President J. W. Mill. Vice-Presidents-C. Gilbert Wheeler and J. H. Wilson. Treasurer-T. N. Jamieson. Corresponding Secretary-Henry Biroth. Trustees-T. H. Patterson, M. E. Huyck, M. W. Borland, Albert E. Ebert, Thomas Whitfield, E. H. Sargent, William F. Blocki, L. C. Hogan, N. Gray Bartlett, George Buck. At the regular March meeting of the Trustees of the Chicago College of Pharmacy, on Wednesday, March 10th, the Board organized by electing the President of the College, Mr. J. W. Mill, presiding officer for the ensuing year. On motion, Mr. George Parry was unanimously elected a member of the College. The following standing committees were appointed for the ensuing year: On Rooms and Library —J. J. Siddall, C. G. Wheeler, George Buck. On Cabinet and Apparatus-N. G. Bartlett, L. C. Hogan, J. C. Borcherdt. On Finance-J. H. Wilson, F. M. Goodman, W. F. Blocki. The Faculty and committee appointed to conduct the examination of students reported the following as having passed the required examination, and recommended them to the Board of Trustees for the Diploma of the College: Fletcher S. Smith, Chas. William Jacob, Hugo W. C. Martin, Chas. Krusemarck, Andrew Scherer, William F. Woodson, Robert H. Cowdrey. On motion, the report and recommendation of the committee were adopted, and the title of Graduate in Pharmacy conferred. ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE CHICAGO COLLEGE OF PHARMACY. The first stated meeting of the A. A. C. C. P. was held at the College rooms on March 14, 1875, F. M. Goodman presiding. On account of the absence of the Secretary, A. G. Vogeler was appointed Secretary pro tem. The President appointed a committee of three-C. M. Ford, George H. Ackerman and A. G. Vogeler—to deliberate with a similar committee from the College of Pharmacy in regard to making the College library circulating. A paper was then read by A. G. Vogeler, entitled "Nomenclature and Labels," advocating the adoption of the continental pronunciation of Latin names, and also urging greater accuracy on the part of pharmacists as to printed labels. The next two essays were by the President. One treated on Soap Liniment, giving a formula for a preparation that would not congeal below 36° F., while the second was a lengthy and very interesting review of the history of glycerin. After these papers had been referred for publication, the meeting adjourned. ADOLF G. VOGELER, Secretary pro tem. LOUISVILLE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY. The fifth annual meeting of the Louisville College of Pharmacy was held in the College hall, corner Second and Jefferson streets, yesterday, for the purpose of electing directors and officers, and celebrating graduation exercises. The following Board of Directors was elected to serve the ensuing year: C. Lewis Diehl, Vincent Davis, Wm. G. Schmidt, S. Fisher Dawes, Bernh. Bueckle, J. M. Krim, Emil Scheffer, Fred. C. Miller, John Colgan, Ferd. J. Pfingst, Wiley Rogers, J. A. McAfee. At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Louisville College of Pharmacy, held immediately after the adjournment of the annual meeting of the College, the following officers were elected to serve the ensuing year: President-C. Lewis Diehl. First Vice-President-Emil Scheffer. Second Vice-President-Vincent Davis. Curator-James A. McAfee. The following young gentlemen, having been recommended by the Faculty and committee, had the degree of Graduate in Pharmacy conferred upon them: Bernh. Bueckle, Albert J. Schoettlin, Emil Scheffer, J., and Oscar Beckman. The graduating class was addressed by Prof. L. D. Kastenbine, who delivered an entertaining and instructive lecture on the origin, rise and progress of chemistry. WM. G. SCHMIDT, Corresponding Secretary Louisville College of Pharmacy. ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE LOUISVILLE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY. The graduates of the Louisville College of Pharmacy have organized an alumni association, Dec. 17, 1874, and have named it "The Alumni Association of the Louisville College of Pharmacy." The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President Jno. F. Rudell. First Vice-President-Henry Preissler. Board of Directors-Chas. O. Frick, Jno. C. Loomis, Ed. E. Anderson, Phil. G. Bentel, Chas. De Kress. CHAS. P. FRICK, Cor. Sec'y A. A. L. C. P. EDITORIAL. The eighth annual commencement of the Chicago College of Pharmacy was held in the First Methodist Church, corner Clark and Washington streets, on Thursday evening, March 18. This place was also selected last year, for the reason of its more central location and convenience of access. Notwithstanding the very stormy weather which prevailed on that evening, a very good audience greeted the boys, who were naturally in the best of humor. The exercises were both pleasant and profitable, music being interspersed in the programme, amongst the literary productions. President Mill's remarks in awarding the diplomas were very interesting and pointed, being received with hearty applause. The address to the graduates, by Prof. Bartlett was an exceedingly able and interesting discourse, and highly appreciated by all. The response in behalf of the class, by Mr. Martin, was very appropriate, and was supplemented by the presentation to the College of a handsomely framed photograph group of the class. THE REVISED STAMP TAX ON MEDICINES.