148  Minutes  of  the  Pharmaeeutieal  Meeting.  {^"mSJ^""" 
some,  more  nourishing,  more  digestible,  and  more  physiological  food  than  cane 
sugar.  It  produces  a  koumiss  having  a  finer  sedimentary  deposit,  increases  the 
beauty  and  delicacy  of  flavor,  and  delays  or  prevents  its  becoming  caseous. 
Koumissed  peptones  are,  equally  with  koumiss,  the  vehicles  for  the  admin- 
istration of  such  of  the  most  important  therapeutic  agencies  as  are  of  use  in 
particularly  wasting  diseases.  But  such  medicinal  agents  are  not  added  where 
the  beauty  and  delicacy  of  flavor  of  either  the  koumiss  or  koumissed  peptones 
are  in  any  appreciable  degree  interfered  with. — Med.  News,  Dec.  31, 1887  ;  Brit. 
Med.  Jour. 
Lead  poisoning  from  flour. — A  very  remarkable  epidemic  of  lead  poisoning  has 
recently  been  investigated  in  three  communes  in  the  north  of  France.  Upward 
of  one  hundred  persons  were  suddenly  attacked  with  violent  symptoms,  among 
which  severe  colic  predominated.  So  serious  did  the  condition  of  some  of  the 
sufierers  become,  that  medical  aid  was  obtained,  and  the  presence  in  several 
patients  of  a  characteristic  blue  line  on  the  gums  gave  rise  to  the  suspicion  of 
lead  poisoning.  The  water  supply  was  derived  from  so  many  difierent  sources 
that  it  could  not  be  incriminated,  and  suspicion  ultimately  fell  on  the  flour. 
It  was  ascertained,  on  inquiry,  that  the  afiected  persons  had  all  obtained  their 
flour  from  the  same  mill,  but  those  who  had  partaken  of  rye  bread  were  most 
severely  attacked.  The  mill  was  gone  over,  and  after  a  very  long  and  pains- 
taking examination,  attention  was  directed  to  the  tin  buckets  of  the  elevator 
which  served  to  transport  the  rye  flour  from  the  grindstones.  Several  of  these 
buckets  had  a  dull,  leaden  appearance,  and  were  found  to  have  been  "  tinned  " 
with  lead.  As  doubts  were  entertained  whether  the  quantity  of  lead  from  this 
source  was  sufficient  to  give  rise  to  such  severe  symptoms,  they  were  carefally 
weighed,  and  were  found  to  have  lost  upward  of  five  ounces  of  their  weight. 
The  wheaten  flour,  which  passed  through  another  elevator,  was  fi-ee  from  lead, 
and  this  was  evidently  due  to  none  of  these  "  leaded "  buckets  having  been 
employed  in  its  construction.  The  accuracy  of  the  discovery  was  confirmed  by 
the  observation  that  those  who  ate  rye  bread  exclusively  were  most  severely 
attacked,  while  the  others,  who  mixed  the  two  flours,  escaped  with  compara- 
tively slight  symptoms. — 3fed.  News,  Dec.  31, 1887, 
A  case  of  contamination  of  flour  with  metallic  lead,  which  occurred  in  western 
New  York,  and  resulted  in  the  poisoning  of  over  two  hundred  persons,  of  whom 
several  died,  was  reported  in  the  Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,  1866,  p.  366. 
MINUTES  OF  THE  PHARMACEUTICAL  MEETING. 
Philadelphia,  February  21, 1887. 
The  fifth  of  the  present  series  of  Pharmaceutical  Meetings  was  called  to 
order,  and  Mr.  Alonzo  Bobbins  was  asked  to  preside.  The  minutes  of  the  last 
meeting  were  read  and  approved. 
The  Eegistrar  announced  that  he  had  received  twenty  volumes  of  public 
documents,  some  of  them  of  a  very  interesting  character,  from  the  Hon.  Matt. 
S.Quay,  United  States  Senator  from  Pennsylvania;  also  the  Year  Book  of 
Pharmacy,  from  the  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference  ;  the  Calendar  of  the 
Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain,  for  1888,  and  the  Proceedings  of  the 
