Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
Oct  ,  1880. 
}     British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.  523; 
amongst  the  baik  derived  from  South  America  it  is  equally  impossible  to  judge  of 
the  value  of  a  sample  from  its  outward  appearance  alone.  The  old  landmarks  are 
no  longer  sufficient  for  indicating  whether  a  bark  is  worth  only  a  fevy  pence  a  pound 
or  the  same  number  of  shillings.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  official  "yellow  bark,"  or 
**  flat  calisaya,"  of  the  present  day  is  rarely  what  it  used  to  be,  but,  on  the  contrary^ 
seldom  contains  much  or  any  quinia  at  all,  and  only  a  little  cinchonia.  On  the 
contrary  it  often  happens  that  bark  of  unusual  or  novel  characters  comes  into  the 
market  containing  an  amount  of  quinia  and  other  alkaloids  that  renders  it  intrinsi- 
cally very  valuable.  In  the  case  of  the  specimen  exhibited  this  fact  was  well  shown^ 
for  to  all  appearance  it  was  of  little  or  no  value.  It  represented  a  somewhat  con- 
siderable parcel  of  bark  that  was  imported  in  June,  1879.  recommend 
itself  for  making  pharmaceutical  preparations,  and  quinia  manufacturers  were  disin- 
clined to  buy  it  at  any  price.  However,  the  analysis  of  the  bark  gave  it  a  different 
character,  showing  that  in  addition  to  mere  traces  of  quinidia,  cinchonidia  and  cin- 
chonia it  yielded  nearly  i\  per  cent,  of  sulphate  of  quinia,  so  that  for  either  or  both 
of  the  purposes  above  referred  to  it  was  an  excellent  bark,  notwithstanding  its 
unfavorable  appearance. 
The  last  paper,  read  at  the  second  sitting  ot  the  first  day's  meeting,  was  oni 
Ipecacuanha  nvine^  by  Mr.  J.  B.  Barnes,  in  which  he  recommeuded,  as  an  improve 
ment  in  the  preparation  of  ipecacuanha  wine,  a  modification  of  the  plan  proposed 
by  Mr.  Carteighe  for  the  preparation  of  an  oxymel  of  ipecacuanha,  Mr.  Barnes 
evaporates  the  acetic  extract  of  ipecacuanha  to  dryness,  digests  the  residue  in  a 
proper  proportion  of  sherry  for  forty-eight  hours  and  filters.  By  this  means  he 
obtains  a  rich  brown  solution,  which  has  been  kept  for  eight  months  without  throw- 
ing down  any  of  the  unsightly  muddy  sediment  which  is  well  known  to  be  formed 
when  the  ipecacuanha  wine  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  is  kept  for  a  few  weeks. 
The  meeting  was  then  adjourned  until  half-past  10  on  Wednesday  morning,  and 
in  conformity  with  notice  given  by  Mr.  Grose,  the  local  vice-president,  most  of  the 
members  present  assembled  at  half-past  six  on  their  way  to  inspect  first  the  Hafod 
copper  smelting  works  and  mills  of  Messrs.  Vivians  &  Sons,  who  make,  besides 
ingot  and  sheet  copper,  sulphuric  acid  and  artificial  manures,  and  then  the  Landore 
tin-plate  works.  In  both  these  establishments  every  attention  was  shown  to  the 
visitors  and  every  possible  opportunity  afforded  for  seeing  the  details  of  the 
operations. 
On  the  reassembling  of  the  members,  on  Wednesday,  Mr.  Brady,  after  apologiz- 
ing for  his  departure  from  the  generally  observed  rule  of  producing  a  written  paper,, 
proceeded  to  give  an  account  of  his  experiences'  of  pharmaceutical  interest  during  a 
recent  journey  to  Ceylon  and  Japan.  One  of  the  points  to  which  his  attention  was 
directed  was  the  cultivation  of  cinchona  in  the  former  island,  and  some  of  the  con- 
clusions he  arrived  at  were  very  different  from  the  statements  that  had  been  pub- 
lished, although  it  must  be  admitted  that  these  were  based  upon  later  information.. 
In  reference  to  the  cultivation  of  cinchona  he  observed  that  mossing  is  not  carried 
out  in  Ceylon,  for  the  reason  that  it  promotes  the  destruction  of  the  trees  by  ants,, 
and  he  did  not  enter  upon  the  consideration  of  the  profitable  nature  of  cinchona 
cultivation,  because  that  had  already  been  done  in  a  much  more  commercial  paper. 
The  cultivation  of  vanilla  was  next  referred  to,  and  one  case  mentioned  in  which 
the  rows  of  plants  had  an  extent  of  no  less  than  three  miles.  It  may  here  be  noted 
that  the  development  of  this  business  seems  likely  to  be  more  rapid  than  profitable, 
tor  while  the  price  of  vanilla,  not  long  ago,  was  jos.  per  pound,  it  is  now  down  as 
low  as  10/.  Assam  tea  and  Liberian  coffee  were  two  other  products  mentioned  as 
being  successfully  grown  in  Ceylon;  but  the  cultivation  of  ipecacuanha  was  descibed 
as  affording  less  promise.  Mr.  Brady  then  proceeded  to  give  an  interesting  account 
of  the  cinnamon  cultivation  in  the  island,  stating  that  he  had  been  quite  unable  to 
trace  the  origin  of  the  three  different  kinds  of  cinnamon  bark  met  with  in  this 
market.  In  the  course  of  his  inquiries  he  was  informed  that  there  were  not  only 
three,  but  no  less  than  fifteen  varieties.  The  distillation  of  cinnamon  oil  was 
described  as  being  carried  on  in  a  most  primitive  manner.  One  of  the  prominent 
features  of  Ceylon  vegetation  was  the  occurrence  of  cocoanut  palms,,  wbich  always 
