14th February, 1852, for the purpose of remonstrating and expressing a hope that they would reconsider the subject. The deputation contended that the occasional prevalence of delinquencies on the part of a few individuals was not sufficient to justify so sweeping a reflection on the whole body of Chemists and Druggists as their regulation conveyed. It was suggested that a more efficient inspection might be made, and the deputation expressed a desire to assist the Commissioners in exposing and checking the frauds which had brought the trade into disgrace. The Commissioners stated in reply that the inspection of medicines had been tried for a long time, and had totally failed. They had come to the conclusion that no course could be pursued with a prospect of success except that which they had adopted, namely, the restriction of the supply to one establishment in which they had confidence. They disclaimed any prejudice or disposition to favour any parties, and expressed regret that they had felt it to be their duty to adopt a regulation so invidious, and, in some respects, objectionable. They had a duty to perform, and being responsible for the supply of the vessels under their care with good medicines, they felt this to be the primary consideration, and unless the deputation could point out any other mode by which the object could be secured, they could not deviate from their present plan. The deputation urged that the inspection might be conducted in a more effectual manner, and a conversation of some length ensued, in which various suggestions were offered and discussed. The Commissioners, however, did not yield the point at issue, and the deputation retired under the conviction that there was little or no prospect of a change in the regulations taking place.

Soon afterwards we waited on the authorities at the Board of Trade, and ascertained that the system of inspection which was in force with regard to emigrant vessels not chartered by the Commissioners was in some respects defective, and the subject was under consideration, with a view of securing a more satisfactory result.

It was quite obvious that if sufficient grounds existed to justify the Commissioners in their restrictive policy, the same grounds were equally applicable to other vessels, and we came to the conclusion that an entire revision of the system was desirable. The efforts to bring this about having failed, and the Commissioners having declined to relax in their regulations, the subject was abandoned for the time, with the forlorn hope that some future opportunity might possibly occur of renewing it with a better prospect of success.

The subject was about the same time discussed among the Chemists at Liverpool, who also felt the annoyance and injury inflicted by the monopoly in favour of a London house. No active measures, however, were then taken, but the dissatisfaction which prevailed has continued to increase, and application was lately made to the members for Liverpool for their advice and assistance. The number of emigrant vessels which for some time past have left the port of Liverpool has been so considerable that the inconvenience of the restrictive regulation has been increasingly felt, and the parties aggrieved resolved to make an appeal to the Commissioners in the hope that some relaxation of the rule might be obtained. Accordingly, by the intervention of Mr. Turner, M.P., an interview was obtained on Thursday, the 17th of February, the report of which will be found in the Transactions of the Liverpool Chemists' Association, page 419.

This subject is one which, at first sight, appears to concern only the comparatively small number of Chemists and Druggists who are engaged in that branch of the business; but, if considered in all its bearings, it concerns the whole body of Pharmaceutists, who ought to make common cause with those whose interests are more immediately affected, and seriously to consider by what means the odium of so obnoxious a regulation could be removed. Severe and summary punishment should be inflicted on the perpetrators of the frauds which have brought this disgrace upon us all. In every case in which such delinquencies are proved to exist, no efforts should be spared to make examples of the guilty parties, and every honest man in the trade should endeavour to assist in this exposure.

TRANSACTIONS

OF

THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY.

THE LATE DR. PEREIRA.

Ar a Meeting of the Council, held on the 2d of February, 1853, it was unanimously resolved,

That this Council desires to record its deep sense of the loss the Society has sustained in the decease of its late valued and esteemed professor DR. PEREIRA, to whom the profession owes a lasting debt of gratitude for his zeal and unwearied exertions in the promotion of Science, and especially in the extension of the knowledge of Materia Medica, which he enriched with the results of his searching investigations, and imparted to the student with unrivalled facility and effect, both by oral teaching and through his published works.

The Council entertains a grateful remembrance of the valuable services which were so cordially rendered by Dr. Pereira in the promotion of the scientific and educational objects of this Institution, and which, in the infancy of the Society, contributed much to the success of its operations, both through the influence of his high character and position in the profession, and his experience as a distinguished authority in Materia Medica. That the Conversazione announced for the 9th of February be postponed on account of the lamented decease of Dr. Pereira.

That copies of the above Resolutions be forwarded to Mrs. Pereira, with the sincere condolence and sympathy of the Council.

EVENING MEETINGS AND LECTURES.

It was resolved,

That the following regulations be adopted for the admission of Visitors to the Evening Meetings and Lectures, and to the Conversazione :

Each Member of the Society to have the privilege of introducing a friend the name of the visitor, and of the Member introducing him, being entered in the book in the hall. Cards may be obtained from the Secretary. Any Member desiring an additional card, may obtain the same on application to a Member of the Council.

PROVINCIAL TRANSACTIONS.

LIVERPOOL CHEMISTS' ASSOCIATION.

January 14th, 1853.

MR. T. D. WALKER IN THE CHAIR.

MR. H. SUGDEN EVANS delivered a lecture On the Microscope, and its increasing importance to the Pharmaceutist.

