Am.  Jour.  Pliarm."* 
March,  1901.  J 
Correspondence. 
135 
adulterated,  and  never,  or  at  least  very  seldom,  complies  with  the  re- 
quirements of  the  Pharmacopoeias.  The  price  asked  is  not  necessarily 
an  indication  of  the  quality.  Despite  this  variation  in  quality  there  is 
still  a  considerable  amount  of  the  drug-  consumed.  This  would  indicate 
that  it  must  have  medicinal  properties  for  which  no  substitute  has  as 
yet  been  found. 
The  continued  use  of  the  drug  would  also  seem  to  re- 
quire that  the  Pharmacopoeia  should  in  some  way  try  to  equalize 
the  strength  of  the  various  preparations  made  from  this  drug.  It 
might  be  possible,  for  instance,  to  require  that  the  tincture  should 
contain  ten  parts  of  the  resinous  material  instead  of,  as  at  present, 
representing  the  soluble  portion  of  twenty  parts  of  the  gum.  The 
amount  of  drug  dissolved  could  readily  be  ascertained  by  drying  and 
weighing  the  residue  left  on  the  filter,  and  by  subsequently  diluting 
the  alcoholic  solution  it  could  easily  be  made  to  correspond  to  the 
required  standard. 
The  Pharmacopoeia  might  further  direct  that  the  emulsion  be 
made  from  gum,  the  alcohol  soluble  matter  of  which  has  first 
been  ascertained. 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  powdered  asafcetida  is  used  so  exten- 
sively for  pills  and  suppositories,  and  that  it  is  very  seldom  or 
never  reduced  to  powder  by  the  retail  pharmacist,  but  is  always 
bought  directly  or  indirectly  from  the  drug  miller,  it  would  seem 
quite  feasible  that  the  Pharmacopoeia  include  "  powdered  asafcetida" 
and  require  a  definite  amount  ot  alcohol  soluble  matter,  this  to  be 
low  enough  to  prevent  agglutination  in  warm  weather,  and  still 
high  enough  to  be  of  value  medicinally. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
PROCTER  MEMORIAL. 
In  response  to  a  letter  from  the  editor  of  this  Journal  concerning 
the  most  appropriate  way  of  memorializing  the  life  and  work  of 
Professor  William  Procter,  Jr.,  the  following  are  some  of  the  replies 
which  have  been  received  : 
Dear  Sir  : — In  reply  to  your  kind  letter  of  the  5th  inst,  it  gives 
me  great  pleasure  to  express  my  high  appreciation  of  the  eminent 
services  rendered  American  pharmacy  by  William  Procter,  Jr.  It  is 
my  opinion  that  some  ever  fresh  and  ever  present  testimonial  to  his 
