BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. Inaugural Meeting held at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1863. W. W. STODDART, F.C.S.H. C. BAILDON H. B. BRADY, F.R.S. H. B. BRADY, F.R.S. THOS. B. GROVES, F.C.S. G. F. SCHACHT, F.C.S. G. F. SCHACHT, F.C.S. R. REYNOLDS, F.C.S. SJ. ABRAHAM H. C. BAILDON 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 1882, C. EKIN, F.C.S. R. W. GILES, F.C.S. W. W. STODDART, F.G.S. W. W. STODDART, F.G.S. W. W. STODDART, F.G.S. J. WILLIAMS, F.C.S. J. WILLIAMS, F.C.S. F. M. RIMMINGTON, F.C.S. R. PARKINSON, PH.D. J. WILLIAMS, F.C.S. A. P. BALKWILL. C. UMNEY, F.C.S. GENERAL 1863 to 1880, Prof. ATTFIELD, Ph.D., F.R.S. 1863 to 1871, RICHARD REYNOLDS, F.C.S. 1871 to 1882, F. BADEN BENGER F.C.S. .1880 to 1882, M. CARTEIGHE, F.C.S. THE 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 1882 will be held at Southampton, on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 22nd and 23rd. 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 formule 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 319. Constitution and Rules of the British Pharmaceutical Conference Alphabetical List of Members of the British Pharmaceutical Conference INTRODUCTION. 66 THE masterly researches on the mydriatic alkaloids by Professor Ladenburg, to which we assigned the first place in the introductory pages of the preceding volume, fitly occupy the same position in the present work, owing to the great and unabated interest manifested by the scientific world in their further development. In his earlier reports two such bases only were spoken of as definitely proved to exist in nature, viz., atropine, C17 H23 N O3, occurring in Atropa Belladonna and Datura Stramonium, and hyoscyamine, corresponding to the same formula and occurring in the same plants as well as in Hyoscyamus niger and Duboisia myoporoides; while daturine and duboisine were shown to be identical with hyoscyamine. A third member is now added to this group by the isolation from Hyoscyamus niger of a second alkaloid, the presence of which in the mother liquor left after the crystallization of hyoscyamine had been already recognised by him in his previous investigations. Hyoscine," the new base, agrees with atropine and hyoscyamine in its formula, but differs from both in yielding, upon treatment with barium hydrate, tropic acid and pseudotropine, whereas the two other alkaloids named split up under the same conditions into tropic acid and tropine. The name "hyoscine" had previously been applied by him to a body obtained from hyoscyamine by the action of barium hydrate; but the proved identity of this body with tropine justifies the transfer of this name to the second alkaloid naturally occurring in henbane. The series of "tropeines," or artificial bases produced by the action of dilute hydrochloric acid on various organic salts of tropine, has also been further extended, and has gained additional interest through the observation that homatropine (oxytoluyltropeine), a member of this series, possesses mydriatic properties fully equal to those of atropine. The most important feature, however, in Professor Ladenburg's recent results is the decided progress made towards B the artificial production of atropine, an advance so great as to place the actual synthesis of this alkaloid within measurable distance. His previous success in reproducing atropine from its decomposition products, tropic acid and tropine, naturally pointed to the artificial formation of one of these two bodies as the first step to be attempted; while the close relation, observed by him in conjunction with L. Rügheimer, between hydratropic, atrolactic, atropic, and tropic acids, and the convertibility of these acids into each other, indicated a suitable starting-point in this inquiry. By treating acetophenone with phosphorus pentachloride, heating the resulting dichlorethylbenzol with alcoholic solution of potassium cyanide, then removing the alcohol by distillation, boiling the residue with barium hydrate, and finally acidifying the product with hydrochloric acid, these chemists have succeeded in producing atrolactic acid, the conversion of which into atropic acid, and subsequently into tropic acid, presents no difficulty. The synthesis of tropic acid being thus accomplished, it now but remains to attain the same measure of success with regard to tropine, in order to ensure the synthesis of atropine. In another direction, too, the chemistry of vegetable alkaloids can boast of a similar triumph. Morphine has been converted into codeine; and this important result has been brought about in a manner creditable alike to its author and to modern organic research in general. A correct appreciation of the fact that morphine, though a decided base, also possesses the characters of a phenol, has led M. Grimaux to infer, that if this alkaloid be regarded in the latter capacity, codeine, differing from it in composition by CH2, may be considered as the methylic ether of this phenol, and, as such, should be producible from it. The soundness of this reasoning stands fully confirmed by the successful issue of his experiments. One molecular weight of morphine, when gently heated in alcoholic soda solution with a molecular weight of methyl, yields a small proportion of free codeine, which may be separated by means of ether from the iodomethylate of morphine-soda, the main product of the reaction. After suitable purification, the alkaloid thus obtained agrees in all its characters with codeine extracted from opium. Ethyl iodide, under the same conditions, yields a new base, homologous with codeine; and it is considered more than probable that, by extending the same treatment to the iodides of other alcohol radicals, a whole series of such artificial bases may be obtained from morphine. Almost at the same time these experiments were being performed, and entirely independent |