AmjJuiy"i|)2arm' }  Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Associations.  385 
County,  the  view  being  closed  in  the  distance  by  various  chains  of  the  Appa- 
lachian Mountains,  those  to  the  southeast  skirting  one  of  the  principal  anthra- 
cite basins  of  Pennsylvania,  and  those  towards  the  northwest  being  well 
supplied  with  iron  ore.  The  steep  cliff  is  now  known  as  Susquehanna 
Heights,  and  upon  its  summit  a  hotel  has  been  recently  erected  named  Hotel 
Shikellimy.  It  was  here  that  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association 
held  its  fifteenth  annual  meeting,  June  14  to  16. 
President  J.  Patton  occupied  the  chair.  Five  sessions  were  held,  the  first 
and  second  sessions  being  occupied  chiefly  by  the  reading  of  the  addresses 
and  reports  by  the  officers  and  committees,  and  discussions  thereon. 
The  various  reports  were  ordered  for  publication,  and  resolutions  were 
passed  favoring  the  regulation  of  the  practice  of  medicine  by  legislation  simi- 
lar to  that  which  had  been  proposed  at  the  last  session  of  the  Pennsylvania 
legislature  ;  and  also  declaring  in  favor  of  strictly  upholding  article  vii  of 
the  code  of  ethics  of  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association,  which  is 
in  opposition  to  the  giving  of  medical  advice  by  the  pharmacist. 
On  the  afternoon  of  June  15  the  association  held  no  session,  with  the  view 
of  affording  the  members  and  their  ladies  an  opportunity  of  visiting  the  old 
home  of  Dr.  Joseph  Priestley,  the  discoverer  of  oxygen.  The  party  crossed 
the  Susquehanna  in  one  of  the  little  steamers  plying  between  Sunbury  and 
Northumberland,  and  on  landing  at  the  latter  town  proceeded  to  the  mansion 
of  the  Priestley  family,  where  they  were  kindly  received  by  the  ladies  of  the 
family  and  shown  a  number  of  relics  relating  to  the  philosopher  of  the  past 
century,  and  had  also  an  opportunity  of  looking  through  the  album,  com- 
memorating the  centenary  celebration  of  chemistry  by  American  chemists  in 
the  borough  of  Northumberland,  August  1,  1874.  Most  of  the  apparatus  con- 
structed by  Priestley  have  been  donated  by  the  family  to  the  National  Museum 
in  Washington,  where  they  are  now  preserved.  Next  a  visit  was  made  to  the 
old  mansion  built  by  Priestley  near  the  North  Branch  of  the  Susquehanna,  and 
to  the  laboratory,  Priestley's  workshop,  adjoining  the  dwelling,  but  now  doing 
duty  as  a  woodshed.  The  contemplated  visit  to  Priestley's  grave  had  to  be 
omitted,  owing  to  the  distance  of  the  cemetery  and  to  the  warm  weather,  it 
having  been  found  impossible  to  procure  a  sufficient  number  of  vehicles  for  the 
company. 
A  number  of  papers  were  read  on  Thursday,  and  many  specimens  were 
shown  in  illustration  of  the  subjects  discussed.  Four  of  these  papers  are 
reproduced  in  the  present  number  of  the  Journal,  treating  of  Infusion  of 
Digitalis,  by.  J.  W.  England  ;  Compressed  Tablets  and  Triturates,  by  J.  H. 
Hahn  ;  Spices,  by  Chas.  A.  Heinitsh,  and  Examinations  of  Pharmacy  Boards, 
by  Prof.  Remington. 
The  percentage  of  alcohol  soluble  matter  in  asafostida  was  discussed  by  G.  W. 
Kennedy.  Ten  samples  were  examined,  about  four  ounces  of  each  being 
exposed  to  cold,  and  then  reduced  to  coarse  powder  ;  ?oo  grains  of  this  powder 
was  then  completely  exhausted  with  alcohol  and  the  undissolved  portion  dried 
at  a  slow  heat  and  weighed,  the  loss  in  weight  indicating  the  alcohol-soluble 
matter,  whi~h  in  this  case  includes  also  the  moisture  present  in  each  sample. 
The  percentages  of  soluble  matter  were  29/25,  33  60,  41*20,  48*20,  48*40,  50*00, 
56*80,57*50,  58*80  and  68*8o,  the  latter  having  been  labelled  "purified  German," 
