BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. Inaugural Meeting held at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1863. Prof. BENTLEY, F.L.S.. DANIEL HANBURY, F.R.S. W. W. STODDART, F.C.S. W. W. STODDART, F.C.S. H. B. BRADY, F.R.S. THOS. B. GROVES, F.C.S. G. F. SCHACHT, F.C.S. R. REYNOLDS, F.C.S. Vice-Presidents (Four). Prof. BENTLEY, F.L.S. H. S. EVANS, F.C.S. H. C. BAILDON R. REYNOLDS, F.C.S. R. REYNOLDS, F.C.S. R. REYNOLDS, F.C.S. R. REYNOLDS, F.C.S. 1863 to 1870, H. B. BRADY, F.R.S. 1870 to 1877, GEORGE F. SCHACHT, F.C.S. 1877 to 1881, C. EKIN, F.C.S. R. W. GILES, F.C.S. W. W. STODDART, F.G.S. W. W. STODDART, F.G.S. J. WILLIAMS, F.C.S. A. P. BALKWILL. GENERAL 1863 to 1880, Prof. ATTFIELD, Ph.D., F.R.S. 1863 to 1871, RICHARD REYNOLDS, F.C.S. 1871 to 1881, F. BADEN BENGER F.C.S. 1880 to 1881, M. CARTEIGHE, F.C.S. BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. AN ORGANIZATION ESTABLISHED IN 1863 FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH, AND THE PROMOTION OF FRIENDLY INTERCOURSE AND UNION AMONGST PHARMACISTS. THE most important ways in which a member can aid the objects of the Conference are by suggesting subjects for investigation, working upon subjects suggested by himself or by others, contributing information tending to throw light on questions relating to adulterations and impurities, or collecting and forwarding specimens whose examination would afford similar information. Personal attendance at the yearly gatherings, or the mere payment of the annual subscription, will also greatly strengthen the hands of the executive. A list of subjects suggested for research is sent to members early in the year. Resulting papers are read at the annual meeting of the members; but new facts that are discovered during an investigation may be at once published by an author at a meeting of a scientific society, or in a scientific journal, or in any other way he may desire; in that case, he is expected to send a short report on the subject to the Conference. The annual meetings are usually held in the provinces, at the time and place of the visit of the British Association; that for 1881 will be held at York, on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 30th and 31st. Gentlemen desiring to join the Conference can be nominated at any time on applying to the Secretary, or any other officer or member. The yearly subscription is seven shillings and sixpence, payable in advance, on July 1st. Further information may be obtained from THE SECRETARY; BRIT. PHARM. CONF., 17, Bloomsbury Square, London, W.C. THE YEAR-BOOK OF PHARMACY. The Conference annually presents to members a volume of 500 to 600 pages, containing the proceedings at the yearly meeting, and an Annual Report on the Progress of Pharmacy, or Year-Book, which includes notices of all pharmaceutical papers, new processes, preparations, and formulæ published throughout the world. The necessary fund for accomplishing this object consists solely of the subscriptions of members. The Executive Committee, therefore, call on every pharmacist-principal, assistant, or pupil-to offer his name for election, and on every member to make an effort to obtain more members. The price of the Year-Book to non-members is ten shillings. The constitution and rules of the Conference, and a convenient form of nomination, will be found at page 357. Associations invited to send Delegates to the Annual Meeting Presentation Copies of the Year-Book, to whom forwarded List of Journals presented to the Conference INTRODUCTION. 8 15 THE reader will see from a perusal of this volume that the literature of pharmacy and its allied sciences has again received numerous and valuable contributions. Among the items to be passed in brief review in this introductory chapter, we desire to give the first and most prominent place to the masterly work done by Professor Ladenburg in connection with the alkaloids atropine, hyoscyamine, daturine, and duboisine. It would be difficult, indeed, to point to another instance-search as we may through the scientific literature of the year-in which success has been more perfectly commensurate with able and persevering efforts, and in which link after link has been added to the chain of information with equal precision. The reaction of atropine with barium hydrate, resulting-as MM. Kraut and Lossen have shown-in the formation of tropine, CH1 NO, and tropic acid, C, H10 O3, forms the basis of Prof. Ladenburg's experiments. From him we learn that tropine tropate, as obtained in this decomposition, may be reconverted into atropine by treatment with dilute hydrochloric acid, and that the atropine thus artificially prepared is identical in every sense with the natural alkaloid. By extending the same treatment to other tropine salts, a number of bases analogous to atropine can be produced, for which as a class he proposes the name of tropeines, salicyl-tropeine, oxytoluyltropeine, and phthalyl-tropeine being described in his report as instances of this kind. Tropidine, another artificial base, obtained by the action of strong hydrochloric acid upon a mixture of tropine and glacial acetic acid, and answering to the formula C, H13 N, is remarkable for the peculiar relation in which it appears to stand to collidine, Cg H11 N, and conine, Cg H15 N, occupying, as its formula shows, an intermediate position between the two. With increasing interest the reader will turn to the reports on hyoscyamine, daturine, and duboisine. In these it is shown that hyoscyamine, when treated with barium hydrate, yields hyoscine and hyoscinic acid, bodies so closely agreeing with tropine and tropic acid-the corresponding decomposition products of atropine,-that it is difficult to resist the conviction of their identity. In view of this identity (subse 8 B quently proved by further experiments), and of the fact that hyoscyamine and atropine have exactly the same chemical composition, both being represented by the formula C17 H23 NO3, Prof. Ladenburg accounts for the difference existing between the two bases by assuming that their components are differently united, so that their isomerism may be comparable to that existing between gaultheria oil and salicylate of methyl. Daturine, which but a short time ago was proved to be distinct from atropine (Year-Book of Pharmacy, 1878, p. 24), is now again deprived of its individuality, for its composition, its characters, its behaviour towards reagents, and the composition and properties of its auro-chloride, all point to its identity with hyoscyamine; and precisely the same is the case with duboisine, the alkaloid lately isolated by Mr. Gerrard from Duboisia Myoporoides. Whichever of these bases be acted upon with barium hydrate, the result is the same as with atropine, the reaction in each case occurring in accordance with the following equation: Cg H15 NO + C9 H10 O3. (identical with daturine and duboisine, and isomeric with atropine). tropine). (identical with Close upon the recognition of the identity between hyoscine and tropine, and between hyoscinic acid and tropic acid, follows, as might be expected, the actual conversion of hyoscyamine into atropine, and thus completes the success of this remarkable series of investigations. It will be observed that throughout his reports Prof. Ladenburg speaks of atropine as of an alkaloid distinct from daturine, hyoscyamine, or duboisine, however closely related to them it may appear. In opposition to this view, Dr. E. Schmidt reasserts the identity of daturine and atropine so recently disputed by M. Poehl, and bases his assertion upon the results of a careful comparison of the chemical and physical properties of the two bases and of some of their combinations and decomposition products. Should this be confirmed, the number of mydriatic alkaloids known to occur in nature, already reduced to two by Prof. Ladenburg's researches, will dwindle down to a solitary one. M. Tanret has continued his investigation of the root-bark of Punica Granatum, and describes four distinct alkaloids contained therein, viz., methylpelletierine, C19 H17 N O, a dextro-rotatory liquid; pseudopelletierine, C, H1 NO, a crystalline solid; pelletierine, Cg H15 NO, a lavo-rotatory liquid; and isopelletierine, a liquid without action on polarized light, and isomeric with pelletierine. Mr. D. B. Dott furnishes some interesting information respecting |