THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



283 



of chlorine from the same amount of salt, 

 and (2) the nitric acid, which was used 

 for oxidizing the hydrogen in the hydro- 

 chloric acid, was not lost, because the 

 oxides of nitrogen to which it was re- 

 duced answered the purpose for which 

 the acid itself had previously been em- 

 ployed. But this process was very lim- 

 ited in its application, as it could only be 

 worked to the extent to which nitric acid 

 was used in vitrol making. 



( 761 be continued. ) 



THE RELATIONS BETWEEN PHARMACY 

 AND SCIENCE IN GERflANY. 



As an illustration of the more sympathetic re- 

 lation between the cultivators of science and 

 persons engaged in the practical exercise of 

 technical arts, attention may be called to the 

 fact that the annual meeting of scientific men in 

 Germany, corresponding to that of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the advancement of science, 

 was held las<^ September at Frankfurt on-the- 

 Main, and that in conformity with the practice 

 of recent years, one of the sections was devoted 

 to the subjects of pharmacy and pharmacognosy. 

 The sittings of this Section were therefore anal- 

 ogous to those of the American Pharmaceutical 

 Association, and being held as part 6f a more 

 extended scientific gathering, additional induce- 

 ment to attend them was offered. The opening 

 meeting was attended by about fifty pharma 

 cists, medical men and professors, several of 

 them coming from considerable distances. The 

 proceedings were opened by an address from the 

 President of the Section, Apotheker Engelhard 

 of Frankfurt, in the course of which some sug- 

 gestions were made to carry out the arrange - 

 ments for future meetings ofthe section through 

 the aid of the ofiicials connected with the Ger- 

 man Apotheker Verein. Then followed an ad- 

 dress by Professor Tschirch of Bern, giving a 

 general summary of the results obtained from 

 investigation of resins recently carried out by 

 himself and by several of his pupils. The in- 

 quiry has now been extended to copal, dammar, 

 sandarac, dragon's blood, asafoetida, galbanum, 

 ammoniacum, sagapenum, opoponax, acaroid, 

 benzoin, tolu and Peruvian balsams, styrax, 

 amber and gutta-percha. As constituents of all 

 these resins, substances having the character of 

 esters and resinoid acids were isolated [together 



with others of an indifferent nature, as to the 

 chemical classification of which there is still 

 some uncertainty. Only a few resins contain 

 representatives of all three groups, and, in most 

 instances, a member of one or other of them 

 preponderates, so that the natural resins may 

 be, to some extent, classified according to their 

 analogies in that respec<, Another circumstance 

 which admits of the classification of the esters 

 present in natural resins is the occurence — as a 

 constituent of the aromatic esters found in the 

 several resins — of either benzoic acidorcinnam- 

 ic acid, or derivatives of those acids. Thus, for 

 instance, Peruviam balsam, tolu balsam, and 

 Siam benzoin contain esters of benzoic acid, 

 dragon's blood an ester of benzoylacetic acid, 

 ammoniacum an ester of salicylic acid, while 

 styrax, Sumatra benzoin and yellow acaroid 

 contain esters of cinnamic acid, red acaroid an 

 ester of /-cumaric acid, asafoetida an ester of 

 ferulic acid, galbanum and sagapenum esters of 

 umbellic acid, or its anhydride umbelliferone. 

 The only member of the fat acids hitherto met 

 with is succinic acid in amber. The resinoid 

 alcohols present in the esters are also separable 

 into two groups — resinols which are colorless 

 and do not give a tannin reaction — and resino- 

 tannols which are colored and have a tannin re- 

 action. The apparently intimate mutual rela- 

 tions of these bodies have yet to be investigated. 

 The resinoid acids are chiefly oxyacids, corres- 

 ponding to abietic and pimaric acid, and in 

 many instances they are closely related. The 

 remaining group of resin constituents are re- 

 markable for their resistance to chemical agents 

 and have not yet been studied sufficiently to de- 

 termine their nature, though there is some reas- 

 on for regarding them as compounds belonging 

 to the aromatic series. 



At the second meeting ofthe Section, Profes- 

 sor KuNZ Krause of Lausanne, dealt with the 

 chemistry ofthe tannins, and some ofthe reac- 

 tions by which tannins may be distinguished 

 more fully than by the iron reaction. A reac- 

 tion of this kind, viz., the production of hydro- 

 cyanic acid in the presence of nitrous acid, was 

 mentioned as being characteristic of certain 

 kinds of tannin and also of other unsaturated 

 compounds, as well as albumin. In a paper 

 read by Professor Vulpius on the preservation 

 of several pharmaceutical preparations liable to 

 alteration, the keeping of ether and chloroform 

 in small bottles was recommended as a most 

 effectual means of preventing alteration. The 

 experience gained as to the ointment base rec- 

 ommended by MiEHi^E — a mixture of hard and 



