172  Minutes  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  {^'"m^T^^'o^™" 
MINUTES  OF  THE  PHAtjMACEUTICAL  MEETING. 
Philadelphia,  February  17th,  1880, 
The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  Mr.  Robbins,  who  was  requested  to  take  the 
•chair  5  the  minutes  of  the  last  meeting  were  read,  and  a  correction  suggested  by 
Dr.  R.  V.  Mattison,  having  been  made,  they  were  approved. 
The  recent  additions  to  the  library  were  exhibited  5  these  consisted  of  the  vol- 
umes of  the  Encyclopoedia  Britannica,  which  were  purchased  with  funds  derived 
from  the  legacy  of  the  late  Algernon  S.  Roberts,  one  of  the  original  members  of 
our  College;  the  other  works  were  Muter's  Pharmaceutical  and  Analytical  Chemistry, 
Allen's  Commercial  Analytical  Chemistry,  HassalTs  Adulteration  of  Food,  Sim- 
mond's  Tropical  Agriculture,  Simmond's  Waste  Products  and  Undeveloped  Sub- 
stances, The  British  Year-book  of  Pharmacy  for  1879  ^  copy  of  the  Diction- 
naire  des  Termes  Botaniques,  the  latter  presented  by  Mr.  John  E.  Cook.  It  was 
thought  desirable  to  call  the  especial  attention  of  the  members  of  the  College  to 
the  fact  that  the  committee  having  the  library  in  charge  are  constantly  adding  such' 
works,  upon  the  various  sciences  germain  to  pharmacy,  as  will  maintain  the  charac- 
ter of  the  library. 
Prof.  Maisch  exhibited  about  fifty  excellent  photographs  of  medicinal  plants, 
which  had  been  presented  to  the  College  by  Mr.  C.  L.  Lochman,  of  Bethlehem, 
Pa.  The  photographs  are  taken  from  carefully  dried  specimens,  and  show  the 
botanical  characters  of  the  plants  very  well.  They  are  sold  at  the  remarkably  low- 
price  of  $1.50  per  dozen,  and  are  well  adapted  to  aid  the  student  in  botany  and 
materia  medica.  It  was  suggested  that  the  photographs  would  be  best  preserved  in 
album  form. 
Prof.  Maisch  read  a  paper  upon  the  fruit  of  Adansonia  digitata  (see  p,  129), 
written  by  F.  L.  Slocum,  and  remarked  that  he  had  searched  in  numerous  works  at 
his  command  for  an  investigation  on  the  constituents  of  the  pulp  of  this  fruit,  but 
only  to  day  had  found,  in  an  old  German  work,  the  statement,  without  mention  of 
the  author,  that  the  acid  taste  was  due  to  malic  acid. 
According  to  the  promise  made.  Dr.  Mattison  exhibited  a  sample  of  lactopeptin, 
prepared  by  him  in  accordance  with  the  formula  published  by  the  New  York  manu- 
facturer. The  difficulties  experienced  by  others  who  had  tried  to  prepare  it  were 
commented  upon,  and  the  method  of  avoiding  them  explained. 
In  answer  to  questions  bv  Prof.  Maisch,  Dr.  Mattison  stated  that  pepsin  possessed 
the  power  of  dissolving  albumen  only  in  acid  solution  ;  that  pancreatin  was  active 
only  in  alkaline  solutions  ;  that  a  mixture  of  the  two  in  solution  must  result  in  the 
destruction  of  one,  a  fact  which  was  also  experimentally  proven  by  Prof.  SchefFer 
several  years  ago,  and  that  the  standard  strength  of  pepsin,  recognized  in  the  United 
States,  IS  the  dissolving  of  120  grains  of  coagulated  albumen  by  10  grains  of  sac- 
charated  pepsin  in  5  or  6  hours  (see  "Amer.  Jour.  Phar  ,"  1872,  p.  11). 
Prof.  Maisch  referred  to  a  paper  recently  published  in  the  "  Chicago  Medical 
Gazette,"  according  to  which  10  grains  of  the  patented  preparation,  called  lacto- 
peptin, dissolved  two  grains  of  albumen  only. 
Mr,  Thompson  read  a  letter  from  the  manufacturers  of  the  article,  who  have  the 
proprietary  right  of  the  name,  stating  that  it  was  impossible  for  more  than  one  drug- 
