IHE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



117 



on the contrary give strong images. The 

 opacity is due to the mineral elements 

 which they contain. 



The differences in the chemical consti- 

 tution of the matters forming nerves, 

 blood, etc., will doubtless permit us to 

 obtain their photographic images, thanks 

 to their unequal transparency. 



I hope to carry out with more exacti- 

 tude these researches on definite chemical 

 species, and I purpose studying the rela- 

 tion between the chemical constitution of 

 bodies and their degree of transparency 

 to the Roentgen rays. At present the 

 result which seems established is the 

 transparency of carbon and its compounds 

 with hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, and 

 the great opacity occasioned by the intro- 

 duction into the organic molecule of other 

 mineral elements, especially CI, S, P, and 

 above all, I. — Comptes Rendus, cxxii, p. 



309- 



• 



THE HISTORY OF PHARPIACY. * 



By Dr. Ninian Falkinkr. 



The history of Pharmacy is the history 

 of the living world, and we must not, in 

 the happy possession of the fruits of 

 science, forget that all we have comes to 

 us from those who have gone before. The 

 great Burke says: ' 'Those will not look 

 forward to their posterity who never look 

 backwards to their ancestors." If this be 

 true that in the ordinary mind there is an 

 intense pride and anxiety to know, in 

 generations back, that our ancestors were 

 honorable men, how much the more shall 

 we, who are the scientific descendants of 

 those who have labored in the past for 

 the advancement of knowledge and for 

 the good of their fellow creatures, endeav- 

 or to honor and cherish the memories 

 of those who have left their foot-prints in 

 the narrow pathway of mediaeval know- 

 ledge. 



♦Lecture delivered to Pharmaceutical Chemists, and 

 Apothecaries Association of Ireland, March 13th. 



From the earliest days of the history of 

 mankind, two great necessities for the 

 community have always existed, firstly, 

 that of the minister of religion and sec- 

 ondly, that of the healer of the sick. 



Primitive man, gifted with powers of 

 observation, saw that animals when sick 

 were attracted by some instinct which we 

 cannot understand toward some herbs, 

 which relieved their indisposition. The 

 dog doses himself with triticum caninum, 

 the cat revels in the odor of Valeriana 

 officinalis, the Indian mongoose is said to 

 procure an antidote for snake bite in 

 mimosa octandra. 



Probably from the earliest time man 

 would be led to observe the behavior of 

 animals when suffering from disease or 

 injury. In savage man we must seek the 

 beginnings of our civilization, and it is 

 in the lowest tribes and those which have 

 not yet felt the influences of superior 

 races, that we must search for the most 

 primitive forms of pharmaceuiical and 

 medical ideas and the earliest theories 

 and treatment of disease. The lowest 

 form of belief that exists is called Anim- 

 ism, which may be defined as a belief 

 which attributes beath and all forms of 

 disease to magic, which is influenced by 

 the spirits of dead men. Amongst these 

 people we cannot expect to find much of 

 the early development of the science of 

 pharmacy ; they were, however, probably 

 acquainted with the properties of some 

 herbs and poisons, as in the case of the 

 obi poison. 



So far as we can judge by records of 

 the past, the oldest place in the civiliza- 

 tion of the world must be assigned to 

 Egypt. It is most probable that the first 

 kingdom of Egypt existed 8000 years ago; 

 its history is more reliable than that of 

 China, and more recent than that of As- 

 syria and Chaldsea. We require no further 



