honorable  M.  S.  Quay,  United  States  Senator 
from  Pennsylvania. 
Mr.  Mclntyre  presented  a  bottle  of  the  old  style,  such  as  formerly  gract  d  the 
shelves  of  the  apothecary  stores,  which  he  thought  might  fittingly  find  a  place 
in  the  cabinet  of  antiquities. 
A  series  of  officinal  tinctures  were  presented  by  Messrs.  Bullock  &  Crenshaw 
to  the  cabinet.  The  chairman  said  he  thought  it  quite  desirable  that  a  set  of 
these  preparations,  made  strictly  according  to  the  Pharmacopoeia,  should  be  in 
the  museum. 
Messrs.  Johnson  &  Johnson  presented  specimens  of  rubber  and  rubber  plaster 
1  Buffalo  Med.  and  Surg.  Journ.,  Sept.  1886,  quoted  in  Therapeutic  Gaz.,  Nov.  15,  1886. 
