MEDICAMENTS AND LIFE. 227 



the secret of the formation of those subtile principles, be- 

 neficent or terrible according to their various natures, which 

 sometimes restore endangered health, and sometimes quench 

 the flame of life ? It is true that attempts hitherto made 

 in that direction have not been crowned with success ; at 

 least medicine has gained no advantage from them. It 

 was while following out experiments on the means of ob- 

 taining quinine artificially, and while studying toluidine 

 with this view, that Perkin, in 1856, discovered, instead 

 of the precious medicine he was in search of, a red com- 

 pound which became the source of aniline colors. This 

 check, of so singular a kind, should not discourage inves- 

 tigators ; permanent fame is reserved for him who shall 

 succeed where Perkin failed. 



We may be allowed to suppose, too, as A. W. Hoff- 

 mann lately took occasion to say, that the same thing will 

 take place in future in therapeutics that has occurred in 

 the art of dyeing. At this day no one endeavors, as used 

 to be done, to obtain different shades by the mechanical 

 mixture of several coloring-matters. One principle is 

 taken, and, according to the color desired, is subjected to 

 a determinate chemical transformation; one and the same 

 molecule, modified in its inner structure by suitable re- 

 agents, becomes in succession red, blue, green, violet. 

 One who watches attentively the influence of chemistry 

 upon all manufactures, cannot doubt the realization of simi- 

 lar progress in other directions ; he will trust that thera- 

 peutics will some day succeed in modifying, as it may 

 choose, the properties of medicinal principles, not, as now, 

 by means of mixtures in the druggist's glass, but with the 

 help of fixed and regulated metamorphoses, effected in the 

 very inmost structure of the molecule of the active prin- 

 ciple. Late experiments by Messrs. Crum-Brown and 

 Fraser have made a brilliant beginning in researches of 

 this kind. 



