474         Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Associations,  {"^"'vjct,'' 18^75^"" 
Current  quality  Opium.]  Formerly  the  Smyrna  kintal  was  used — for  buying  and 
selling  merchandise — divided  into  45  ok.es.  One  kintal  weighed  120  poimds  avoir- 
dupois, consequently  i  oke  weighed  zf  pounds.  An  oke  was  considered  to  be  400 
drams  (although  the  Smyrna  Oke  was  only  380  drams)  and  250  drams  were  con- 
sidered as  I  chequi. 
At  present  Opium  and  other  merchandise  is  •iveighed  by  the  Constantinople  oke, 
but  opium  is  sold  by  the  chequi.  The  mode  of  calculation  is  this,  in  buying  Opium 
in  Smyrna  : 
Say  net  Okes  of  Constantinople  100,  add  5  per  cent,  difference  between  Constan- 
tinople and  Smyrna  =  5  to  be  added,  or  105  okes  x  400  drams  ^  250  drams  = 
168  chequis. 
The  oke  of  Constantinople  you  will  find  to  be  about  2  75-iooths  pounds  avoirdu- 
pois, which  would  make  the  Smyrna  Chequi  equivalent  to  i  63-iooths  @ 
I  64-iooths  pounds.  Ogden's  Tariff"  is  probably  very  nearly  correct,  while  Heyl's, 
I  imagine,  is  based  on  Constantinople  weights,  actual,  without  the  addition  of  five 
per  cent. 
In  almost  every  town  in  Turkey,  weights  and  measures  vary.  The  Turkish 
government  passed  a  law  establishing  all  weights  and  measures  throughout  the  Em- 
pire obligatory,  in  accordance  with  the  decimal  system  in  France.  This  law  was  to 
take  effect  some  two  years  since,  but  up  to  this  time  nothing  more  has  been  heard  of 
it — a  dead  letter,  like  most  all  attempts  of  Turkish  reforms.. — Circular  No  31  Phila- 
delphia Drug  Exchange. 
PHARMACEUTICAL  COLLEGES  AND  ASSOCIATIONS, 
The  Danish  Apothecaries'  Association,  which  now  numbers  148  members, 
Mr.  Lotze,  President,  held  its  annual  meeting  on  July  5th  and  6th,  at  Vejle.  Mr. 
Madsen,  Delegate  ot  the  Association  to  the  International  Pharmaceutical  Congress 
at  St.  Petersburg,  made  his  report  and  stated  that  the  Congress,  not  being  satisfied 
with  the  French  (Mr.  Mehu's)  draught  of  an  International  Pharmacopoeia,  had 
divided  the  work  among  its  members.  All  these  reports  have  now  been  sent  to  a 
committee  in  St.  Petersburg,  which  revises  and  prints  them,  when  they  will  be  sent 
to  the  various  Pharmaceutical  Associations  represented  at  the  Congress,  to  criticize 
and  report  upon.  When  this  is  done  the  Russian  Government  will  invite  to  a  new 
Congress  with  a  view  to  a  final  adoption  of  the  International  Pharmacopoeia.  Mr. 
Madsen  had  to  report  on  tinctures  and  syrups,  and  among  other  things  paid  partic- 
ular attention  to  whether  digestion  or  maceration  was  to  be  preferred  5  he  found  that 
(especially  for  tinctures  of  opium)  maceration  was  the  best. 
Mr.  Piper,  in  experimenting  with  glycerolatum  ipecacuanhse,  confirmed  the  state- 
ment of  Professor  Dragendorff",  that  about  three-fourths  of  the  emetia  is  extracted 
by  infusion  in  the  ordinary  way,  but  he  thought  that  it  would  be  possible  to  obtain 
all  the  emetia  in  solution.  The  President,  Mr.  Lotze,  opened  a  discussion  on  the 
use  of  cultivated  medicinal  plants,  owing  to  the  increasing  scarcity  of  wild-growing 
ones.  It  was  thought  to  be  admissible  for  all  plants  but  the  narcotics.  In  this  con- 
nection it  was  mentioned  that  the  Swedish  Pharmacopoeia  permits  the  use  of  cultiva- 
ted belladonna. 
