August 3, 1905] 



NA TURE 



335 



especially in seeVting to devise trustworthy processes for 

 the assay of crude drugs and their preparations, and to the 

 extent to. which they have succeeded they have contributed 

 in their measure to the benefits conferred on suffering 

 humanity . by, the healing art. 



A few pointed observations reflecting my personal opinion 

 on certain aspects of the question of standardisation may 

 not, 1 trust, be considered inappropriate with which to 

 conclude my address. In my estimation the aim should be 

 to produce preparations that .will represent the sum total 

 of therapeutic activity of the drugs operated on except in 

 cases where it is desired to obtain the medicinal effects 

 of certain definite principles the physiological action of 

 which is indisputable. As an illustration a preparation 

 of opium may be cited where the presence of narcotine 

 may be considered objectionable. Further, in respect of a 

 given preparation it must be required of the pharmacist 

 to devise suitable processes not only for the estimation of 

 the chief medicinal constituent, but as far as possible the 

 several medicinal constituents and the proportion in which 

 they are present. I would go even further, and say that 

 in the near future it may be necessary to determine certain 

 principles hitherto disregarded, which modify the thera- 

 peutic activity of the drug. The pharmacologist may be 

 depended on to point the way, and despite the heavy tax 

 this call for fuller investigation will put upon the resources 

 of the pharmacist, I am encouraged to believe he will 

 prove equal to the demand. Without reflecting on modern 

 methods of standardisation, which undoubtedly have met 

 with general acceptance, I cannot suppress the conviction 

 that their tendency is not free from a suspicion of narrow- 

 ness. The besetting temptation consists in a disposition 

 to restrict the medicinal properties of a drug to a potent 

 principle, the therapeutics of which are universally recog- 

 nised by clinicians, and acting on this assumption to 

 proceed to produce a preparation and to standardise it on 

 the basis of the particular principle and with little or no 

 regard to other constituents that may directly or indirectly 

 be of value. For instance, according to present-day know- 

 ledge, the chief active principle of the three drugs bella- 

 donna, scopola, and henbane is hyoscyamine. If a tincture 

 of each be prepared so as to contain the same percentage 

 of alkaloid or alkaloidal content, will it be seriously con- 

 tended that therapeutically considered the three are inter- 

 changeable, and- therefore it is a matter of indifference 

 which of them is selected for use? If the physician finds 

 it a distinct advantage to administer the belladonna tinc- 

 ture in one case and the henbane tincture in another, surelv 

 it is because he is satisfied that the two preparations do 

 not produce identical results. May this not be taken as 

 primd facie evidence that there are in the tinctures con- 

 stituents present, other than hyoscyamine or alkaloidal con- 

 tent, which claim to be reckoned with ? 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



London. — The senate has accepted the offer made by 

 the Secretary of State for the Colonies of the sum of 

 700/. a year for five years for the purpose of instituting 

 a chair of protozoology. Of this sum, 200/. a year is a 

 contribution from the Rhodes trustees, and 500^. a year 

 represents a moiety of a grant originally made from the 

 tropical diseases research fund to the Royal Society for 

 the promotion of research work, and by the Royal Society 

 surrendered for the purpose of endowing the chair. It 

 was decided to devote the whole amount as salary of the 

 professor, and to set aside a further sum of 200/. a year 

 to defray the cost of assistants and laboratory expenses in 

 connection with the chair. 



Mr. Edgar Schuster, the Francis Galton research Fellow 

 in national eugenics, has presented a report containing 

 a preliminary account of inquiries which have been made 

 into the inheritance of disease, and especially of feeble- 

 mindedness, deaf-mutism, and phthisis. 



Of the five commissioners under thS Bill promoted by 

 the university and University College for the determin- 

 ation of the conditions under which the college will be 

 incorporated in the university, which measure received the 

 Royal assent on July 11, Lord Justice Cozens-Hardy and 



NO. 1866, VOL. 72] 



.Sir Edward Busk were nominated by the university, and 

 Sir John Rotton and Prof. J. Rose Bradford by the college. 

