5o8 



NATURE 



[June 23, 1910 



^c/ 



CHEMISTRY AND PH ARM ACO-T HERA- 

 FEU TICS. 



'T^HE Hurter memorial lecture was delivered recently 

 before the Liverpool Section of the Society of 

 Chemical Industry, by Dr. C. A. Keane, on modern iatro- 

 chemistry (Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry, 

 Liverpool Section, April 15). Dr. Keane traced the 

 development of various synthetic products used in 

 pharmacy, and discussed the relations of physiological 

 properties to structure so far as they may be said to be 

 known. He illustrated his discourse by three typical 

 groups of compounds — the antipyretics derived from 

 /)-aminophenol, the hypnotics derived from malonyl urea, 

 and the local anaesthetics related to cocaine. Referring 

 to the first group, he showed that the toxic properties of 

 aminophenol may be reduced and its antipyretic action in- 

 creased by introducing radicals into the h3'droxyl and 

 amino groups. He pointed out the importance of a 

 sufficiently stable combination to resist decomposition by 

 the acid of the gastric juice, as otherwise the radical is 

 split off in the stomach with the production of the parent 

 substance. The practical outcome of these investigations 

 has led to the recognition of phenacetin as the most suit- 

 able for medicinal use. 



Among the substitutes for salicylic acid as an anti- 

 rheumatic he mentioned salol (phenyl ester), aspirin (acetyl 

 salicylic acid), and salophen (salicyl acetaminophenol), sub- 

 stances which, being stable towards acid, pass through the 

 stomach unchanged, but are subsequently hydrolysed by 

 the alkaline pancreatic juice, when the constituents begin 

 to exert their specific effect. Passing on to the hypnotics, 

 veronal and sulphonal and their analogues, it was observed 

 that each contains a hypnotic group in which alkyl radicals 

 (R, one of which must be ethyl) are necessaty to produce 

 h\-pnotic action. 



,ro_NH. . /SO..- 



;co >C< 



/ \CO— NH-^ / ^SO^— 



Ilypnutic group Hypnot.c group 



R\ /CO— NH\ R^ /SO.,R 



>C/ yCO 



R/ \C0— NfF 



Hypnot-c Hypnotic 



Dr. Keane then gave an account of cocaine, the nature 

 of the groups which are responsible for local anaesthesis, 

 and the successful application of this knowledge to the 

 production of new drugs, such as a and /3 eucaine, ortho- 

 fcrm, stovaine, novocaine, holocaine, &c. 



The address concluded with a table of statistics giving 

 the quantity of synthetic drugs imported from Germany 

 (the seat of the industry) to this country, which on six 

 drugs alone amounts to about 20 tons, of the value of 

 i6,oooZ. annually. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF HUMAN SPEECH. 

 A N interesting attempt by Dr. C. Tauber to trace human 

 speech back to its first beginnings appears in Globus 

 for May 12 (Bd. xcvii.). For this purpose the writer 

 classifies the simplest conceptions and the sounds repre- 

 senting them into six divisions, as follows: — (i.) m + 

 vowel, meaning liquid food {e.g. milk, melt. Germ. 

 Ge-miise, &-c.) ; (ii.) p (b or 7;) -l- vowel, solid food (e.g. 

 bread. Germ. Putter, Lat. panis, &c.) ; (iii.) n-H vowel, 

 sometimes sn, fluidity (e.g. Lat. navis, Germ, nass, snow, 

 &:c.) ; (iv.) dental + vowel, sometimes st, wood or forest 

 {e.g. timber, Germ. Stuhl, throne, Germ. Tanne, &c.) ; 

 (v.) liquid-)- vowel, feeding or drinking place {e.g. Gk. 

 libadion, lake. Germ. Loch, &c.) ; (vi.) guttural -(-vowel, 

 animal world (cow, Lat. caper, Germ. Hund, &c.). 



For each division Dr. Tauber draws up a table of 

 derived ideas represented by the same root-syllable in 

 various Indo-Germanic languages, e.g. under (i.) we find 

 Mima, Germ. Mutter on one side and Germ. Mcer, Lat. 

 marc, &c., on the other. From mater, mother, is derived 

 the idea of to feed, and from that, again, the conception well- 

 fed, large. It must be confessed that considerable ingenuity 

 is required to trace the connection in some instances, but 

 the author freely owns to setting forth speculative results. 

