BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE : MEETING AT NEW-CASTLE-ON-TYNE.

314 favour of school clinics, as opposed to the views of the Day Schools Subcommittee which were defended by its chairman, BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONMr. Jay. Mr. Graham Wallas complained of the unFERENCE : MEETING AT NEWsympathetic attitude of the hospitals and protested against their refusal to accept supervision in the treatment of the CASTLE-ON-TYNE. Council’s school children. Lady St. Helier, who has been of great assistance in securing the hospitals’ cooperation, THE forty-sixth annual meeting of the British Pharmastrongly supported the subcommittee’s proposals, and Mr. c Conference was held this week at Newcastle-onLeon suggested that negotiations should be opened with ceutical ’J The a matter which it was proceedings were opened on Monday evening, dispensaries, explained was alreadyTyne. J under consideration by the subcommittee. 26th, by a reception at Armstrong College by the July The report thus adopted by the Education CommitteeIPresident, Mr. J. F. Tocher, B.Sc., F. I. C. On the following c Mr. TOCHER delivered his Presidential Address, taking as. came up for consideration by the London County Council onday 1 his subject "Some Problems of Interest to Pharmacists." 27th. July The address covered a variety of topics of peculiar Mr. CYRIL JACKSON, chairman of the Education Com1 to pharmacists and in a lesser degree of interest mittee, said that since the report passed the Education importance In dealing with the question of pharmacopceial Committee various other hospitals had come in. The generally. irevision Mr. Tocher alluded to the work of the committee of Paddington Green Hospital had somewhat withdrawn and reference in pharmacy appointed by the General Medical had gone into Class 2 of institutions taking up an attitude Council, and commented favourably on the fact that the of benevolence. But the had the (criticisms of pharmacists had been invited on the recomassistance of Guy’s Hospital and St. Bartholomew’s Hos- mendations made by that committee. Pharmacists should pital, and would probably see its way to doing more than jfeel satisfied that the General Medical Council continued to the 20,000 cases mentioned in the report. 46 hospitals hadtake reasonable means of ascertaining their views respecting now replied, and 21 were prepared to cooperate and accept methods and matter prior to the issue of the 1 pharmacopoeial payment. With a little careful organisation by the com- standard and guide which it was the legal duty of the mittee they would not only get the children treated but beCouncil to prepare and to publish. Before passing from this able to help the hospitals with their out-patients’ departhe suggested that there was still much work to be subject ments. done respecting the natural variability in the proportion of On recommendation (d) Dr. R. M. BEATON moved anthe active constituents of plants, and that it should be the amendment to insert the words "subject to all such(duty of the committee of reference to invite capable negotiations being conducted on the basis that the Councilinvestigators within their own ranks but outside the comreserves the right of inspection in regard to medical treat-]mitttee to undertake this and other branches of research. ment in respect of which grants are made by the Council."Dealing with the effect of the increase in the duty on spirit Dr. Beaton remarked that the hospitals had taken up a veryiupon the cost of spirituous galenical preparations, he said peculiar position in this matter. As to those which refusedthat so long as alcohol was used as a solvent of active conpayment it was a question between them and the generalstituents of drugs, so long would this tax have an injurious practitioner. But when the Council made grants it should(economic effect on hospitals, friendly societies, and the sick have some sort of representation, either by the appointment poor generally. He would like some means to be devised of a representative on the governing body or by sending anwhereby necessary medicines ordered through the legitimate official to the hospitals. Especially was this necessary,(channel-the medical profession-could be entirely freed seeing that in some cases the children would be attended by jfrom taxation, and he suggested that the loss to the revenue unqualified men or men having lately qualified. could be made good by the imposition of a heavier tax on Mr. SHEPHEARD seconded. He thought that the amend-nostrums. The sale of "patent"" medicines was of doubtful ment was very necessary, having regard to the fact that theservice to the community, and he estimated that the annual Council grants would probably be extended to dispensariesexpenditure per head of the population on these articles was and other institutions of the kind. ;Is. 4d. He made a comparison between the cost of drugs Mr. JACKSON, replying, said: " Of course, I can’t accept 100 years ago with the cost to-day, concluding that on the the amendment. The hospitals would not stand it, and it is average the price in 1909 was almost exactly one-half the only moved to try and wreck the scheme." Dr. Beaton price in 1810. He also compared prescriptions written 100 omitted to say (he went on) that when the Council paid it :years ago with present-day prescriptions, his own opinion 1 that the character of prescribing in 1810 was equal to, would pay for qualified clinical assistants and not unqualified being medical students. The hospitals were perfectly capable ofif not superior to, that of 1909. The fact that medicine was doing the work properly. He did not think it desirable thatnow less empirical and was becoming more scientific in its. young doctors appointed in connexion with the Council’s practice was not a valid reason for the decay of prescribing. medical inspection work should overlook the clinical Dispensing by Medical Practitioners. assistants who would be supervised in the hospitals by The remainder of Tuesday morning and the whole of experts. Wednesday morning were devoted to the reading of papers. Dr. BEATON : Nonsense. and to discussions. Until this year the work of the ConMr. JACKSON defied Dr. Beaton to point to a hospital whereference has been confined to the consideration of papers of the men at the head of the different departments did not seea scientific character, but at the present meeting an innovathat the work was properly done. The very best men in tion was made and discussions were arranged on two quesLondon hoped to give supervision to this and to attend to tions of political rather than scientific interest. Mr. TOCHER introduced a discussion on the question, "Should the discases of special difficulty. prescriptions be exclusively confined to Mr. SHEPHEARD repudiated the suggestion that there was pensing of medical " He considered that the great grievance pharmacists ? any desire to wreck the scheme. with which pharmacists had to contend was that The Rev. STEWART HEADLAM observed that no one were members of the only class in the kingdom suggested that the children would be entirely under the care they educated and properly trained to dispense medispecially of unqualified men, but a good many young students were and yet many of them got little employment after cines, employed on this kind of work, and the Council ought to qualification in the work they had been specially trained to exercise supervision. perform, simply because the work was done by medical The amendment was lost on a division by 52 votes to practitioners. He put forward a proposal to institute a joint 30, and the recommendations of the committee were then standing committee consisting of members of the British adopted without alteration. Medical Association and the British Pharmaceutical Conference. Later, if practicable or desirable, interested’ members of the public, including leaders of friendly societies, might be added. The preliminary duties of ther IT is notified that the exhibit of committee would be to collect information from all parts. Messrs. Burroughs, Well come, and Co. at the Bombay of Great Britain bearing on the actual practice in Medical Congress, held in February last, has received the vogue and to ascertain the facilities existing for a transof the work to pharmacists in the cases where the ) ference highest award.

