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COSTON MEDICAL

ALUMNE REPORT

LIBRAR

Published MONTHLY BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE

PHILADELPHIA COLLEGE OF PHARMACY

VOL. XLII

JANUARY, 1906

No. I

DECEMBER PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING

The December Pharmaceutical Meeting was held in the College Museum, December 19, at 3 P.M., Mr. William McIntyre presiding.

The paper of the afternoon was presented by Dr. Henry Leffman, the well known chemist, who spoke of the United States Pharmacopœia from the standpoint of the Analytical Chemist. He thought the book might have been reduced one-third in size and also some in price. He criticised the nomenclature to some extent and also the composition of the Revision Committee, saying that the first Revision Committee was made up entirely of physicians, the last one largely of pharmacists. He thought the Convention for Revising the Pharmacopoeia did not represent the ultimate thought of the country. In looking over the list of delegates he thought the trade interests were very strongly represented. He cited the report of a meeting of the Tennessee Pharmaceutical Convention, in which a Mr. Patton, a representative of the manufacturers of Wine of Cardu, spoke in defense of those proprietary preparations "that were not booze." Wine of Cardu on recent analysis shows 20 per cent of alcohol. Dr. Leffman thought the source of the Pharmacopoeia was not sufficiently restricted to make it a safe guide. He thought that chemical symbols were not so important; that chemical analysis, however, should be exact; that many of the processes were too long; that time in making an analysis is of the greatest importance; that the fat of milk is now determined in five minutes, instead of taking ten hours as formerly; that the Pharmacopoeia should be revised from time to time, instead of only once in a decade. He was strongly opposed to the introduction of structural formulæ and of hydrogen as the basis of atomic weights. He said that the first Pharmacopoeia was entirely in Latin, the last one had only the titles in this language; Latin was not only a dead language, but a decomposed one. He approved of the change in title of Naphthalene but not in that of Arseni Trioxidum which he claimed should have been Arseni Sesquioxidum. He spoke of some of the tests for water prescribed by the Pharmacopoeia, those for water being too rigid and those for distilled water worse. Water that comes from considerable depths often shows the presence of nitrates and nitrites which mean nothing, only want of oxidation and not the presence of sewage as in shallow wells. With regard to the "purity rubric," he questioned how the courts would regard this disclaimer; he feared that the druggist would be greatly troubled. Some of the

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