 NO. 2 12 I, VOL. 83] 



It is extremely interesting to note that these six sound- 

 groups appear with the same force in many non-Indo- 

 Germanic languages; for instance, (i.) m + vowel in 

 Hebrew manna (food), maim (water), malar (rain), 

 niahal (wine mixed with water); in Bantu languages ma = 

 water occurs very frequently in compound words ; also in 

 Chinese (in Siamese n-am) ; in the form mu in the Ural- 

 Altaic languages (Tungus and Manchurian mu-ke = water, 

 Japanese u-mi = sea, a-me = rain); ma, meaning water, 

 rain, or drink, is widespread in the Australian, Polynesian, 

 and Malay languages ; the Eskimo have the word inuk for 

 water. The derived conception mag = large occurs in 

 Caucasic, Ural-Altaic, and Dravidian languages. Instances 

 from Semitic, Caucasic, and other languages are also given 

 for the other five sound-categories. Dr. Tauber would like 

 to see his scheme worked out and amplified and the 

 Ursprache established beyond question, after which it might 

 be possible to ascertain the points at which the great 

 linguistic branches differentiated. 



R' ^SO.,R 



.ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS IN TECH NIC A] 

 INSTITUTIONS. 



T^HE annual conference of the Association of Teacher 

 in Technical Institutions was held at Birmingham i 

 the Birmingham Municipal Technical School on Friday an 

 Saturda}', June 17 and 18. In his address, the president o 

 the association, Mr. J. ^^'ilson, Battersea Polytechnic 

 emphasised the importance of scientific and technical educa 

 tion to industrial progress. As an example of this, it wa 

 pointed out that, owing largely to the limited appreciatioi 

 of technical education by the English manufacturing work 

 as a whole, nearly all the chief industrial developments c 

 the last twent}" years are either of German, French, c 

 .\merican origin or commercial development. The preser 

 national and municipal expenditure on technical educatio 

 in Great Britain is approximately one and a half million 

 sterling per annum. This is very small when compared 

 with the " gross " annual output of the engineering and 

 chemical industries alone, amounting to about 258 millions 

 per annum. Mr. Wilson discussed the position of the 

 London polytechnics with reference to the London Uni- 

 veisity. He considered that any diminution in the effecti\ 

 facilities now offered by the polytechnics to the workin^^ 

 and lower middle classes to participate, not only in 

 advanced technical education, but in higher and university 

 education, would be a grave retrograde step. 



In a paper read at the afternoon session by Dr. Price, of 

 the Birmingham Technical School, on " The relation between 

 the technical school and the university," it was pointed ou: 

 that, generally speaking, the average technical student, how- 

 ever highly qualified he may be by previous study and experi- 

 ence, cannot possibly attend the university, owing to the 

 liigh fees and cost of maintenance. In reply to certain 

 criticisms by Prof. Meldola and Sir William Ramsay or, 

 the value of evening instruction, it was stated that at the 

 piesent time many evening students in technical institutions 

 are taking courses in the highest branches of technical 

 knowledge, with advantage to themselves and to the indus- 

 try with which they are connected. In Birmingham, for 

 instance, there are men holding responsible positions \vho- 

 have received all their scientific training in the evening' 

 classes at the technical school. Many drawbacks in the 

 iiighlv valuable system of external examinations of the 

 London University could be obviated if a satisfactory system 

 could be devised by means of which technical institution- 

 of sufficient standing could be affiliated to the local universi- 

 ties. Many of the larger technical schools are we'i 

 equipped and have a highly trained staff which is able to. 

 and does, carry out research. 



.'\ number of general resolutions on technical education 

 were passed dealing with subjects such as : — (a) the co- 

 ordination of education in the primary, secondary, and 

 continuation schools with technical school work ; {b) th* 

 necessity for the provision of technical education of a mor^ 

 advanced and more highly specialised character than exist > 

 at present ; (f) technical schools to be allowed to develop 

 their work as highly as local requirements demand : 

 (d) urging upon the Government the desirability of appoint- 

 ing a Royal Commission to inquire into the need for the. 

 organisation of technical education throughout the country. 1 



