amount of work required for similar academic degrees required by reputable colleges and universities. This report was the subject of prolonged and earnest discussion. No action was taken with reference to the report except that it was laid on the table and the following resolution by Professor Kremers was made a special order of business at the next annual meeting: Resolved, That it be the sense of the American Conference of Pharmaceutical Faculties that the institutions herein represented should strive to make the Bachelor's, Master's and Doctor's degrees in pharmacy the educational equivalent of similar academic degrees as rapidly as the advancement in pharmaceutical education in this country will permit. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: Vice-President-C. Lewis' Diehl. ** Executive Committee W. A. Puckner, chairman; Wm. Searby, H. H. Rusby. A joint meeting of the American Conference of Pharmaceutical Faculties and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy was held at the Islesworth Hotel, Atlantic City, N. J., September 6, 1905. Mr. I. A. Keith, of the South Dakota Board of Pharmacy, was elected chairman, and Professor H. M. Whelpley as secretary. A committee of five, consisting of Prof. O. Oldberg (Illinois), chairman; and Prof. Geo. B. Kauffman (Ohio), Z. B. Hopkins (Vermont), F. B. Lillie (Oklahoma), and I. A. Keith (South Dakota), was appointed to arrange a programme for the annual joint meeting for 1906. It was voted that the joint meetings be open to all interested parties. It was also voted that a copy of the minutes of this and of subsequent joint meetings be incorporated as a part of the printed proceedings. J. O. SCHLOTTERBECK, Secretary. NOTES AND NEWS. THE FAIRCHILD SCHOLARSHIP AND PRIZES for students of pharmacy in Great Britain and Ireland were founded in 1905 by Messrs. Fairchild Bros. and Foster, of New York, in appreciation of the friendly relations which for many years have subsisted between them and the pharmacists of the United Kingdom. This Scholarship is open to any apprentice or assistant of either sex, preparing to qualify under the Pharmacy Act, 1868, or the Pharmacy Act (Ireland), 1875. The primary condition imposed is that the applicants satisfy the requirements for admission to the respective qualifying examination, i. e., the Minor Examination in Great Britain, or the License Examination in Ireland. It is proposed to award one Scholarship of the value of £50 annually, based upon the results of a competitive examination. In addition to this Annual Scholarship of £50, Prizes of £5 will be awarded to each of the best candidates entering in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The successful candidate at the examination to be held the last week in June, 1906, will be at liberty to select any well-known school or college of pharmacy in Great Britain or Ireland, where he proposes to study for the qualifying examination during a period of not less than three months within a year from June 1, 1906. The money of the Scholarship will be devoted to paying the college fees and expenses, and what is over will be paid to the scholar for maintenance during the school term by the principal of the school on behalf of the founders of the scholarship. No candidate will be admitted for the examination in 1906 who has not completed twenty years of age, or who exceeds twenty-two, on January 1, 1906. Applications should be addressed to the Secretary, and must in each case be accompanied by certificates of birth and registration as students. The Committee of Trustees is composed as follows: Messrs. Peter Boa, Phar. Chem, Edinburgh; John W. Bowen, Phar. Chem., London; Albert Hagon, member of the Pharmaceutical Council, Cardiff; William Kirkby, F.L.S., Phar. Chem., Manchester; W. Watson-Will, F.C.S., F.L.S, Phar. Chem., London; W. F. Wells, President, Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, Dublin; A. E. Holden, Phar. Chem. (of Canada), Bath House, 57-60, Holborn Viaduct, London, E. C., Secretary to the Committee. Prof. SAMUEL P. SADTLER recently gave an illustrated lecture on the "Petroleum Industry," under the auspices of the Students' Chemical Society of Princeton University. The lecture was followed by a reception at the Ivy Club. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY FEBRUARY, 1906. JAPANESE LAC.—(KI-URUSHI). By A. B. Stevens. Doubtless nearly every one has seen and admired the beautiful Japanese vases or boxes without realizing that they were finished. with the most indestructible varnish known to man. There are at present vases, more than a century old, that have retained their beautiful luster so perfectly that they look as though they had been finished but yesterday. The hardened surface formed by the genu. ine Japanese Lac is practically unaffected by the usual reagents, which are so detrimental to most varnished surfaces, as alcohol, ether, alkalies and acids. It is acted upon to some extent by strong sulphuric or nitric acid, and may be dissolved by continued heating in fuming nitric acid. Rein' states that the Japanese doubtless received their knowledge of the lac industry from the Chinese in the early part of the third century. But that its use did not attain great importance before the middle of the seventh century. Kôtoku-Tennô, the thirty-sixth Mikado (645 to 654 A.D.), had a ceremonial head-covering of paper, which was covered with black lacquer. There is a lacquered scarf box in the temple at Nara, which belonged to a priest in the time of Kinnari Tennô (540 to 572 A.D). For centuries its use and production remained a secret. As late as 1873 we find the statement that "The manner of preparing the varnish and the mode of applying it is likely to remain a secret." 