Council now

general

;

officially

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315 or on behalf of, medical men. Mr. C. SYMES, Ph.D., suggested an improvement on the method for the manufacture of "fluid desirable that the committee should collect pharmacopoeial p e: of cascara sagrada." The point of exhaustion of the information from all parts respecting the practice of treating extract is usually determined by the absence of bitterness in b ailments and prescribing for them by pharmacists and by bark tl percolate, but in working a small batch of 28 pounds other persons untrained and unqualified for these important the o of bark a short time ago it occurred to Dr. Symes that duties. Another interesting discussion was that opened by Mr. H. when bitterness of the percolate had ceased the addition of to a further portion of the menstruum might be a WIPPELL GADD, F.C.S., barrister-at-law, on Some Problems ammonia t] means of obtaining a further yield of extract possessing the of the Poison Schedule. n value. He found that the apparently exhausted Among the many interesting papers read we may medicinal b did yield a percolate possessing distinct aperient prorefer to the following. Dr. W. MARTIN read a paper bark when treated with diluted ammonia, and he described upon Some Experiences in the Testing of Drugs by perties p i] detail the process employed. Bio-chemical Methods, with Special Reference to Digitalis, in Mr. W. A. H. NAYLOR, F.I.C., and Mr. E. J. CHAPPEL Squill, and Strophanthus. Dr. Martin went minutely details of a process for the " estimation of extractive into a subject which was rather outside the pharmaceutical gave g a track and in conclusion referred to the idea, which seemed to and glycerine in spirituous galenicals." The process deon the removal of the glycerine and determinabe gaining ground, that some tests of a bio-chemical nature pended r t of the extractive by weighing the residue.-Mr. G. should be included in the Pharmacopoeia. He understood tion that it would be a departure from the principles that had IPINCHBECK, F.C.S., contributed a note on the "Separation hitherto actuated the compilers of the British Pharmacopoeia of o Strychnine from Brucine." The experiments described to include methods that could not be carried out by the demonstrate c that the United States Pharmacopoeia assay was and his’own that in a manner proposed by the author, was modified himself, impression pharmacist theprocess, T time was not yet ripe for the introduction of tests of this kind, capable of giving accurate results under conditions which c unless they were made permissive and not mandatory. If it were B not onerous to the worker.-Mr. J. G. REMINGTON and were decided that the frog test " was the most satisfactory 1 Mr. H. LANCASTER communicated a paper on the "’Comparamethod of estimating the therapeutic activity of certain ttive Examination of the Halogen Absorption of Oils by the drugs he thought it might be included, as the tests were IMethods of Hubl, Wijs, Hanns, and Mcllheney "; and Mr. of such a kind that they could be carried out quite well and D. l LLOYD HOWARD and Mr. J. B. P. HARRISON described a with perfect propriety by men who were trained in the art of imethod for the Determination of Antimony in its Sulphide delicate manipulation and scientific observation. Preparations. The increase in the duty on alcohol probably suggested the subject of the paper read by Mr. W. B. DoTT, F.R.S.E., namely, "The Use of Alcohol in Pharmacy." Mr. Dott THE remarked that there had been manifest of late a distinct tendency to reduce the proportion of spirituous preparations. TWELFTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS Comparing the 1885 with the 1898 Pharmacopoeia he found ON ALCOHOLISM. the tinctures reduced from 72 to 65 and the liquid extracts increased from 12 to 17. The question arose : Could the pro(Continued from p. 251.) portion of alcohol used in pharmaceutical preparations be still further reduced without diminishing the medicinal value ON Thursday, July 22nd, the Congress met in the of the preparations ? He thought it could, and mentioned 24 tinctures which could be prepared with lower strength Kensington Town-hall, when Sir THOMAS P. WHITTAKER, alcohol than that required by the Pharmacopoeia. The M.P., read a paper on the Economic Effects of the Producand