Am'iZr;wtm'}  Minutes  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  645 
Dr.  Lowe  read  a  paper  upon  the  use  of  compressed  gases  in  medical  prac- 
tice. The  gases  used  most  are  oxygen  and  nitrogen  monoxide,  the  latter 
being  that  which  is  advertised  as  compound  oxygen  by  medical  quacks.  An 
apparatus  for  the  inhalation  of  gases,  constructed  by  the  White  Dental  Co.,  of 
Philadelphia,  was  also  exhibited  and  its  uses  explained. 
The  reading  elicited  a  good  deal  of  discussion.  Mr.  Beringer  stated  that 
other  gases  beside  those  mentioned  were  in  use  for  medical  purposes,  sul- 
phuretted hydrogen  and  chlorine  being  of  the  number. 
Prof.  Trimble  said  that  air  and  oxygen  had  been  liquefied  and  exhibited  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Royal  Institution,  London  ;  both  were  then  passed  around  the 
meeting  in  glasses,  those  handling  them  being  cautioned  not  to  touch  the 
glass,  but  only  to  take  hold  of  the  handle  made  of  a  non-conducting  material, 
as  the  temperature  was  —  1800  C.  in  one  case  and  —  1920  C.  in  another.  The 
atmosphere,  compressed,  would  make  a  sea  thirty-five  feet  deep  around  the 
globe. 
Mr.  Mclntyre  stated  that  medication  by  means  of  compressed  gases  had  been 
found  efficacious,  but  that  there  were  many  persons  who  did  not  know  how  to 
inhale  them. 
Liquefied  ammonia,  another  of  the  compressed  gases,  may  be  expected  to 
work  great  changes  in  connection  with  practical  pharmacy,  as  a  means  of 
refrigeration. 
The  use  of  compressed  carbonic  acid  was  also  discussed,  as  a  means  of  aerating 
•  beverages,  and  inquiry  was  made  whether  it  was  safe  to  use  it  ;  the  reply  was 
that  the  company  which  operate  Leffman's  patent  for  making  carbonic  acid 
from  magnesite  test  their  cylinders  to  4,000  pounds,  and  charge  them  up  to 
1,000  pounds  pressure. 
Nitrous  oxide  gas  cylinders  like  those  exhibited  have  one  hundred  gallons  of 
gas  compressed  into  them,  and  are  cooled  to  50  C.  The  amount  of  gas  that 
is  contained  in  the  cylinders  is  estimated  partly  by  the  pressure  and  partly  by 
the  weight  ;  the  weight  of  oxygen  contained  in  a  cylinder  is  said  to  be  7^ 
ounces. 
One  of  the  advantages  claimed  for  the  compressed  gases  is  great  portability. 
Some  are  quite  valuable  as  fire  extinguishers,  like  carbonic  acid,  and  sulphur- 
ous acid.  Chloroform  was  stated  to  be  of  value  for  extinguishing  petroleum 
fire,  but  no  experiments  seem  to  have  been  made  on  a  large  scale  for  such 
purposes.  Chloride  of  ethyl  compressed  in  tubes  with  capillary  orifice  has 
been  used  for  local  anaesthesia,  and  its  value  for  this  purpose  was  possibly  due 
to  local  refrigeration. 
Professor  Maisch  read  the  copy  of  an  American  prescription  which  had  been 
sent  to  him  from  Europe,  where  it  had  been  presented  to  be  compounded,  one 
of  the  articles  called  for  being  jurebebine.  He  stated  that  jurebebine  was  iso- 
lated by  Dr.  Greene,  of  the  U.  S.  Navy,  in  1878,  from  the  green  fruit  of  a 
solanum  indigenous  to  Brazil,  and  that  the  name  jurubeba  or  juribeba  was  used 
in  that  country  for  several  species  of  solanum  and  other  solanaceous  plants, 
among  them  being  Sol.  paniculatum,  S.  toxicarium  and  S.  insidiosum.  The 
leaves  were  stated  by  Peckolt  to  be  used  as  an  infusion,  of  the  strength  of  2  gm. 
to  500  gm.  of  water,  and  given  in  doses  of  a  wineglassful  four  times  a  day. 
Dr.  Greene  has  shown  that  the  alkaloid  is  not  identical  with  solanine. 
It  was  stated  that  the  prescription  in  question  was  sent  out  by  an  advertis- 