[The report of the above arrived too late for insertion in this number.]

DEPUTATION TO HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL LAND AND
EMIGRATION COMMISSIONERS.

MEMORIAL

To Her Majesty's Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners.

GENTLEMEN,-We beg to represent to you, on behalf of the Liverpool Chemists' Association, by whom we are deputed, the hardship and impolicy of your order, requiring all ships chartered by you to obtain their supplies of medicines from Apothecaries' Hall. We are aware that this order has arisen out of a well-founded complaint of the quality of medicines sometimes previously supplied, but we feel

assured that your object can be attained without giving a monopoly to an establishment which has not exclusive claims to public confidence.

Your officers are at present empowered to make an examination of the supplies furnished to all emigration ships, and to prevent any going to sea which are not provided with a sufficient supply of good medicines, and of such sufficiency and quality they are the sole judges.

Your order assumes that this law is not always effectually carried out, but if there be a defect in that respect we think that the remedy should be applied directly to that evil, and your object would not only be attained in respect to ships chartered by you, but emigrants who have not the advantage of sailing in them would be protected. We are aware that a question has arisen whether it is possible to make an effectual inspection, but we submit that persons acquainted with their business are able to make such an examination of the medicines purchased by them as enables them to supply good articles to the public, and that a competent person, with suitable appliances, armed with your authority, could protect the interests of emigrants, even more effectually than the interests of the public are now protected.

We have been informed that the examinations now practised have been in some cases of too cursory a character, and made on board ship; but we are assured that such is not the practice in this port, and that great attention is bestowed in the matter.

In Liverpool, whence emigration takes place on so large a scale, there can be no difficulty in making the necessary arrangements; and we think the contractor should be required to send the medicines to a depôt a sufficient length of time before they are required on board the vessel, and that they should there be deliberately examined by a competent officer, who should have no communication with the tradesman supplying them. We are convinced that competition, checked by the examination of officers furnished with adequate means of examination, and applied to all classes of emigrant ships, would be more beneficial to emigrants, more economical to government, and more just to the class of tradesmen to whom we belong.

For these reasons we respectfully beg you to reconsider your regulations bearing on this subject; and we ask the favour of an interview, to enable us to give such further explanation as may satisfy you of the reasonableness of our wishes.

We are, Gentlemen, your most obedient Servants,

The Memorial having been presented to the Commissioners by Mr. Charles Turner, M.P. for Liverpool, the deputation waited on the Board on the 17th February, Dr. Edwards attending instead of Mr. Sumner, who was unable to be present.

Mr. TURNER, M.P., having introduced the deputation,

Mr. ABRAHAM said, he believed he might at once address himself to the question, whether, if the trade were open, it was possible for the inspectors to prevent bad medicines being supplied in the cases in question. It was true that it was difficult to determine by examination the exact value of some medicines, and which of two samples might be more or less pure; but in many cases there was no such difficulty; a few easily applied tests would determine at once whether they were or were not what they were called. The microscope had of late years added much to our means of examining some pharmaceutical articles. The reports in the Lancet of the examination of many substances in powder, such as coffee, flour, &c., he might refer to as showing how readily adulterations might be detected, powders of different kinds of grain being readily distinguishable when mixed with each other. It was possible that the sophistication of some articles might be practised so as to escape detection by their examination per se, but he felt certain that if the articles-upwards of 100 in numberrequired by the Commissioners to be supplied to every ship were placed before a competent examiner, he would readily find evidences of fraud or ignorance if such existed, and if evidence of fraud appeared in a single instance the whole should be rejected. If no evidence of fraud or ignorance appeared, the contents

of the chest might be depended on for all practical purposes. In cases where the value could not be directly ascertained, attempts to cheapen an article might be detected. In the case of most of the tinctures the principal item of cost was the spirit. A person who wished to obtain a cheaper tincture would use less spirit and more water. But this fraud might be detected most readily by the specific gravity of the liquid, and with specific gravity beads the test might be applied in a few moments. He had applied to Dr. Lancaster, one of the government inspectors at Liverpool and Vice-President of the Liverpool Medical Society, for information on the subject. Dr. L. assured him that a rigid inspection was practised, the microscope was used, tests applied, and comparison with standard specimens instituted, and that he was perfectly satisfied that the object of securing a supply of genuine medicines was attained. He was himself personally uninterested in the supply of medicines to ships, but he hoped the Board would see the propriety of relieving the trade from the monopoly and stigma of which they complained.

The Commissioners, as on the former occasion, expressed their regret at the necessity which they had felt themselves under of adopting the regulation, and their willingness to reconsider it if any other remedy equally effectual could be devised for checking the frauds which had been prevalent under the former system; but they said they had been in some degree confirmed in their opinion in favour of their present plan by the admission which they understood to have been made by the previous deputation, that no inspection which it would be practicable to carry out could ensure the good quality of every medicine in the chests. They did not see how it was possible to examine each article in every chest, and without this they did not consider that they would be secure against the introduction of impure or inferior drugs.

