38  Minutes  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  {Am7aT;8P76?rm* 
very  neat.  E.  C.  Jones  claimed  the  use  of  a  press  as  unneccessary,  having  seen  the 
rim  of  two  turned  wood  boxes  used  as  a  substitute.  Prof.  Remington  said  that 
two  empty  morphia  bottles  had  been  used  by  some  in  place  of  a  press. 
On  motion,  the  papers  read  were  referred  to  the  publication  committee. 
Prof.  Maisch  exhibited  a  series  of  botanical  models,  made  by  Robert  Brendel,  of 
Berlin,  Germany,  which  have  been  recently  imported,  to  be  used  for  the  illustration 
of  the  lectures  on  botany  and  Materia  Medica.  These  models  are  faithful 
representations  of  the  flowers  and  other  parts  of  plants  belonging  to  different 
natural  orders,  magnified  to  such  an  extent  that  the  different  parts  can  be  readily 
seen  at  sOme  distance  ;  they  are  painted  in  the  natural  colors  of  the  organs  which 
they  represent,  and  many  of  them  can  be  taken  apart  so  as  to  exhibit  their  internal 
structure.  Amongst  the  models  shown  were  those  of  Aconitum  Napellus,  Viola 
tricolor,  Conium  maculatum,  Hypericum  perforatum,  Maruta  cotula,  Digitalis  purpurea, 
Colchicum  autumnale,  Atropa  belladonua,  the  flowers  of  the  potato,  strawberry, 
apple,  cherry  and  others,  the  entire  series  comprising  sixty-five  numbers,  of  which 
twenty-five  consist  of  from  two  to  four  distinct  models. 
E.  M.  Boring  directed  the  attention  of  the  meeting  to  the  following  prescription  : 
Jfc       Quiniae  sulphatis,     .......  gr.xvi 
Tinct.  ferri  chloridi,          ......  f5iss 
Acidi  phosphorici  diluti,   "       .             .             .             .             .  foi 
Syrupi,              .......  fSiss 
Aquae,  q.s.  ad.          ......  fSiv 
A  white  precipitate  being  formed,  the  ingredients  were  mixed  in  various  ways,, 
and  the  quinia  dissolved  in  the  necessary  quantity  of  dilute  muriatic  acid,  with  the 
effect  merely  of  delaying  the  appearance  of  the  precipitate.  The  phosphoric  acid 
used  had  been  made  of  phosphorus,  and  the  precipitate,  having  been  found  to  be 
ferric  phosphate,  several  other  samples  of  dilute  phosphoric  acid  were  procured  and 
tested  with  solution  of  ferric  chloride  containing  no  free  acid,  by  adding  3  drops  of 
the  former  and  2  drops  of  the  iron  solution  to  one  drachm  of  water,  when  precipi- 
tates would  occur.  Upon  reversing  the  proportions,  using  2  drops  of  acid  and  3  of 
iron,  two  of  the  samples  gave  precipitates,  one  became  opalescent  and  two  remained 
clear.  One  of  the  latter  had  been  made  by  Prof.  Markoe's  process.  On  mixing  the 
acid  with  an  equal  quantity  of  tincture  of  iron,  diluting  this  with  water,  as  directed 
in  the  prescription,  one-half  the  quantity  of  the  quinia  was  added,  and  the  solution 
remained  perfectly  clear,  while  the  whole  quantity  of  quinia  ordered  almost  imme- 
diately caused  the  appearance  of  a  precipitate.  The  inference  drawn  from  his  ex- 
perience was,  that  testing  with  neutral  chloride  of  iron  some  definite  proportion 
should  be  given,  because  if  carried  to  very  dilute  solution  the  resulting  phosphate 
of  iron  would  not  remain  in  solution.  This  was  not  so  readily  observed  in  using  the 
tincture  of  chloride  of  iron,  which  contains  free  hydrochloric  acid. 
I.  J.  Grahame  had  met  with  the  difficulty  as  early  as  1868.  He  had  been  able  to 
prepare  an  acid  from  the  glacial  acid  that  would  mix  clear  with  tincture  of  chloride 
of  iron  by  prolonging  the  time  of  heating.  The  details  of  the  "  Pharmacopoeia  " 
he  regarded  as  not  specific  enough  in  this  case. 
Dr.  Pile  said  all  the  glacial  phosphoric  acid  that  had  lately  been  examined  was 
found  to  contain  phosphate  of  sodium,  and  no  means  of  getting  rid  of  this  contami- 
nation had  been  presented     R.  V.  Mattison  thought  that  if  we  are  aware  of  this. 
