that a physician should consider uniformity of strength of greater moment than uniformity of dose. However, we would confess that it is more scientific, though wanting in expediency, and thus may be allowed to pass.

THIRTY-EIGHT candidates have entered for the Pharmaceutical Examination, which will be held at the rooms of the College, Scott Street, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 3rd and 4th, commencing at 9 o'clock, a.m. The Council will meet on Wednesday, but it is presumed that the session will be a short one, as there is not much business to transact.

Editorial Summary.

THE British Pharmaceutical Conference will be held at Swansea, on Tuesday, August 24th. The neighborhood and industries of this town present many attractions, and a very pleasant time is anticipated.

SPURIOUS Vermillion, consisting of red lead, colored or glazed with a solution of eosin, is mentioned by the Chemiker Zeitung as having appeared in Continental markets. The pigment may be easily tested by alcohol, which at once dissolves eosin.

CITRATE of caffeia, for which there is now a small demand in this country, is said not to be a true salt, but a mixture of the alkaloid and citric acid, by which the former is rendered more soluble. Guarana is rich in caffeia, containing about 5 per cent. Tea yields about one and a quarter, and coffee one per cent.

IT IS said that the Philadelphia authorities, who are taking some steps to suppress the bogus diploma business which has its head quarters in the Quaker City, find that Drs. Buchanan and Polk have disposed of some 3000 degrees of various kinds. Amongst the papers found was a lot of blank diplomas weighing about half a ton.

THE Pharm. Jour. & Trans., contains a notice of a new potato,

found in Uruguay, which flourishes well in marshy ground near rivers, and which in this respect is just the reverse of the ordinary potato, as the latter is a native of a remarkably dry region. It is thought that much land that has hitherto been of little use may be turned to profitable account by the introduction of this new vegetable.

THE detection of salicylic acid in wine or preserved fruit may be readily accomplished by shaking the wine or some of the fruit juice with one-fifth its bulk of fusel oil, allowing the latter to rise to the surface, mixing it with an equal volume of alcohol, and adding a few drops of solution of chloride of iron. The presence of salicylic acid is shown by the ordinary violet coloration.

BETGER'S method for the reduction of chloride of silver consists in suspending the freshly precipitated and well-washed chloride in solution of caustic soda, adding a small portion of glucose, and bringing the mixture to a boiling temperature, when the silver salt quickly assumes the metallic form. The powder is collected, dried, fused in a crucible; or merely heated until it contracts to a spongy condition.

MR. R. G. Fairthorne suggests, in the American Journal of Pharmacy, a so-called improvement in making aromatic sulphuric acid, so that the preparation may be made extemporaneously. He proposes to accomplish this by the use of tincture of ginger and oil of true cinnamon, instead of the solid drugs. It seems very questionable whether such a preparation would even resemble the official acid, and that it would be an improvement on the old and well-established elixir is open to still graver doubs.

QUEBRACHO gum has been examined by Dr. August Vogl, who communicates the result to the July number of Pharm. Jour. & Trans. The wood which contains the gum is known as quebracho colorado, alluded to in a paragraph in another part of this number. It contains crevices and hollow spaces, the walls of which are deeply cleft, and covered with a deposit of friable resinous matter, resembling kino, and which forms the so-called gum. It is probably produced by a disorganization of the wood.

BOROCITRIC acid, a new organic compound, is described by a writer in Pharm. Zeit. fur Russland. It may be made by mixing

one part of boracic acid and seven of citric acid in aqueous solution and boiling the mixture for some time, with constant stirring. By evaporation to dryness it may be obtained, as a greyish mass, or a white crystalline mass by slow evaporation. It disolves in water and in alcohol, and forms with the alkalies soluble salts. The borocitrate of magnesia has been used successfully as a solvent for culculi.

GEISSLER says that after wine colored with fuchsin becomes old the coloring matter is precipitated by the tannin-probably in some form of combination-and thus escapes detection by ordinary methods. For testing for fuchsin in new wine no better way has been suggested than that we proposed in this Journal, in August, 1871; but a contributor to a Continental periodical advocates the addition of ammonia to the wine before agitating with amylic alcohol. This mode also gives very satisfactory results, but the addition is not necessary.

In a paper in the American Journal of Pharmacy for July, Dr.. T. C. Craig suggests a new formula for making Syrupus Guaiaci. Fifty-eight grains of potassic hydrate, or its equivalent of liquor potassæ, are dissolved in eight fluid ounces of water, and this solution is used to moisten and exhaust, by percolation, thirty-two scruples of powdered guaiacum resin; sufficient water is then passed through to make the percolate up to eight fluid ounces, and to this is added one avoirdupois pound of sugar, which completes the syrup. The dose is a teaspoonful, containing five grains of guaiacum.

