538  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  {^^'oci^\Mz^^' 
is  opened,  when  percolation  immediately  begins,  the  liquid  being  forced 
through  the  drug  under  considerable  pressure,  this  being  exerted  not 
directly  upon  the  drug  but  upon  a  column  of  liquid  intervening  between 
the  drug  in  the  percolator  and  the  compressed  air  in  the  reservoir.  The 
operation  may  also  be  reversed  and  the  percolation  proceed  upward,  when 
the  lower  chamber  will  be  the  reservoir  and  the  upper  chamber  the 
receiver.  The  apparatus  is  like  the  one  figured  in  this  Journal,  1882, 
page  237,  with  a  third  chamber,  the  reservoir,  placed  on  top  of  the  perco- 
lator. 
On  the  mashing^  fermenting,  ayid  distillation  of  grain  into  whisky  is  the 
title  of  a  paper  by  Mr.  Ch.  K.  Gallagher,  of  North  Carolina,  describing 
apparatus  and  jDrocess  with  many  practical  hints  ;  it  is  not  well  adapted 
for  an  abstract.  A  discussion  followed,  touching  upon  the  purification  of 
whisky  from  fusel  oil  by  potassium  permanganate  and  unslaked  lime.  Mr. 
Ebert  stated  that  treating  the  farinaceous  matter  with  sulphuric  acid  would 
increase  the  yield  of  whisky,  but  it  was  very  impure  ;  at  present  a  process 
giving  a  larger  yield  was  much  used,  in  which  the  starch  was  "cooked" 
under  a  pressure  of  80  to  100  pounds,  and  thus  converted  into  fermentable 
sugar.  The  changing  of  fusel  oil  in  whisky  by  electricity  had  been  experi- 
mented with  by  the  electrician  of  the  Chicago  Fire  Department  in  1871,  and 
such  a  process  had  been  recently  patented  in  France.  Prof.  Prescott  stated 
that  fusel  oil  was  best  removed  by  fractional  distillation  or  by  charcoal,  and 
that,  in  his  opinion,  the  effect  of  i3ermanganate  upon  it  had  been  over-esti- 
mated. 
Mr.  Sloan  read  a  paper  upon  the  keejnng  qualities  of  snow-ivater,  and 
proved  by  experiments  that  it  is  not  the  month  of  the  year  but  the  condi- 
tion of  the  atmosphere  at  the  time  of  the  falling  of  the  snow  to  which 
must  be  attributed  the  variation  in  snow-water;  for  it  was  shown  that 
when  the  atmosi^here  had  been  previously  washed  by  rain  just  preceding 
the  snow,  the  water  from  that  snow  shows  a  minimum  of  impurities  ;  the 
month  of  April  probably  gives  the  phenomenon  of  rain  changing  into 
snow  more  frequently  than  other  months. 
The  Chair  appointed  Messrs.  J.  A.  Milburn,  Washington,  D.  C.  ;  H.  B. 
Parsons,  New  York,  and  Joseph  Roberts,  Baltimore,  the  Committee  on 
Specimens  for  the  National  Museum. 
The  amendments  to  the  By-laws  proposed  last  year  were  called  up.  The 
one  offered  to  Chapter  VIII,  Article  IV,  providing  that  members  dropped 
for  non-payment  of  dues,  should  not  be  restored  to  the  roll  until  they  have 
paid  back  dues  for  three  years,  was  laid  upon  the  table.  The  amendment 
to  Chapter  VIII,  Article  VI,  providing  that  no  one  who  has  been  expelled 
shall  be  received  as  a  delegate,  and  that  no  one  dropj^ed  from  the  roll  for 
non-payment  of  dues  shall  be  reinstated  by  virtue  of  being  a  delegate,  was 
carried. 
The  report  of  the  committee  on  the  next  annual  meeting  was  received 
amended,  and  adopted.    The  next  meeting  will  be  held  at  Milwaukee, 
Wis.,  and  the  time  was  at  first  fixed  for  the  second  Tuesday  of  September, 
but  was  subsequently  reconsidered,  and  the  last  Tuesday  of  August  1884 
agreed  upon. 
Mr.  Colcord  moved  that  a  committee  of  ten  on  unofficinal  formulas  be 
4 
