bone, the ends of the bone, after exsection, being some two inches apart and held there by an extension weight.

Referred to the Committee on Publication.

On motion of Dr. Way, the selection of the next place of meeting was made the special order of business for the hour immediately following the oration at the evening session.

SECOND DAY-EVENING SESSION.

The Society was called to order and the President introduced Dr. W. J. Jones, of Goldsboro, who delivered the

The Annual Oration.

After the oration a copy of it was requested for publication. The selection of place of next meeting being in order, Dr. Broughton suggested Asheville, even though it had been more than half promised to Reidsville.

The nomination of Asheville was seconded by Dr. Purefoy, who hoped the Society would take Horace Greeley's advice to young men and "go West."

Morehead City was put in nomination by Dr. Foote, as being a central point and abounding in brain food. He thought the Society would be none the worse for the addition of a little phosphorous to their diet.

Dr. Galloway nominated Snow Hill. Snow Hill, he said, was once the proud capital of North Carolina. She is beautifully situated on the right bank of the classic Moccasin river, abounds in beautiful walks, lovely scenery and magnificent structures. (Applause and laughter.)

Dr. Foote asked if Snow Hill was in North Carolina. (Laughter.) The vote being taken, Asheville was selected as the next place of meeting, and, on motion, the last Tuesday in May was appointed as the time of meeting.

An amendment to make the time the second Tuesday was lost. On motion, the meeting adjourned.

THIRD DAY-MORNING SESSION.

The Society was called to order at 9:30.

Dr. Lilly made the following report of the Finance Committee, which was received:

Your Committee having examined the Treasurer's accounts, find them correct, as follows:

To balance on hand from last year.

To amounts collected..

Total....

Expenditures by vouchers, etc...

Balance on hand....

...

$ 765.60

509.40

$1,275.00

$ 799.20

$ 475.80

The Committee recommend an assessment of $2.00 for the ensuing year, and that the salary of the Secretary be $125 and that of the Treasurer be $100 for next year.

Your Committee feel that the thanks of the Society are due our efficient Treasurer for the satisfactory manner in which he has discharged the duties of his office.

W. H. WHITEHEAD,

W. H. LILLY,

G. W. PUREFOY.

The reporter was voted $25.

Finance Com.

Dr. Hays said he had failed to call for a paper prepared by Dr. Herring, and asked that it be presented now.

Dr. Herring said he had decided to wait and study the subject another year before presenting his paper.

A paper by Dr. Satchwell, on "The Influence of the Teeth on Health," was ordered read by title and referred to the Committee on Publication.

Dr. Thomas F. Wood, as chairman of the Committee on Revision of United States Pharmacopoeia, made his report as follows:

Report of the Committee Delegated to Represent the Medical Society of North Carolina in the Sixth Decennial Convention for the Revision of the Pharmacopæia of the United States.

Two of your Committee, Dr. Robert S. Young and the Chairman attended the Pharmacopeia Convention held in Washington, D. C., on the 7th, 8th and 9th May. The delegation was a larger one than

any of its predecessors, including some States never before represented. The South had the fewest of all, and among them only two physicians from North Carolina and two from Virginia. From all the States the strongest element was the pharmacists and chemists, many bearing the title of M.D., but few in reality being active medical practitioners. This defect in the organization of the Convention has been marked from the organization of the movement, and accounts largely for the production of a volume that has never been popular with the physicians. So far from being popular, indeed, it needed so much in the way of commentary that the only acqaintance the majority of physicians had with it was the extracts made in the various dispensatories.

The machinery for the determination of the qualificattion of delegates was imperfect, and put some of them to much annoyance before they could obtain admission to the floor of the Convention, notably your own delegates.

The retiring President of the Convention of 1880, Dr. Robert Amory, of Boston, called the meeting to order.

The discussions on the various questions of interest to the Convention had been before the pharmacal profession some months in their special journals, so that the views held by each member were well digested beforehand. The old Committee of Revision and and Publication set forth "The General Principles which are to Guide the Committee of Revision for 1890," it being their prescribed duty, and upon this report hinged all the discussion.

