^"''ocTis^sa'""''}    British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  519 
although  do.^btless  the  attendance  was  unfavorably  influenced  by  the  difficulties 
which  lie  in  the  way  of  reaching  Swansea  from  many  parts  of  the  kingdom,  as  well 
as  the  fact  that  neither  the  town  itself  nor  its  hotels  present  attractions  which  would 
tempt  a  tired  pharmacist  to  spend  a  portion  of  his  hard  earned  holiday  in  breathing 
a  smoke  laden  atmosphere,  there  was,  nevertheless,  sufficient  in  the  hearty  welcome 
given  by  the  local  committee  and  in  the  interest  of  the  business  done  to  repay  well 
those  who  did  make  the  venture. 
At  the  commencement  of  the  proceedings,  August  24.th,  a  tolerably  long  list  of 
delegates  from  various  societies  was  read  over,  but  unfortunately  very  many  of  those 
named  weie  conspicuous  only  by  their  absence.  The  Pharmaceutical  Society  of 
Great  Britain  was  represented  by  the  President,  Vice  President  and  three  other  mem- 
bers of  Council,  but  neither  the  Secretary,  the  Assistant  Secretary,  nor — with  the 
exception  of  Professor  Attfield — the  Professors  of  the  School  of  Pharmacy  put  in  an 
appearance.  The  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Ireland  was  wholly  unrepresented. 
American  pharmacy,  however,  was  for  a  time  represented  by  Professor  Maischj 
but  having,  as  Secretary  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  to  be  pres- 
ent at  the  coming  meeting  at  Saratoga,  he  was  compelled  to  take  his  leave  before 
the  termination  of  the  Conference. 
The  report  on  the  state  of  the  finances  shows  a  balance  of  over  five  hundred 
pounds,  a  kind  of  white  elephant  apparently,  since  only  one  application  has  been 
made  during  the  year  for  a  money  grant  in  aid  of  research.  Whether  or  not  it  be 
by  reason  of  the  opening  up  of  other  and  more  fertile  hunting-grounds  for.  the 
seekers  of  grants  in  aid  that  the  funds  at  the  disposal  of  the  Conference  are  thus  dis- 
regarded we  cannot  say,  but  it  is  evident  that  some  five  hundred  pounds  is  now 
going  a  begging,  and  that  there  is  an  opportunity  for  some  one  to  devise  a  means  by 
which  it  may  be  applied  to  a  purpose  useful  to  pharmacy. 
The  death  of  Mr.  Stoddart  was  naturally  referred  to  in  feeling  terms  in  the  report, 
not  only  by  reason  of  his  helpful  connection  with  the  Conference  from  its  inception, 
but  also  because  he  had  so  highly  distinguished  himself  in  various  ways  as  to  make 
his  loss  a  special  matter  of  regret,  requiring  expression  in  the  manner  unanimously 
agreed  to  by  the  meeting  in  accordance  with  the  proposal  of  Mr.  Reynolds  and  Mr. 
Brady. 
The  retirement  of  Professor  Attfield  from  the  position  he  had  filled  so  long  and 
so  ably  was  another  regretful  feature,  which  contributed  to  make  the  report  of  the 
Executive  Committee  more  than  ordinarily  gloomy. 
The  Presidential  Address  is  this  year  a  deviation  from  the  course  usually  followed 
on  such  occasions;  and  though  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  address  presents  any  very 
obvious  utilitarian  features,  it  affords  material  for  thought,  and  at  a  time  when 
pharmaceutical  affairs  are  in  such  a  high  state  of  tension,  when  the  future  of  a  large 
section  of  the  trade  is,  to  say  the  least,  so  unpromising,  it  was  probably  expedient  to 
abstain  as  far  as  possible  from  the  discussion  of  trade  interests  and  from  stirring  the 
troubled  waters  of  pharmaceutical  politics. 
The  first  paper  read  formed  the  conclusion  of  the  series  of  reports  on  the  investi- 
gation of  the  aconite  alkaloids^  carried  out  by  Dr.  C,  R.  Alder  Wright  with  the  aid  of 
grants  from  the  Conference.  In  this  instance  the  material  operated  upon  was  the 
fresh  herbaceous  portion  of  Aconitum  napellus^  grown  at  Foxton,  in  Cambridgeshire, 
the  method  of  operating  being  the  same  as  that  described  in  last  year's  report.  The 
alkaloid  obtained  by  evaporation  from  the  ethereal  solution  could  not  be  made  to 
crystallize  or  yield  crystalline  salts,  though  from  its  activity  it  appeared  to  contain 
a  notable  amount  of  the  alkaloid  which  Dr.  Wrigiit  regards  as  true  aconitine. 
Judging  from  analysis,  its  composition  was  inferred  to  be  substantially  the  same  as 
that  of  the  mixed  alkaloids  obtained  from  the  roots  of  A.  napellus.  The  uncrys- 
tallizable  character  of  this  mixture  of  alkaloids  was  ascribed  to  the  larger  amount  of 
amorphous  bases  preventing  crystallization.  The  experiments  made  by  Dr.  Wright 
appeared  to  show  that,  though  the  dry  herb  did  not  contain  very  much  less  total 
alkaloid  than  the  equally  dry  root,  the  percentage  of  aconitine  in  the  alkaloid 
obtained  from  the  herb  was  much  less  than  in  that  obtained  from  the  root.  This 
result,  however,  cannot  be  regarded  as  representing  the  invariable  proportion  of  the 
