190  Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Associations.{^'^-ll'^^{^'^^^^^- 
Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Paris. — At  the  monthly  meeting  held  January 
6th,  M.  Planchon  succeeded  M.  Regnauld  in  the  Presidency.  Mr.  Duquesnel 
gave  an  account  of  the  labors  of  the  society  during  the  past  few  years  5  Mr.  Mehu 
reported  on  the  International  Pharmaceutical  Congress  held  last  year  in  St.  Petersburg, 
and  M.  Fr.  Wurtz  presented  a  report  on  the  theses,  in  consequence  of  which  the 
prize  was  awarded  to  M.  Gondard,  and  those  of  MM.  Verne  and  Aubert  were 
noticed  with  commendation.  Among  the  papers  presented  at  this  meeting  may  be 
mentioned  a  note  from  M.  Patrouillard,  of  Gisors,  reporting  the  substitution  of 
senega  root  by  the  root  of  an  Asclepias. 
The  meeting  of  February  3d  was  presided  over  by  M.  Planchon.  M.  Poggiale 
reported  on  a  communication  presented  by  M.  Cauvet  at  the  previous  meeting  in 
relation  to  the  supposed  rediscovery  by  Laval  of  the  sylphium  of  ancient  writers; 
M.  Stan.  Martin  considered  it  as  still  unknown,  and  the  President  expressed  the 
view  that  the  question  was  still  undecided. 
A  note  by  M.  Schlagdenhauffen  was  read  on  the  "  Estimation  of  Arsenious  Acid 
in  the  Presence  of  Oxide  of  Antimony  by  means  of  Hypochlorites." 
M.  Limousin  exhibited  and  described  an  apparatus  for  dividing  powders  :  it 
consists  of  a  metallic  tube,  one  end  of  which  is  closed  by  a  movable  plate,  which  can 
be  raised  and  lowered  to  any  position  by  means  of  a  screw,  so  as  to  form  a  measure 
of  a  definite  size  ;  this  measuring  tube  is  furnished  with  a  suitable  handle.  Similar 
contrivances  have  been  used  in  the  United  States  for  many  years,  but  have  been 
abandoned  by  most  pharmacists  on  account  of  the  variability  of  the  different  doses 
thus  obtained  in  consequence  of  the  impossibility  to  regulate  the  pressure  with 
exactness. 
M.  Mehu  spoke  on  the  enactments  regulating  the  practice  of  pharmacy,  and  on 
the  education  of  pharmacists  in  Russia.  M.  Bourgoin  on  the  action  of  chlorine  and 
bromine  upon  acetylen  tetrabromide  C2H2Br4.  M.  Coulier  on  the  spontaneous 
combustion  of  metallic  arsenic  (so-called  cobalt)  stored  away  in  a  case,  the  combus- 
tion being  ascribed  to  the  action  of  moisture.  M.  Duquesnel  on  eserina  (cocaina) 
and  its  salts,  the  bromhydrate  of  which  is  crystalline  and  not  deliquescent. 
Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain. — At  the  pharmaceutical  nieet- 
ing  held  March  8th,  Mr.  T.  H.  Hills  presiding,  numerous  donations  were  made  to 
the  library,  museum  and  herbarium.  Professor  Bentley  called  attention  to  a  most 
valuable  collection  of  cinchonas,  presented  by  Mr.  Howard,  and  illustrating  his  pa- 
per on  the  "Cinchona  Plantations  of  Java,"  published  in  1873,  [^see  "  American  Jour- 
nal of  Pharmacy,"  1873,  P-  418)  ;  the  bark  of  Cinchona  calisaya  var.  ledgeriana  is 
particularly  valuable,  having  yielded  the  extraordinary  amount  of  10  per  cent,  of 
alkaloid.  Prof.  Bentley  also  directed  attention  to  a  specimen  of  carnauba  root, 
which  is  obtained  from  a  palm  known  as  Copernicia  or  Corypha  cerifera^  and  which  is 
stated  to  be  valuable  as  an  alterative,  to  have  exactly  the  same  properties  as  sarsapa- 
rilla,  and  to  be  obtainable  at  about  one-half  the  price  of  the  latter.  Referring  to 
spurious  chiretta  'ysee  this  Journal,  p.  71),  an  extract  from  a  letter  by  Dr.  Dymock, 
Professor  of  Materia  Medica  at  Bombay,  was  read,  as  follows  : 
"  You  are  likely  to  get  more  of  it,  as  it  is  very  abundant  in  the  m,arket  this  year. 
It  has  been  for  a  long  time  well  known  here  as  Meetha  chirata  or  s'weet  chiretta.  It 
comes  in  the  same  bales  as  the  bitter  kind,  and  is  sorted  out  for  sale  here." 
Mr.  Charles  Umney  read  a  paper  on  "  Lead  Plaster,"  in  which  he  referred  to  a  paper 
on  the  same  subject  read  by  Mr.  A.  W.  Gerrard,  before  the  British  Pharmaceutical 
Conference  in  August  last,  and  to  the  discussion  which  then  took  place.  Many 
pharmacists  look  upon  this  plaster  of  the  "  British  Pharmacopoeia"  as  being  too  soft 
and  sticky,  and  accordingly  prepare  it  by  a  modified  formula,  increasing  the  litharge. 
The  former  Pharmacopoeias  of  London,  Dublin  and  Edinburgh,  and  the  present 
Pharmacopoeias  of  the  United  States  and  of  Continental  Europe,  direct  an  amount 
of  litharge,  varying  from  50  to  56  parts  to  loo  parts  by  weight  of  olive  oil,  or  of 
lard  (Austria),  or  of  a  mixture  of  equal  weights  of  oil  and  lard  (France,  Germany), 
while  the  "British  Pharmacopoeia"  orders  4  lbs.  of  litharge  to  one  imperial  gallon  of 
olive  oil  (about  44  parts  to  100  parts  by  weight).    The  author  advocates  the  adop- 