It consists in attaching

A METHOD of cleaning worms and condensers, which have become foul with deposits of essential oils, resins, and such like, is described by M. Carles, a French chemist. the condenser to the still, and drawing over water in which carbonate of ammonia has been dissolved; after the still has been running for about an hour, the worm will be found to be perfectly clean. Those who have distilled ammoniacial liquids through copper worms know that after this treatment the condenser will require to be thoroughly washed with water, so as to remove all traces of ammonia.

THE Pharmacist calls attention to a test for pepsine spoken of in a paper read by a Dr. J. Merritt before King's County Medical

Society. It consists in dissolving the pepsine in water, adding a solution of common salt, and allowing the mixture to stand twentyfour hours, when the amount of pepsine present may be judged by the thickness of the film which floats on the surface. Many pepsines in the market will not stand this test well, but one kind forms an exception, and it is hinted that it is this particular sort that the writer of the paper is specially interested in. Dr. Squibb says the test is worthless, and that pepsine made from pig's bladder, and having no digestive power at all, appears stronger than that made from the stomach.

In a paper by Mr. J. U. Lloyd, in New Remedies, on the preparation of phosphoric acid, the writer suggests a novel mode of getting rid of the last traces of nitric acid, and, by avoiding a high heat, preventing the formation of meta- and pyrophosphoric acids. In working with the pharmacopoeial quantities he carries the concentration to sixteen fluid ounces instead of two, and, when the liquid has cooled, adds an equal bulk of deodorized alcohol, and finishes the operation on a water-bath. The alcohol combines with the nitric acid, and is quickly evolved as nitrous ether. If all traces of the nitric acid are not removed, more alcohol must be added. The use of common alcohol discolors the acid, but the color may be removed by digestion with purified animal charcoal.

A SHORT paper on boracic acid ointment was read at a meeting of the School of Pharmacy Student's Association, London, England, in which the author, Mr. S. Hardwick, relates his experience with various bases, amongst others, a mixture of gelatine and glycerine. Fifteen grains of gelatine are soaked in two drachms of water, and then added to the specified amount of boracic acid, previously dissolved in six drachms of glycerine by the aid of a gentle heat. With a greater proportion of acid than one drachm to the ounce this formula does not succeed. A better base is made by the use of starch. Dissolve, by the aid of heat, the specified quantity of acid. in one ounce of glycerine, add one drachm of starch, and heat to the boiling point. There is a slight separation of acid if this preparation be made as strong as two drachms to the ounce, but even then the acid is in a finer state of division than can be produced by trituration. When it is desired to incorporate boracic acid with lard, the addition of a small quantity of glycerine materially facilitates pulverization.

THOSE particularly interested in the subject of hops will find in the Pharm. Jour. and Trans., for July 3rd, a translation from the Archiv. der Pharmacie of a very thorough paper, by Dr. Max Issleib, on the bitter principle and resin to which the activity of hops is to be attributed. The author reviews the literature of the subject and passes on to notice his own experiments on the best means of extracting the bitter principle. Cold water was found to dissolve this body but a very large quantity of menstruum was required for the purpose. Hot water extracted certain disagreeable and astringent substances, so that it was deemed ineligible as a solvent. Alcohol was found to be a good solvent for hops, yielding 26 per cent. of resin-like extract, while the same menstruum extracted from lupulin a similar product amounting to 55.3 per cent. It was found that alcohol dissolved only the brown resin, as stated by Etti. The bitter principle was separated from the resinous matter and found to amount to 0.004 per cent., in the case of hops, and o.11 per cent. in lupulin. This bitter substance could not be crystallized, but remained as a light yellow amorphous mass, posessing a taste like quinine, and retaining in a high degree the peculiar aromatic odor of hops. Alcohol, benzine, carbon bisulphide, and ether dissolve it but less readily. It is decomposed by acids, but, as no sugar is formed, it must be placed among the pseudo-glucosides, and has the composition C29H46O10

THE interest consequent on the publication of Professor Clay's paper on Chian turpentine in cancer, referred to in our last number, has caused considerable excitement in the drug market, and many enquiries have been made for the new remedy. We have already mentioned the attempt to substitute Canada balsam for the true drug, and the means by which the fraud may be detected. It appears that even when the turpentine comes direct from Scio, its origin may be open to some question, as the Cypriots are adepts at adulteration, and have practised it on this particular drug for a very long period. Records of a century ago speak of mixtures of Venice turpentine; and Mariti, in his Travels through Palestine, etc., between 1760-80, says that those who purchase Cyprus turpentine must be very cautious, lest they be deceived, as a vase which, at the top, appears to contain the finest article, may have a very inferior sort at the bottom. The true turpentine is derived from Pistacia Tere