^""'fcfJS™'}  Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Associations,  521 
omitted,  and  following  a  tendency  which  has  been  manifested  sometimes  in  the  Pres- 
idents of  the  Conference  to  become  the  critics  if  not  the  censors  of  the  Council, 
Mr.  Groves  expressed  regret  at  its  recent  decision  as  to  the  establishment  of  a  prac- 
tical pharmaceutical  laboratory,  and  also  that  after  a  '  weak  protest,'  the  title  of 
*  pharmaceutical  chemist '  should  have  been  conceded  to  Irish  chemists.  The  cor- 
rectness of  the  latter  assumption,  however,  was  afterwards  challenged  by  Mr.  Hills. 
Turning  to  more  strictly  scientific  subjects,  Mr.  Groves  expressed  his  opinion  that 
the  *  crowning  dignity'  of  being  inserted  in  the  *  Pharmacopoeia '  awaited  two 
articles  that  have  come  into  considerable  notoriety  during  the  past  year,  jaborandi 
and  salicylic  acid.  The  investigations  of  digitalin,  the  introduction  of  Goa  powder, 
gurjun  balsam  and  other  remedies,  the  merits  of  the  proposed  millegrade  thermom- 
eter and  other  subjects  of  interest  were  discussed  by  the  President. 
The  first  paper  read  was  on  the  Linimentum  Terebinthinae  Aceticum,  and  was 
a  successful  attempt  to  solve  a  problem  suggested  by  Professor  Redwood  at  the  last 
meeting  of  the  Conference,  namely,  how  to  prepare  a  more  homogeneous  liniment 
than  the  ordinary  liniment  of  turpentine  with  acetic  acid.  This,  Mr.  Simons  has 
accomplished  by  taking  advantage  of  the  fact  that  any  oil  soluble  in  spirit  vastly 
facilitates  the  mutual  solution  of  turpentine  and  rectified  spirit,  and  with  this  object 
he  uses  castor  oil  in  the  preparation.  As  the  product  was  pronounced  by  Profes- 
sor Redwood  to  be  a  perfectly  satisfactory  one,  it  may  be  that  we  have  here  another 
substance  to  which  the  *  crowning  dignity '  will  be  awarded. 
"A  report  from  Dr.  Wright  on  the  chemistry  of  the  alkaloidal  bodies  obtained 
by  Mr.  Groves  from  aconite,  followed.  It  confirmed  the  discovery  of  the  compar- 
atively inert  alkaloid  mentioned  in  Mr.  Groves's  paper  last  year,  but  showed  that  it 
is  not  identical  with  Mr.  Broughton's  'atisine.'    Neither  has  Dr.  Wright  found 
*  pseudo-aconitia '  to  be  isomeric  with  *  aconitia.'  But  beyond  this  the  report  ap- 
peared to  do  little  more  than  reveal  how  extremely  little  is  yet  known  on  the  whole 
subject. 
"  In  a  paper  entitled  *  Pharmaceutical  Experiments  on  the  Bristol  Rocks,'  Mr. 
Stoddart  extended  the  papers  formerly  written  by  him  on  substances  belonging  to 
the  organic  kingdom  to  some  belonging  to  the  inorganic.  How  suited  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Bristol  is  for  such  experiments  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  fifteen 
out  of  the  twenty-three  metals  mentioned  in  the  British  *  Pharmacopoeia '  maybe 
obtained  from  its  rocks.  He  mentioned  the  Interesting  fact  that  he  had  just  succeeded 
m  separating  silver  from  a  carboniferous  limestone.  It  being,  as  he  believed,  the  first 
time  that  silver  had  been  found  in  that  formation.  Minute  quantities  of  gold  were 
also  found  with  the  silver. 
"  Mr.  Greenish  called  attention  to  the  microscopy  of  Natal  arrowroot,  and  pointed 
out  certain  peculiar  characters  which  probably  on  more  than  one  occasion  have 
caused  this  article,  although  pure,  to  be  condemned  as  adulterated.  Mr.  Greenish 
considers  this  arrowroot  to  be  the  product  of  Maranta  arundinacea^  but  why  it 
should  differ  from  the  product  of  the  same  plant  grown  in  another  country,  Mr. 
Greenish  confesses  himself  unable  to  explain. 
"  The  next  paper  was  by  Dr.  Tilden,  on  a  branch  of  the  subject  he  has  made 
peculiarly  his  own,  the  crystalline  constituents  of  Barbadoes  and  Socotrine  aloes. 
Dr.  Tilden  disagrees  with  Rochleder's  suggestion  that  the  aloins  form  a  homologous 
series,  but  believes  zanaloin  to  be  Identical  with  socaloin,  and  barbaloln  (In  the  anhy- 