112 1J. J. Rein's "The Industries of Japan," London, 1886; Rein, "Japan II," Leipzig, 1886. This author has minutely described the lac industry, and it is to this excellent work that I shall frequently refer. 'Belfour's Cyclopædia of India. In the following year Prof. J. J. Rein made a thorough study of the method of collecting and applying the lac. The pure lac is a natural product of Rhus vernicifera, a small tree about 15 feet high, growing wild in China and Japan, where it is also cultivated in many parts of the country. The largest yield is from trees about fifteen years old, but the age of the tree when the lac is collected varies in different localities, in some places at from five to six years when the stem is the size of a man's arm, and in other localities at from nine to ten years old. The time of collecting is from April to the 1st of November. The lac is obtained by making horizontal incisions in the bark with a hook-shaped instrument and alternating from side to side of the tree. The sap is removed from the incisions with a pointed spatula. These operations are repeated at intervals of about four days until the tree is literally covered with grooves. The lac is in the form of a grayish-white emulsion, which, on exposure to air, changes to brown and finally to black. The raw lac is strained to remove pieces of bark, and then mixed until uniform, when it is ready for use, and is known as "Ki-Urushi." A second grade known as "Seshime-Urushi" is obtained at the close of the season by cutting and binding the branches into bundles and macerating these with the trunk in warm water, when more of the sap exudes and is removed from the surface of the water. The beautiful black color is produced by "Laccasse," a soluble oxidizing enzyme, acting on the resins in the presence of moisture. The best results are obtained by allowing the lac to harden in a moist atmosphere. Therefore, the articles coated with the lac are placed in a room and wet clothes hung on the walls or about the lacquered articles. A temperature of from 20° to 30° is best for the action of the enzyme. If the lac is allowed to harden in a dry atmosphere it has a dull appearance, varying in shade from brown to black. The most important chemical investigations of this lac were made by two Japanese chemists.1 Yoshida reports that the lac consisted of a non-volatile resinous acid, which he calls urushic acid, a volatile poison, gum, identical with gum arabic, diastatic matter and water. 1 H. Yoshida, Jour. Chem. Soc., 1883, p. 472. O. Korschelt and H. Yoshida, Transact. As. Soc., Japan, XII, p. 182. I have found that his urushic acid consisted of at least four substances, one of which is the poisonous principle and is non-volatile. Also that the gum and diastatic matter are inseparable. The volatile portion, obtained by passing steam through the lac, consisted of acetic acid and a small quantity of the resinous acid, which was evidently carried over with the steam, but on removal from the distillate by shaking with ether and then evaporating was not volatile or poisonous. The distillate also contained acetic acid. The resinous substances were removed from the other constituents by dissolving in alcohol and recovering the alcohol by distillation. Separation by Lead Acetate.-Lead acetate was added to a portion of the alcoholic residue as long as a precipitate was formed. The precipitate, which was of a light-gray color, was washed with alcohol, mixed with fresh alcohol, decomposed with sulphuric acid, and the excess of acid removed with lead carbonate. On evaporating the alcohol a brown oily residue was obtained, which was somewhat darker than the original alcoholic residue, but otherwise similar. To the filtrate from the lead acetate precipitate, solution of lead subacetate was added as long as a precipitate was formed. The precipitate was of a gray color, but lighter than that obtained by lead acetate. On decomposing the precipitate as above, an oily residue was obtained, which was also lighter than that obtained from lead acetate. The filtrate from the subacetate precipitate was still of a brownish color. The excess of lead was removed by sulphuric acid, and the excess of acid removed by lead carbonate and filtering. The filtrate was readily precipitated by lead acetate or subacetate. By repeated experiments with the original alcoholic solution it was found that by precipitation with lead acetate and removing the lead and acid from the filtrate, adding more lead acetate, and repeating this operation until all of the resinous substance was precipitated, and finally decomposing the separate precipitates, that a series of oily residues could be obtained, gradually diminishing in quantity and increasing in fluidity, and becoming a shade lighter in color than the preceding. Lead subacetate is a better precipitant than lead acetate. The acetic acid liberated evidently aids in preventing complete precipitation. The fact that the fractions decrease in color and viscosity, and that only the last fractions were poisonous, indicates that the |