It  was  found  during  the  investigation  that  the  acrid  principle 
existing  in  the  root  could  be  separated  from  the  bitter  principle  by 
shaking  an  aqueous  solution  of  the  chloroformic  extract  of  the  ex- 
tract with  absolute  ether,  drawing  off  the  ether  and  allowing  it  to 
evaporate,  when  a  yellowish  mass,  having  a  very  sharp,  acrid  taste, 
remained.  This  residue  dissolved  in  water  and  was  acid  to  litmus 
paper.  The  relative  amount  of  this  acrid  principle  contained  in  the 
drug  was  not  determined,  but  the  percentage  is  very  small. 
It  is  now  thought  that  a  plan  has  been  mapped  out  by  which 
future  investigators,  using  large  quantities  of  the  drug,  will  be  able 
to  completely  isolate  the  bitter  principle,  or  taraxacin,  from  taraxa- 
cum root,  and  by  elementary  analysis  determine  its  ultimate  compo- 
sition. Fifty  pounds  of  the  drug  have  been  extracted  with  chloro- 
form, and  during  the  next  winter  it  is  hoped  this  work  will  be  fully 
accomplished. 
The  thirty-second  annual  meeting  of  this  Association  was  held  at  Bourne- 
mouth, England,  July  30  to  August  1,  1895,  inclusive.  For  the  following  infor- 
mation we  are  indebted  to  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal  and  the  Chemist  and 
Druggist,  in  their  issues  of  August  3d. 
After  the  usual  welcome  by  the  city  authorities,  the  address  of  the  Presi- 
dent, N.  H.  Martin,  claimed  the  attention  of  the  audience  for  some  forty 
minutes.  Because  of  President  Martin's  habit  of  saying  something  original, 
and  without  the  usual  sugar-coating,  quite  a  large  audience  had  assembled  to 
hear  his  address,  and  they  were  not  disappointed,  for  he  succeeded  in  placing 
some  truths  before  them  in  such  a  clean-cut  manner  that  he  drew  out  consider- 
able enthusiastic  applause. 
The  burden  of  the  address  was  pharmacy,  and  the  speaker  handled  it  in  a 
masterly  manner.  A  few  sentences  from  his  remarks  on  the  question  of  phar- 
macy being  a  trade  or  profession  will  show  that  he  takes  issue  with  those  who 
are  disposed  to  give  up  the  professional  idea. 
At  the  present  moment  we  are  bound  to  acknowledge  that  true  pharmacy  in  this  coun- 
try is  in  a  most  unsatisfactory  condition.  It  is  between  a  false  assumption  and  pretence  of 
science  and  the  whirlwind  of  modern  trade,  and  the  practice  of  pharmacy  as  a  separate  call- 
ing is  in  danger  ot  being  lost  altogether.  By  many  of  those  who  should  be  the  leaders  and 
defenders  of  pharmacy,  the  word  "pharmaceutical"  is  often  flouted  and  sneered  at,  and 
treated  as  an  adjective,  which  no  man  in  advance  of  the  middle  ages  would  dream  for  one 
moment  of  applying  to  anything  scientific.  Some  of  these  men  openly  say  that  they  do  not 
know  such  a  thing  as  "  pharmaceutical  "  chemistry,  and  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  "  materia 
medica,"  chemistry  and  botany  having  eviscerated  that  subject  long  ago.  Such  remarks  are 
caught  up  by  men  who  never  in  their  lives  spent  a  thoughtful  hour  in  the  pursuit  of  true 
science,  and  it  comes  to  be  considered  the  acme  of  wisdom  to  sneer  at  the  science  which  is 
practical  in  the  fulfillment  of  an  essential  duty.    I  believe  pharmacy  to  be  an  entity  which  is 
BRITISH  PHARMACEUTICAL  CONFERENCE. 
