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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the ranks of the pharmaceutical profession, 

 viz., Davy, Liebig, and Dumas. But the debt 

 owed by chemistry to pharmacy has been 

 amply repaid : the labors of the chemist 

 have transformed the pharmaceutical art, 

 replacing empiricism by science, enriching 

 the materia medica with a vast number of 

 new substances, and introducing new pro- 

 cesses. Such old-fashioned drugs as coral, 

 egg-shells, and the like, were shown by the 

 chemist to possess no other value than be- 

 longs to the calcareous salts of which they 

 are chiefly composed. Iodine was shown to 

 be the active principle in the drug, calcined 

 sponge ; and henceforth iodine takes the 

 place of the crude and bulky residue from 

 the burning of sponge. In like manner 

 quinine and morphine replaced cinchona- 

 bark and opium. 



In cases where the medicinal virtues are 

 not apparently lodged in a single principle 

 capable of being isolated, pharmacy has re- 

 course to other processes, and obtains by 

 expression, percolation, and evaporation, or 

 distillation, often in vacuo, concentrated ex- 

 tracts which enable us to dispense with the 

 crude drugs. Thus, for a rough example, 

 by means of the sulphide of carbon the 

 subtile perfumes of the violet and jasmine 

 have been isolated. The artificial forma- 

 tion of urea and valerianic and benzoic 

 acids opened up a new field for chemistry 

 and pharmacy. By a careful dissection, as 

 it were, of certain organic principles, we 

 have learned to reconstruct them ; and the 

 triumphs of this method are seen in the ar- 

 tificial production of indigo, orcine and ali- 

 zarine, and the odorant principle of vanilla. 

 What wonder, then, that the chemist should 

 now aspire to produce, artificially, the active 

 principles of the poppy and cinchona, and 

 render cheaper those precious drugs, mor- 

 phine and quinine ? These problems are 

 destined to be solved at no distant day. 



The history of anaBsthetics is next traced 

 by the author from the discovery of the 

 physiological action of nitrous oxide by 

 Davy to that of chloral by Liebreieh. 

 From this he passes to the subject of the 

 chemical changes undergone by drugs in 

 the animal economy, and the relations of 

 these changes to physiological action. The 

 mineral salts of many of the metals, such 

 as sulphates and chlorides, act, to a great 



extent, like foreign substances when taken 

 into the stomach, forming insoluble com- 

 pounds with albuminous matters ; but, when 

 combined with certain organic acids, these 

 metals are in a condition favorable to ab- 

 sorption. Thus, it is that the citrates, tar- 

 trates, and lactates of bismuth, antimony, 

 iron, etc., are now advantageously employed 

 in medical practice. 



It having occurred to a chemist that 

 salicylic acid might be antiseptic like car- 

 bolic acid, he made experiments which re- 

 sulted in showing that in this almost taste- 

 less body we possess an antiseptic agent of 

 great power. 



The immense advance made in the phar- 

 maceutical art and the constant contribu- 

 tions brought to it by chemistry demand 

 each year a higher education for the pro- 

 fession of pharmacy, and the day cannot 

 be far distant when the need of a regular 

 training and a thorough scientific education 

 will be held to be as indispensable for the 

 pharmacist as for the physician and the 

 surgeon, 



Ilaeckel on Scientifie Institntioc^. In 



his latest book ("Ziele und Wege der 

 heutigen Entwickelungsgeschichte") Prof. 

 Haeckel, the great apostle of Evolution in 

 Germany, announces the discovery of the 

 following law : " In all the magnificent sci- 

 entific institutes founded in America by 

 Agassiz, the following empirical law, loiig 

 recognized in Europe, has been confirmed, 

 viz. : that the scientific work of these insti- 

 tutes and the intrinsic value of their pub- 

 lications stand in an inverse ratio to the 

 magnitude of the buildings and the splendid 

 appearance of their volumes. ... I need 

 only refer," he adds, " to the small and mis- 

 erable institutes and the meagre resources 

 with which Baer in Konigsberg, Schleiden 

 in Jena, Johannes Miiller in Berlin, Liebig 

 in Giessen, Virchow in Wiirzburg, Gegen- 

 baur in Jena, have not only each advanced 

 his special science most extensively, but 

 have actually created new spheres for them. 

 Compare with these the colossal expendi- 

 ture and the luxurious apparatus in the 

 grand institutes of Cambridge, Leipsic, and 

 other so-called great universities. What 

 have they produced in proportion to their 

 means ? ''Fall Mall Gazette. 



