1 56 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
/  Am.  Jour.  Pharro. 
t      March,  1901. 
mittee  desires  to  have  work  of  this  kind,  as  there  is  an  evident  need 
for  standardized  drugs.  He  said  that  ten  years  ago  there  was  a  cry 
for  standardized  preparations,  but  that  the  committee  found  diffi- 
culty in  adopting  methods  which  could  be  utilized  by  the  pharmacist 
as  well  as  by  their  originators. 
Dr.  Alpers  said  that  he  was  also  much  interested  in  the  subject 
of  the  paper.  He  said  that  a  number  of  years  ago  he  had  tried  a 
number  of  assay  processes  using  various  solvents.  He  asked 
whether  by  the  use  of  kerosene  for  extracting  coca  there  was  any 
trouble  from  the  introduction  of  higher  paraffin  oils,  as  this  appears 
to  be  a  rather  variable  article,  having  different  flashing  points  in 
different  states.  In  reply,  Mr.  Lamar  said  that  he  had  had  no 
trouble  in  this  respect,  that  he  used  an  ordinary  150  test  oil. 
Professor  Remington  spoke  of  the  small  percentage  of  alkaloid  in 
the  drug,  and  referred  to  the  question  of  the  importation  of  crude 
cocaine  into  this  country  for  the  manufacture  of  the  alkaloid.  Mr. 
Lamar  spoke  on  the  tariff  regulations  and  said  that  there  was  a 
duty  on  both  the  purified  and  crude  alkaloid,  and  that  on  account 
of  the  heavy  duty  on  the  latter,  only  a  limited  quantity  is  imported. 
He  also  said  that  the  crude  article  (alkaloid)  contained  a  very  small 
percentage  of  the  true  alkaloid. 
Dr.  C.  B.  Lowe  referred  to  some  assay  experiments  which  Dr. 
Rusby  had  made  some  years  ago  in  South  America,  which  led  to 
the  belief  that  a  larger  percentage  of  alkaloid  could  be  obtained  from 
leaves  which  were  comparatively  fresh. 
Lyman  F.  Kebler  said  that  he  had  examined  a  sample  of  the 
crude  alkaloid  which  assayed  96  per  cent.,  and  that  he  knew  of  one 
manufacturing  firm  which  used  this  article  exclusively  for  the  manu- 
facture of  their  cocaine. 
Mr.  Lamar  said  that  the  problem  of  the  purity  was  an  important 
one  and  that  the  question  to  be  determined  was  whether  the  alka- 
loid in  question  was  pure  or  whether  it  contained  by-products.  His 
experience  had  been  that  it  contained  a  number  of  impurities. 
Dr.  H.  C.  C.  Maisch  presented  a  paper  on  "  Gum  Mastic,"  which 
will  appear  in  a  later  issue  of  this  Journal.  The  author,  having  a 
sample  of  mastic  submitted  to  him  which  was  very  light  in  color, 
and  suspecting  that  it  was  a  substitution  product,  submitted  it  to  a 
comparative  test  with  other  commercial  samples,  and  it  was  found 
that  they  were  all  identical.  • 
