i8 77.] 
at Home and Abroad . 
97 
sensational aspect of the inferior kind of work presented by 
the scientific literature of our day. The author, F. Salmi, 
professes, in a discursive paper* of great length, to have 
succeeded in isolating “ an alkaloid occurring in the brain, 
the liver, and the wild poppy.” He appears to have obtained 
a substance from each of these sources which may have 
been anything in each particular case, for it presents no re- 
action stamping it as a new individual. Nor does Signor 
Salmi give a single analysis of any kind. 
In leaving for a time the consideration of misguided re- 
search, we turn for awhile to consider the educational 
literature of our subject, and this will be best done by 
reviewing in brief certain typical text-books of modern phy- 
siological chemistry. 
In 1873, among other text-books published in this country, 
was a “ Handbook for the Physiological Laboratory, ”f by 
Dr. Klein, Prof. Burdon Sanderson, Dr. Michael Foster, 
and Dr. Lauder Brunton. The Report of the Medical 
Officer of the Privy Council, containing the Brain Chemistry, 
had certainly not been published when the Handbook ap- 
peared : still the literature of Brain Chemistry was, at that 
time even, sufficient to form the basis of an ordinary oCtavo 
volume ; but in the 572 pages of the Handbook we find little 
more than one page is devoted to the chemistry of the brain. 
In that part of the Handbook devoted to the Chemistry of 
the Tissues, by Dr. L. Brunton, the student is directed to 
estimate the amount of water in brain-matter by drying it 
over sulphuric acid, and, further, to grind the brain to paste 
in a mortar. The former is, in our opinion, as impossible 
as the latter is unfeasible. Following the methods here 
laid down the student would not succeed in isolating a soli- 
tary brain principle in a pure state, while with regard to 
that one principle, viz., cerebrin, about which the instructions 
are most minute, operations are detailed for its purification 
which must inevitably result in its destruction. We are 
told that to obtain pure cerebrin it should be, among other 
things, boiled with baryta water. Now this proceeding 
splits up cerebrin into sugar, a new base, and certain other 
products. Moreover, cerebrin is not hygroscopic, as stated 
by Dr. L. Brunton. We take this opportunity of paying a 
tribute of respeCt to the valuable researches of W. Muller 
* Gazzetta Chim. Ifcah, v., 3g8. 
f Handbook for the Physiological Laboratory, by E. Klein, M.D. ; J. 
Burdon Sanderson, M.D., F.R.S. ; Michael Foster, M.A., M.D., F.R.S. ; 
and T. Lauder Brunton, M.D , D.Sc. Edited by J. Burdon Sanderson. 
London : Churchill. 1873. 
VOL. VII. (N.S.) 
H 
