balanced filter, slightly washed with cold water, dried at 60° C. (140° F.) and weighed.

This is the process recommended by the United States Pharmacopœia of 1880 for the assay of Opium. It is rapid, simple and accurate, provided the lime used is well burned and the directions of the Pharmacopoeia are carefully followed. Considerable experience with this process in the assay of Opium seems to show that it gives results not more than 1-10 to 2-10 per cent. below the actual Morphine contents of the sample.

The Pharmacopoeia of 1870 requires that 1200 grains of powdered Opium (10 per cent. Morphine) should be used in the preparation of two pints of Laudanum. Each fluid ounce, therefore, should represent not less than 374 grains of powdered Opium, or a minimum of 3§ grains of Morphine. But no upper limit for the strength of Opium and its preparations was given, and, as will appear later, a Laudanum containing 6 grains of Morphine would be produced if the highest grades of powdered Opium were used.

The requirement that the dried Opium used should yield not less than 10 per cent. of Morphine by the manufacturing process of the late Pharmacopoeia, is practically equivalent to a demand for 11 or 12 per cent. of Morphine, for the reason that the process there recommended is known not to recover all the Morphine, or nearly as much as is shown by accurate assay. Consequently a strength of about 4 grains of Morphine per fluid ounce would be really about what was required by the late Pharmacopoeia.

If assayed by the more accurate processes now in use, it would have appeared that no powdered Opium sold by a reputable house contained much less than 12 per cent. of Morphine. In like manner, most moist "gum" Opium contains from 10 to 11.5 per cent. of Morphine, few samples falling as low as 9 per cent.

Here appended is a table showing the number of grains of Morphine in each fluid ounce of Laudanum, if made from different amounts or different grades of moist or powdered Opium:

From an inspection of this table, in connection with the assays of Laudanum here presented, it appears:

1st. That a considerable number (21) show an evident intention on the part of the maker to give a full-strength preparation. All results of 3.5 grains Morphine and over are included.

2d. Some samples seem to have been made from one avoirdupois ounce of moist Opium per fluid ounce; the results ranging between 2.3 and 3.3 grains are here included, the number of samples being 17. 3d. A number of samples seem to have been made of about one-half strength, probably from 5-8 to 3-4 avoirdupois ounce per pint. Results ranging between 1.3 and 2.2 grains are the basis of this supposition. About seven samples fall into this class.

4th. Two samples fall even below this strength; they may have been on the half-strength plan, but from very poor Opium, or they may have been made from good, moist Opium in the proportion of 1-2 ounce avoirdupois per pint.

The analytical results presented are believed to be correct for Morphine, within 1-10 to 2-10 grain, and the benefit of this correction has been given the manufacturers of the Laudanum. Perfect extraction of all the Morphine is not always accomplished, even when the work is performed with care and conscientious attention to details; and it would be neither fair nor wise to condemn a man for a shortage of 1-10 or 2-10 grain of Morphine per fluid ounce.

On the other hand, however, it is the conviction of the writer that the day for short-weight or half-strength preparations has gone by. The name Laudanum should be applied only to one preparation or definite and unvarying composition, and only that one Laudanum should be kept or sold.

The argument urged in favor of "Grocers' Laudanum " or "Family Laudanum" has been that it would be unsafe to sell to untrained customers an article of such potency as is recognized by our Pharmacopœia. This argument is not convincing, inasmuch as there is constant danger that the customer who is used to the weaker preparation sold at one store is at any time likely to buy the full-strength article at another. Possibly the cost of the Opium may have been the cause of much weakLaudanum philanthropy. At all events, a multiplicity of grades and standards of strength leads only to confusion, and in case of active medicines, to danger. Let us have reasonable standards, and then be bound by them.

The following table shows the result of the assayed samples referred to in the report:

Before the words in the report, "The Pharmacopoeia of 1880 required," insert "This process has been tried in my hands and those of my assistants for the assay of some three

hundred cases of Opium. It has been tried with some other processes which have been recommended of late, and it gives results which I believe to be accurate within 1 1-10 or 2-10 per cent."

It will be impossible to read the table. I will pass it around if the gentlemen would like to see it. It is a very difficult matter to read figures and make them intelligible; but it shows that if the Laudanum were made from Opium ranging from 9 to 18 per cent., from the poorest wet Opium to the strongest and best dry Opium, we should have from 3 to 6 or 8-10 grains of Morphine to the fluid ounce, which would have been allowed by the requirements of the old Pharmacopoeia.

The results, I may state, ranged from .9 of a grain of Morphine per fluid ounce to a, maximum of 7.4 grains per fluid ounce. This last proportion of 7.4 is rather too much of a good thing. The proportion of .9 of a grain is hardly enough of it, it seems, to me. About seventeen samples were evidently made on the plan of one avoirdupois ounce of wet Opium to a pint of Laudanum.

THE PRESIDENT-The number of samples examined was forty-seven, I believe, was it not?

MR. PARSONS-Yes; twenty-one were made with honest intentions, I think; seventeen were made with one avoirdupois ounce of wet Opium to a pint, and seven, I believe were about half that amount, or a trifle more-perhaps fiveeighths of an avoirdupois ounce; two samples were made with even less, or else with very low grade Opium.

A gentleman, who stated that he was not a member of the Association, asked Mr. Parsons whether he obtained all the samples from druggists, or whether some of them were obtained from country drug stores.

MR. PARSONS-I am not perfectly able to say where the samples came from; they came from different sections of New York State, and were gathered by different members of this Association, and including some samples made by members of this Association; but as to the names of the manufacturers, I cannot say. That is in the hands of another member of the committee, and he has not sent to me any notice as to where these samples were obtained.

THE PRESIDENT-I could give some little information in regard to that, and state almost positively that all of these samples were collected from druggists or apothecaries, and not from grocery houses, that I know of. Possibly there may have been one exception; but I think that with that one exception all of the rest of the samples were collected from apothecaries throughout the State, and they were collected from almost all sections of the State; there are included in that, samples from Buffalo, from Elmira, from Syracuse, from Oswego, from Amsterdam, from Albany, from New York, from Brooklyn, from Hudson, and I think some from Catskill, and Poughkeepsie, and possibly some other towns.

MR. SWEET, of Lockport-I move that the thanks of this Association be tendered to Mr. Parsons, and that the report be printed in our proceedings.

Seconded.

MR. SAYRE-I would offer as an amendment that the thanks of this Association be tendered to Mr. Parsons and the other members of the committee.

Amendment accepted. Motion put and carried.

MR. NORTON, chairman of the Executive Committee-The Committee on Adulterations have presented a bill to the