Consumption of Alcohol. The production of any strength of alcohol used in making many extracts could also tion article which gave employment to a large number of people, be reduced without disadvantage. He also discussed the he said, was not necessarily a proof that such production value of glycerine and acetic acid as solvents. The results of the analysis of a number of samples of was wise or valuable. If money was not spent in the pro"malt extract with cod-liver oil"were given by Mr. E. F. duction of liquor it would be available for other things HARRISON, B.Sc., F.I.C. 19 samples were examined and which would give at least as much employment as the liquor The total expenditure on alcohol in the percentage of oil was found to vary from 1.55 to 30 ’ 5 ; trade now gave. the diastatic value of the extract varied from7 to 776, this country was £165,000,000, and the value of that and the percentage of maltose in the extract from 53.66 to expenditure must be gauged from the point of view The real tests of the wisdom and 75 ’ 2. The author thought it would be agreed that the very of the consumer. value of this were two and were exemplified in a state of which shown indicated was expenditure differences great things these were these the of view of the questions : (1) liquors beneficial?(2) could unsatisfactory, at least from point public. Mr. E. W. POLLARD, B.Sc., reported on a number of samples the consumer afford the expenditure? He went on to conof " commercial emulsions" drawn from many sources. trast the health and work of the teetotaler with that of the Some were dispensed at various pharmacies in London and non-abstainer and, founding his arguments principally on the country, while others were purchased at random, but the insurance statistics, drew the conclusion that the abstainer majority of the samples were obtained direct from wholesale did better work and was more healthy. Drink, he said, was houses. The emulsions varied roughly from 25 per cent. to the dominant factor in crime, pauperism, and disease. 50 per cent. and were generally as described on the label; Herr KARL KOGLER (Vienna), in a paper on Alcoholism the manufacturers of those containing the lower amounts and Industrial Assurance against Disaster and Invalidity, deemed any information unnecessary. He considered that maintained that alcohol leads to degeneration of the race and in a complex mixture like an emulsion 10 per cent. on the consequently to an increase of risks in every class of workresult would not be too liberal an allowance in judging man’s insurance. In the evening, by the invitation of the Hon. and Very accuracy. no ointment of introduced into the more recent Rev. J. W. Leigh, Dean of Hereford, a garden party was Probably the British Pharmacopoeias has given so much trouble and held at the Grosvenor River Club, Henley-on-Thames. dissatisfaction as the paraffin ointment at present official. On Friday, July 23rd, the Congress again met in the Mr. J. H. FRANKLIN had conducted a number of experiments Town-hall, when Alderman F. S. SPENCE read a Kensington with a view to discover an ointment base to replace it paper on"No License"Legislation, and Herr VIETOR read and embodied the results in his paper on "Unguentum a paper on International Concert in Protecting Native Races Paraffini."He suggested the following alternative formulæ:—from Alcoholism. After some discussion on these papers it was decided to send the following telegram to Mr. A. White petroleum jelly 85 parts, Chamberlain :-

work

performed by,

was

Secondly,

it

was

"

...............

Pure bleached cerasin

...............

15

"

B.

White petroleum jelly Paraffin wax m.p. 130° F............. Pure bleached cerasin

...............

...............

B " is

thewhiter basis,

but A

"

82 parts. 8 " 10 "

is rather smoother.

This meeting of the Twelfth International Congress on Alcoholism, composed of members of diverse nationalities and political opinions, recalls the noble words and earnest efforts which you have put forth to protect the native races of Africa from the liquor traffic, which, aa you have said, is not only discreditable but disastrous to British trade. We appeal to you once more to support us in our united endeavour to

protect the weak races of the world from this gigantic evil.

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