SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Friday, July 1, 1904. 



CONTENTS: 



The Relation of Modern Chemistry to Modern 

 Medicine: Peofessok J. H. Long 1 



Scientific Books: — • 



Hofer's Handbuch der Fischkrankheiten : 

 M. C. Marsh. Katalog der BiMiotheh der 

 Gesellschaft filr Erdkunde eu Berlin: J. M. 

 NlCKLES 14 



Societies and Academies: — • 



The Chemical Society of Washington: Dk. 

 A. Seidell. The Philosophical Society of 

 Washington: Chakles K. Wead. Section 

 of Astronomy, Physics and Chemistry of the 

 Neio York Academy of Sciences: Dr. C. C. 

 Trowbridge 15 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Appendicitis and the Race: Professor Ed- 

 win G. Dexter. ' The Tree Dicellers ' : 

 Katherine E. Dopp 19 



Special Articles: — ■ 



Mo7it Pele from Octoler 20, 1903, to May 

 20, WOJf: Dr. Edmund Otis Hovet. The 

 Occurrence of Taurin in Invertebrate Mus- 

 cle: Dr. Harold C. Bradley. The Pterido- 

 spermaphyta: Professor Lester F. Ward. 23 



Influence of Boric Acid and Borax on Diges- 

 tion and Health 26 



Laboratories for Botanical Research 27 



International Catalogue of Scientific Litera- 

 ture 28 



Scientific Notes and ISfews 29 



University and Educational Vetcs 32 



MSS. Intended for publication and boots, etc., intended 

 for review should be sent to tbe Eiitor of Science, Garri- 

 aon-on-Hndfon, N. Y 



THE RELATION OF MODERN CHEMISTRY 

 TO MODERN MEDICINE* 



The history of the relation of chemistry 

 to medicine is interesting to the physician 

 as well as to the chemist, but has been 

 studied mainly from the standpoint of the 

 latter. From the remotest periods chem- 

 istry, or, more accurately, the crude science 

 or art which preceded it, found application 

 in two directions, first, in the treatment of 

 metals or ores or similar bodies to produce 

 something of greater value, and secondly, 

 in the curing of disease or prolonging of 

 life. In both fields of effort the attempts 

 were and remained through some thousands 

 of years of the simplest character. Even 

 in the work of Galen, who flourished two 

 hundred years after Christ and M^ho has 

 been styled the first of the .great physi- 

 cians, there is little which suggests any 

 attempt toward a systematic knowledge of 

 chemical substances. According to the 

 philosophy of the Egyptians and Greeks 

 then current, all things, including the hu- 

 man body, were made up of a limited num- 

 ber of elements or qualities, usually four. 

 With the proper mixture of these the body 

 remained in normal health, but with the 

 qualities out of proportion disease followed 

 which must be attacked through the cor- 

 rective agency of medicines. Galen 's medi- 

 cines were mostly simple vegetable infu- 

 sions or extracts of roots, barks and leaves, 

 and the term galenical we still retain to 

 describe the remedies which are essentially 

 indefinite mixtures secured by processes 

 similar in principle to those introduced by 



* Address before the Sigma Xi Society of the 

 University of Kansas, June 6, 1904. 



