406  Pharmacy  Laws  and  Legislation.  {Al^gasrt,i9oirm' 
EMODIN  IN  SENNA. 
Tschirch  and  Hiepe~(Sch.  Woch.  Ch.  u.  Ph.,  1900,  55)  reports  on 
the  assay  of  senna  based  on  the  quantity  of  emodin  contained.  The 
results  are  somewhat  surprising.  For  instance,  the  senna  pods 
yield  more  emodin  (115  per  cent.)  than  the  leaves  (-7  to  1  per  cent.). 
Moreover,  the  Alxeandria  and  Tripoli  senna  yield  more  emodin  than 
the  much  vaunted  Tinnevelly  senna,  the  latter  yielding  but  -8  per 
cent.  Frangula  yields  2*6  per  cent,  of  emodin.  Cascara  sagrada -6 
per  cent.,  while  rhubarb  contains  1-5  per  cent.  This  report  seems 
to  show  that  in  the  purgative  drugs,  save  perhaps  senna,  emodin  is 
not  the  sole  active  principle.  H.  V.  A. 
EXAMINATION  OF  COOKING  OILS. 
Comparing  methods  of  distinction  between  olive,  cotton  seed,  maw 
seed  and  nut  oils,  Kreis  and  Grob  (Schw.  Woch.  Ch.  und  Ph.,  1901, 
88),  find  Billier's  reaction  the  best.  This  consists  in  shaking  the  oil 
with  a  benzol  solution  of  resorcin  and  with  nitric  acid,  under  which 
treatment  the  color  of  olive  oil  is  unchanged,  while  that  of  cotton- 
seed and  nut  becomes  red  violet,  and  maw  seed  oil  is  turned  brown 
red.  H.  V.  A. 
PHARMACY  LAWS  AND  LEGISLATION. 
Contributed  by  Prof.  J.  H.  Beai,,  Scio,  O. 
(Under  this  title  it  is  designed  to  give  each  month  a  brief  resume  of  proposed 
and  accomplished  pharmacy  legislation,  and  of  decisions  of  importance  to 
pharmacy  boards  and  pharmacists.  On  account  of  space  limitations,  proposed 
legislation  cannot  be  more  than  briefly  mentioned,  but  bills  enacted  into  law 
will  be  discussed  and  their  principal  features  pointed  out.  Pharmacy  boards 
and  members  of  legislative  committees  and  others  are  requested  to  send  copies 
of  such  measures  and  news  of  this  kind  either  to  the  editor  of  this  Journal, 
or  to  Prof.  J.  H.  Beal,  Scio,  O.) 
DECISIONS  OF  INTEREST  TO  PHARMACISTS. 
An  interesting  decision,  although  along  the  line  of  decisions  in 
similar  cases,  has  been  handed  down  by  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Iowa  in  the  case  of  Burgess  vs.  The  Sims  Drug  Company. 
In  this  case  the  defendant's  clerk  made  a  mistake  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  an  eye  lotion  which  resulted  in  the  loss  of  an  eye  to  the 