The Chairman of the Commissioners read a number of complaints of the quality of drugs supplied before the adoption of the existing system, and said they had been advised that inspection could not be effectual. A member of the Board observed that they had now a double security, and another member said that the Board would be willing to state in writing that they had no doubt that there were Chemists in Liverpool who would supply medicines as good as could be obtained from Apothecaries' Hall, but that it would be impossible to make a list of such, and that there was no medium between throwing open the trade and confining it to Apothecaries' Hall.

Dr. EDWARDS fully concurred in the opinion expressed by Mr. Abraham, that, with the present appliances of science, an efficient inspection of all the drugs could be made, within a reasonable time, by any Medical man acquainted with Pharmacy; and he referred to the examinations of drugs lately instituted in London by the College of Physicians, the Lancet, and the Medical Times, as instances of the readiness with which adulterations may be detected. He then referred to the advancement in Pharmacy, which had arisen of late years mainly through the efforts of the Pharmaceutical Society, and to the powers of registration now granted to that body; and conceived, if any restriction in the supply of medicines should be found necessary, that every object could be secured by employing only members of that body. Still his opinion was, that without any restriction in the supply, an efficient inspection was quite practicable in the hands of the present medical officers, and he strongly recommended dependence on that guarantee alone.

Mr. STRAWSON Confirmed these remarks, and represented the large proportion of other ships satisfactorily supplied by this precaution alone, and the injustice now done to the trade by the present order.

A discussion of considerable length took place, during which the deputation were assisted by Mr. Turner. The Commissioners treated the subject with all the courtesy and attention that was possible, expressing their willingness to receive further information; and the deputation left, with the hope that the Commissioners would see reason to rescind their order.

ORIGINAL AND EXTRACTED ARTICLES.

CORTEX ALSTONIÆ SCHOLARIS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL.

SIR,-I have lately brought to Europe for distribution and trial, a medicine which though in occasional use among the natives of some parts of India has, to the best of my knowledge, never had a place in the general Pharmacopœia even of the Eastern physicians. In fact it is a drug known only to the forest practitioners, who have a knowledge of the virtues of trees and herbs very far exceeding that possessed by the more civilized Indian native practitioners. These latter deal much more largely, and I may safely add much more destructively, in mineral remedies.

The medicine now under report is the bark of Alstonia scholaris R. Br., a great tree of the natural order Apocyneæ, found in the forests of Malabar, Canara, Soonda and some other parts of India, and brother to the smaller Alstonia venenata R. Br., which (as the name imports) is very poisonous. It has obtained the trivial name scholaris from the fact of small planks of its finely-grained white wood being commonly used in some localities for the school-boards whereon the children trace their letters (with sand) as in the Lancasterian system, originally imported from the East. I had long known that the bark of the tree was occasionally used in bowel affections, but from the suspiciously active family to which it belongs I had dreaded to bring it into practical use, as my own opportunities for doing so were very limited, and I deemed it more than possible that its use in the hands of others might not be managed so cautiously as circumstances appeared to require.

Major Del'Hoste, of the Bombay army, had procured a quantity of the bark, and having made a tincture from it, used it with some success in bowel complaints, occasionally very prevalent in the extensive native establishments which he had under his control while constructing a new road in the south of India. When I visited the major in the course of a forest tour, I rejoiced to find that he had thus paved the way for a successful trial of the drug. I have since then repeatedly used it as a remedy in diarrhoea attended with tormina, and even with tenesmus, and I can safely say that in every case it has given relief to the symptoms. The relief has most generally been permanent, occasionally only temporary, and such as to require a repetition of the dose. My practical experience of its effects has not been sufficiently continuous to enable me to indicate the particular state of alvine or biliary secretion to which its use is most applicable. Points like these are for the determination of the clinical practitioner, having leisure and opportunity to record the results of hospital practice. It has also appeared to me to possess marked effects in promoting the expulsion of intestinal lumbrici. Of its effects in cholera, European or Asiatic, I have as yet only one case recorded, and that of the European form of the disease. The patient, a tailor in Edinburgh, was treated solely with this medicine, and (as the accompanying letter testifies*) with the best effect. I

*The following is the letter referred to:

66

My dear Sir,-I cannot delay so long as till I see you, the pleasure of telling you about a very severe case of British cholera treated entirely with Tinctura alstonia. On Monday morning last a man was lying in a low house in Carruther's Close, having been in bed since the Friday, on which day he was seized with violent vomiting and purging, and when I saw him on the Monday he had taken nothing but a dose of castor oil, and had not tasted food since the Friday. He was very low, and exhausted with frequent clear watery evacuations mixed with a quantity of clear mucous, showing the lining membrane of the bowels to be in a very irritable state. I immediately went up to Baillie Macfarlane's and got two ounces Tinct. alstonia, and administered one teaspoonful, directing his wife to give him some toasted bread with hot water poured on it. In an hour and a quarter I called back; he had had three evacuations since I had seen him. I gave him another teaspoonful, and saw him an hour and a half afterwards, during