^""'Dec-^  im'"'""}    Minutes  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  QSb 
the  oxidation  of  narcotine  with  manganese  dioxide  and  sulphuric 
acid  yields  opianic  acid  and  cotarnine,  and  under  the  same  conditions 
hydrastinine  gives  opianic  acid  and  hydrastinine ;  further^  as  opianic 
acid  contains  two  methoxyl-groups,  and  cotarnine  contains  one  of  these 
groups,  as  shown  by  Wright,  it  follows  that  hydrastinine  contains  no 
methoxyl-group,  and  cotarnine  may  prove  to  be  a  methylated  hydras- 
tinine. The  author  hopes  later  to  succeed  in  converting  hydi  astine  into 
narcotine. 
MINUTES  OF  THE  PHARMACEUTICAL  MEETING, 
Philadelphia,  Nov.,  20th,  1888. 
The  meeting  was  called  to  order,  Mr.  Wm.  B.Webb  having  been  called  to 
preside.  On  motion,the  reading  of  theminutes  of  thelastmeetingwas  omitted. 
The  secretary  stated  last  month  that  a  gift  of  some  valuable  works  had  been 
made  to  the  library  from  the  cc|lection  of  the  late  Professor  E.  S.  Wayne,  of 
Cincinnati;  at  the  time  he  was  not  aware  that  to  the  widow  of  the 
late  professor  a  proper  acknowledgement  had  already  been  made.  The 
registrar  stated  that  he  had  received  a  communication  from  Mr.  A.  L. 
Beck,  of  Sharon,  Pa.,  a  graduate  of  our  college,  of  the  year  1887 ;  upon 
motion  it  was  read.  It  is  entitled  "  Chemistry  in  a  Drug  Store." 
"For  the  encouragement  and  benefit  of  the  students,  and  especially  to  the 
juniors,  who  have  more  time  ahead  of  them,  would  I  impress  the  importance 
of  improving  the  opportunities  offered  by  the  laboratories.  I  am  aware  that 
the  few  notes  I  have  to  offer  would  not  interest  that  class  of  students  who 
only  study  just  enough  of  each  branch  to  "pull  through"  at  examination  time. 
They  would  not  care  to  waste  time  or  money  on  chemical  apparatus  or  in  the 
laboratory  ;  while  there  are  others  that  do  not  really  appreciate  the  ad- 
vantages of  a  thorough  laboratory  course,  and  think  that  one  day  a  week, 
for  a  period,  in  handling  reagents  is  sufficient  for  the  present,  and  that  they 
will  do  more  in  that  line  in  the  future ;  but  as  far  as  I  have  seen,  they  never 
do.  I  have  been  informed  by  traveling  drug-men  that  very  few  druggists, 
including  graduates  in  pharmacy,  have  a  set  of  reagents  or  volumetric  ap- 
paratus, or  make  any  pretensions  whatever  to  examine  the  drugs  they  buy. 
The  only  way  I  can  account  for  this  state  of  things,  is,  that  having  little  or 
no  experience  in  qualitative  or  quantitative  analysis  they  have  not  enough 
confidence  in  themselves  to  undertake  even  easy  determinations  when  they 
should  have  interest  enough  to  lead  them  in  that  direction. 
"  Being  located  in  an  iron  town  of  eight  thousand  inhabitants,  of  course  the 
most  profitable  work  for  an  analyst  comes  from  the  furnaces  and  mills,  not 
all  of  which  employ  their  own  chemist.  Aside  from  this  the  more  frequent, 
calls  I  have  had,  after  making  known  I  was  prepared  to  do  analytical  work, 
have  been  in  urinary  analysis.  I  supplemented  the  excellent  course  in  mi- 
croscopy under  Prof.  Brown,  by  a  special  course  in  urinary  histology  at  the 