 The remaining commissioner is to be appointed by His 

 Majesty in Council, and will act as chairman. Sir Edward 

 Fry, late Lord Justice of .Appeal, has consented to allow 

 his name to be submitted to His Majesty in Council for 

 this post, and it is expected that the Order in Council 

 announcing his appointment will shortly be published. 



Under the will of the late Dr. Nathaniel Rogers, a 

 prize: of 100/. is offered for an essay on " The Physiology 

 and Pathology of the Pancreas." Essays, preferably type- 

 written or printed, must be sent to the secretary of the 

 senate by, at latest, May i, 1907. 



The services rendered to science by the late Dr. T. M. 

 Drown, president of Lehigh University, arc to be fittingly 

 recognised, subscriptions having been invited for the pur- 

 pose of erecting at the university a building to be called 

 Drown Memorial Hall in his honour. 



Prof. W. A. Tilden, F.R.S., has been appointed dean 

 of the Royal College of Science, .South Kensington, in 

 succession to Prof. .J. W. Judd, C.B., F.R.S., who retired 

 from the position on July 31. 



Mr. H. J. HuTCHENS has been appointed demonstrator 

 of bacteriology in the University of Durham. He will 

 continue his work for the Royal Commission on 

 Tuberculosis. 



The subject of the health essay (Durham University) 

 for 1908 is " Injuries and Diseases of the Arteries, Veins 

 and Capillaries, and their Treatment." Essays must be 

 typewritten or printed, and reach the professor of surgery 

 not later than March 31 of the year for which it is to be 

 awarded. 



A REPORT on the work of University College, London, 

 for the session 1904-5, was read by Prof. Cormack, dean 

 of the faculty of science, at the assembly of the faculties 

 of arts and laws and of science on July 5. The report 

 records that the Bill for the incorporation of the college 

 in the University of London has passed the House of 

 Lords, and has also passed its first and second readings, as 

 well as the committee stage, in the House of Commons. 

 It is therefore expected that the Bill will receive the Royal 

 assent before the end of the present Parliamentary session. 

 In that case the commissioners, appointed under the Bill 

 to carry out the incorporation of the college in the uni- 

 versity, will begin their meetings after the long vacation, 

 and it ought to be possible to complete the actual incor- 

 poration by September, 1906. Of the sum of 200,000/. 

 required for this purpose, all but 17,000/. has been 

 obtained. In the department of applied mathematics the 

 most important event of the session was the generous 

 grant by the Worshipful Company of Drapers of 400/. 

 yearly for five years to continue the biometric and research 

 work of the department. This grant has put on a more 

 permanent footing the work already instituted by the same 

 company two years ago. Six memoirs have been specially 

 published as a Drapers' Research Series, and a number 

 of others are in preparation. The work for these has 

 been rendered possible almost entirely by the financial aid 

 provided by this gift. The number of research papers 

 emanating from this department is eighteen, and among 

 them may be noted a paper on " Some Disregarded Points 

 in the Stability of Masonry Dams," which directs atten- 

 tion to a number of complicated and highly important 

 technical questions, and is a valuable contribution both 

 to theory and' practice. The research work done In the 

 Pender laboratory during the session has Included such 

 practically important matters as : — additional improvements 

 In means for the photometric measurement of the value 

 of incandescent electric lamps ; a long research on the 

 magnetic qualities of alloys, not containing iron, which 

 promises to be of great technical Importance; and the 

 invention of Instruments called cymometers, which are, in 

 effect, electrical spectroscopes, and enable the frequency 

 of the oscillations in any electric circuit to be measured 

 with great accuracy. Several Important contributions to 

 science have come from the department of chemistry ; and 

 the list of publications by Investigators in this and other 

 departments shows that the activity of the college in pro- 

 ducing original work Is being maintained. 