The field of discussion of the first day was the question, whether or not crude drugs and the preparations from them should be standardized. There had been for some months previously set forth, by circulars and other media, the idea that as the drugs and preparations from them administered to our patients are liable to vary so much in their proportions of active principles, that it was a growing necessity that some standard should be adopted whereby we could all have a guarantee that when we gave ergot, or fluid extract of digisalis, or extract of conium, or any other drug having an important active ingredient, that we might have some demonstrable test, whereby we could determine whether or not our patient was getting in that drug his just proportion of the active ingredients. The discussion was confined to the pharmacists, and it was surprising to see that those who entered it with some warmth of conviction as

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to the feasibility of the plan, were willing finally to adopt the prin ciples set forth by the Committee of Revision of 1880, as follows: 'Assay Processes for Drugs.-It is recommended that assay processes be appended to the descriptions of the more energetic or otherwise important drugs containing active principles, provided the therapeutic value of the drug depends upon the amount of these principles, and provided, also, that these principles can be assayed and identified with reasonable accuracy and without requiring complicated processes. The committee shall attach a note stating the average percentage of these active principles in good commercial samples of the drug, and, if it be found feasible, it may attach a requirement that, if the percentage passes certain upper or lower limits, the drug be rejected.

"Assay Processes for Galenical Preparations.-The committee may attach assay processes to such galenical preparations, as fluid extracts, tinctures, etc., but it shall omit requirements of a definite strength or percentage of active principles except in the case of drugs for which an upper or lower limit, or both, of active principles is prescribed.

Assay Processes for Opium and Cinchona.-In the case of opium and cinchona, the committee shall adopt such processes of assay as will be found to yield the largest proportion of the desired active principles with greatest uniformity and with least manipulative difficulty, the object of these processes being to ascertain how much of the respective principles can practically be extracted."

Proprietary or Patented Articles.-Upon this point we are all interested, and it is the most perplexing matter that has come before the medical profession in the last ten years, and to solve it will take all the combined wisdom of the medical and pharmacal professions in the next few years.

The phraseology of the Committee of Revision of 1880 is as follows and expresses the utmost limit of the wisdom so far evolved : That no substance which is exclusively produced by a patented process, or is protected by proprietary rights, shall be admitted into the Pharmacopœia.

It must be explained that there are several substances largely in use as medicine that are produced now as they appear in market, almost exclusively by patented processes, although they may be, and were formerly made by an open process of the Pharmacopoeia.

Two, notably, are salicylic acid and chloroform; these would not be restricted by the terms of the committee. But such articles as antipyrin, antifebrin, exalgine, sulphonal and the many other new chemicals are not only exclusively made by a patented monopoly, but are copyrighted, and after the patent expires they cannot then be admitted into the Pharmacopoeia. What are we to do with such substances? They are in daily use by the profession of the world, many of them will probably be permanent. It occurs to your committee that the next Committee of Revision of 1890 should be directed to determining the chemical nature of the more useful of the anilid preparations, discover, if possible, other processes for them, and if accomplished add each new one to the Pharmacopœia under such name as the committee might decide upon, and treating the chemical as any other of the older substances. It might even then be the case that the new processes discovered may be too expensive to enable the chemists to put it in competition with the original chemical, but by this method it would have a legitimate place in our official lists on the same footing with chloroform and salicylic acid.

Parts by Weight and the Metric System.The committee of 1880 adopted parts by weight for fluids and solids, but it was not. practiced by the druggists generally. The new rule suggested is weights for solids, measures for liquids, the standard for both being the metric system of weights and measures. At first sight it would seem to you that this involves the employment of dosage upon the basis of the metric system, and you would naturally express your disapprobation. It does not, however, affect any of the old rules about dosage, for the Pharmacopoeia does not consider this topic, it only affects the preparation of drugs by the druggist and the manufacturing chemist. Instead of having two or three standards, they employ a standard which will thus make it uniform everywhere. It is not expected that the druggists in the smaller towns will at once adopt the decimal system, but after they find out how cheaply they can substitute metric weights and measures for the old apothecaries and avoirdupois they will fall into it, and all the easier, as persons used to calculating in a decimal currency as we are, can soon see the convenience of it all. As we have already stated, the question of prescription-writing does not come up just now, but may in another decennium.