22 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
[July 9, 1870. 
On the subject of a suitable pharmaceutical curri¬ 
culum the medical mind is also quite at variance 
with pharmaceutical experience. 
It has been abundantly proved that mere attend¬ 
ance on lectures will not educate the pharmaceutical 
student; and although it is an unquestionable ad¬ 
vantage to the student to have his knowledge sys¬ 
tematized by such means, yet habits of exact and 
exhaustive reading, of individual judgment and in¬ 
terpretation, of successful manipulation, and of self- 
reliance, are formed, not in the lecture-room, hut in 
the laboratory and the library. 
And there can be little question in the minds of 
those who have received its advantages, that synthe¬ 
tical and analytical manipulations in the laboratory 
are the only sound, true, and essential bases of an 
advanced pharmaceutical education. Chemical lec¬ 
tures, with merely flashy experiments and no labora¬ 
tory instruction, and materia medica lectures, without 
museums, form but a poor curriculum, whatever be 
the number of “ courses” prescribed. 
In 1858, the College introduced a very stringent 
measure, which was successfully resisted. It de¬ 
manded as a curriculum—* 
A sound elementary education. 
Certificates of good moral character. 
One course of lectures on Medical Jurisprudence ; 
Two courses on Materia Medica ; 
Two courses on Chemistry ; 
Each of six months, at a medical college. 
It also contained penal clauses for— 
“ Vending a spurious or adulterated medicine.” 
Penalty, £5 to £10. 
“ Practising pharmacy for gain without a diploma.” 
Penalty, £5 to £20. 
“ Sale of poison without certificate and registra¬ 
tion.” Penalty, £2. 
“ Poisons to be kept in a private and safe place, 
and in yellow bottles, legibly labelled.” Penalty, £5. 
“ Visitation of governors to inspect shops.” Pe¬ 
nalty for resistance, £5. 
In 1860,f a Bill was introduced to compel drug¬ 
gists to kee}:) open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. from April to 
November, and certain hours on Sundays; it w r as 
rather an “ early opening” than an “ early closing” 
movement. This was also successfully resisted. 
It is obvious that, unless pharmacists will legis¬ 
late for themselves, they will be legislated for; and 
if they will not educate themselves, they will be edu¬ 
cated more or less. It is highly desirable that the 
regulations adopted by British, Canadian, and Ame¬ 
rican pharmaceutical bodies shall be, as far as prac¬ 
ticable, assimilated, and the standards of education 
be consistent, if not uniform ; and the more I see of 
the means of education available in various coun¬ 
tries, the more confidently do I endorse the opinion of 
our lamented Jacob Bell, that our pharmaceutical 
students should avoid medical schools, and that it is 
our duty, wherever possible, to provide and encou¬ 
rage schools of practical chemistry and pharmacy, 
which are the true basis of pharmaceutical educa¬ 
tion. 
ON SMOKE,—THE THEORY OF ITS FORMATION. 
BY SHEURER-KESTNER. 
It is well known that pure carbon, when burned 
even with an insufficient supply of air, never pro- 
Pliarm. Journ. Vol. XVIII. o.s. p. 44. 
f Pharm. Journ. Yol. XI. x.s. p. 245. 
duces smoke. Thus w T ood-charcoal and coke produce 
none, while hydrocarbons, on the contrary, emit 
smoke when burnt with insufficient quantity of air, 
and some of them even cannot be ignited without 
yielding a smoky flame. 
It is stated, in some works on chemistry, that the 
production of smoke, and therefore of soot, takes 
place in the following way:—A hydrocarbon being 
ignited, and taking fire, the hydrogen, being the 
more combustible body, is first oxidized, and there 
does not then remain enough oxygen for the combus¬ 
tion of the carbon, so that this is precipitated in the 
form of soot, and thus forms smoke. It is hardly 
necessary to insist on the unsatisfactory nature of 
this explanation, wliich I must say, however, is 
never advanced excepting as an hypothesis. 
In fact, when a hydrocarbon is ignited, or, in 
other terms, when the first ignition is communicated 
to the molecules which should cause the oxidation 
of the whole substance, w r e cannot consider the hy¬ 
drocarbon as a simple mixture of hydrogen and car¬ 
bon ; and still more, in saying that hydrogen is more 
combustible than carbon, w r e adopt a second hypo¬ 
thesis, for the hydrocarbon contains the vapour of 
carbon, and w r e know nothing of the more or less 
combustible nature of the vapour of carbon; it is, 
therefore, but one hypothesis used to solve another. 
We find 2 e deposit, a separation of carbon, and w r e 
simply know this fact. 
The investigations of M. H. Sainte-Claire Deville 
on dissociation, and those of Berthelot on the action 
of heat on hydrocarbons, induced me to endeavour, 
through some new experiments, to throw light on 
this hitherto obscure question. 
M. H. Sainte-Claire Deville has shown that when 
a compound gas is brought to a sufficiently high 
temperature, the elements of which it is composed 
separate; that if the mixture resulting from this 
dissociation be quickly cooled, there will be foimd in 
the product a simple mixture in the place of the 
original compound; but if, on the contrary, the 
cooling has taken place slowly, the elements will be 
found to have recombined so as to form the original 
compound. Such w r as the first of the observations 
on which I rested my investigation. 
On the other hand, M. Bertlielot has shown that, on 
submitting certain compound bodies, and especially 
the hydrocarbons, to the action of a high tempera¬ 
ture, it is possible to produce new compounds re¬ 
sulting from the elements of the first, and that this 
decomposition may be accompanied by a deposition 
of charcoal. 
These tw r o classes of facts being once admitted, 
the theoretical question of the formation of soot is 
almost solved. In fact, wdiat occurs in a fireplace 
charged with coals ? Let us suppose that the grate 
is covered with incandescent coal, that it only con¬ 
tains ignited coke: it emits no smoke. Let us now 
put fresh coals on the fire, and we soon find black 
smoke covering the mass and passing into the 
chimney. After a time the smoke diminishes, and 
finally ceases until the fuel has been renewed. 
Here is wdiat passes in this case. When the coal, 
composed of hydrocarbons, comes in contact with 
the incandescent fuel, the hydrocarbons soon become 
heated to a sufficient extent to cause their distilla¬ 
tion. The vapour’s, coming in contact wdth the air, 
become immediately ignited, and consume the oxygen 
by wdiich they are surrounded. If fresh quantities 
of air do not replace the oxygen already consumed, 