-"SEC. 22. That hereafter nothing contained in the Internal Revenue Laws shall be construed so as to authorize the imposition of any stamp-tax upon any medicinal articles prepared by any manufacturing chemist, pharmaceutist or druggist, in accordance with a formula published in any standard dispensatory or pharmacopoeia in common use by physicians and apothecaries, or in any pharmaceutical journal issued by any incorporated college of pharmacy, when such formula and where found shall be distinctly referred to on the printed label attached to such article, and no proprietary interest therein is claimed. Neither shall any stamp be required when the formula of any medicinal preparation shall be printed on the label attached to such article, where no proprietorship in such preparation shall be claimed." The workings of the new postal law occasions great hardships to publishers who are unfortunate enough to have an extensive circulation in their own city. For instance, each copy of the PHARMACIST mailed to subscribers in Chicago is required to be prepaid with a two cent stamp. Formerly it cost the subscriber one cent per month for postage. Now it costs the PHARMACIST double that amount. It will perhaps surprise some of our intelligent representatives in Congress to find that it costs the same to send a publication by mail a few blocks in the city as it does to England. AARON P. SHALLCROSS died at Denver, Col., March 10, 1875. Mr. Shallcross was a native of Ohio. In 1861 he went to Philadelphia to attend the lectures of the College of Pharmacy, and while thus engaged was in the employ of the late Edward Parrish. In 1863 he went to Denver, and shortly became one of the leading pharmacists of this growing city. The deceased was thirty-five years old, and leaves a wife and two children. The relation of the pharmacist to the physician is of such a character that the pharmacist is frequently called upon to act as the adviser to the physician in framing formulas and in determining the precise conditions in which medicines may be prescribed to the best advantage of the sick. So long as such influence is exercised solely for the benefit and in the interest of the patient, the influence so exercised is proper and honorable, even if the pharmacist is thereby directly and materially the gainer; but if the pharmacist abuses his privilege and prostitutes the professional influence he may command for the primary motive of gain, he is deserving of the severest opprobrium, and ranks beneath the most impotent quack. Such being our opinion of a class of "specialists who offer gold and furnish gilded dross," we have considered it our duty to combat the specialty innovation, in so far as it is based upon secrecy of formula, and whenever unduly placed before the medical profession. Several years ago, a preparation called "Cincho-Quinine" was thrown upon the market by Jas. R. Nichols & Co.-now Billings, Clapp & Co. of Boston, Mass. The manner in which the attention of medical practitioners was drawn to the nostrum is too familiar to the pharmacist to require detailed mention here. Suffice it to say, that by diligent and profuse advertisement, by the representation of the manufacturers that it was an accurate alkaloidal representative of cinchona bark, by its apparent cheapness as compared to sulphate of quinia, and, undoubtedly also, by a certain medicinal value, the article has gained favor with many physicians, and is, in some localities, frequently prescribed as a substitute for sulphate of quinia. Among pharmacists, however, and especially among those who were educated to a professional standard, the nostrum was regarded with suspicion, and very shortly after its introduction it was subjected to chemical examination. We are cognizant only of two such examinations; one, made in 1870 by Mr. Wm. T. Wentzel; the other, read by Mr. Albert E. Ebert before the American Pharmaceutical Association at its meeting in 1874, from which appears that neither of the experimenters succeeded in determining the presence of quinia. The reading of Mr. Ebert's paper before the American Pharmaceutical Association prompted the manufacturers of the nostrum to protest against its publication in the proceedings of that body, unless such publication was complemented by certain explanations, and the certificates of several chemists (employed by the manufacturers), that the article contained quinia. The American Pharmaceutical Association having thus become involved in a controversy, the merits of which remained undecided, we, being connected with the Association, and having become interested in the question, have endeavored by the experiments detailed in the following pages to place the substance called "Cincho-Quinine" before the public on its true merits. We used for our experiments four samples of cincho-quinine, which are severally designated in our paper as No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4. Sample No. I was purchased by E. Scheffer in March, 1874, and consisted of part of a bottle at the date of our examination. Sample No. 2 was purchased for our examinations. It had been obtained from the maufacturer by the wholesale drug house from which we bought it, some time in May, 1874. The sealed bottle was enveloped in a circular, covered with a blue wrapper, and was labeled. The circular will be described in an appendix, as Circular No. 1. Sample No. 3 was purchased by C. Lewis Diehl on the 18th of September, 1874, and consisted of part of a bottle at the date of our examination. Sample No. 4 was also purchased for our examinations. It had been obtained from the manufacturer by the wholesale drug house from which we bought it, early in December, 1874. The sealed bottle was enveloped in a circular, covered with a blue wrapper, and was labeled. The circular will be described in the appendix, as Circular No. 2. SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS, I. The physical appearance of cincho-quinine, as well as the statement of its manufacturers, "that it is composed wholly of the bark alkaloids," rendered it obvious to us that it was obtained by precipitation from saline combination by means of an alkaline base. If, as the manufacturers claim, the article in question is composed wholly of the cinchona alkaloids, the task of determining the nature of the acid which had held the alkaloids in saline combination, and of the alkali with which it had been precipitated from solution, would have been a hopeless one. In other words, cincho-quinine, being wholly composed of "quinia, quinidia, cinchonia, cinchonidia, and certain not well determined alkaloidal principles of bark," it cannot contain sulphuric, nitric, hydrochloric or other acid; nor soda, potassa, or ammonia, either free or in saline combination. We preferred, however, to accept the evidence of our chemical experiments rather than the assertion of the manufacturers, and propose in the following to give the results of our QUALITATIVE EXAMINATION OF CINCHO-QUININE, for which we used the sample described as: Sample No. 1. This sample possessed slight alkaline reaction; a portion, brought in contact with the moist red litmus, restoring the red color to blue. |