September 17, 1870.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
233 
pharmaceutical motto ought to have been, “ Nihil est 
aliud magnum quam multa minuta.” 
Thirty years ago tho pharmaceutist was a literal 
tradesman, and for thirty years we lived in a theoretical 
anticipation of oiu- character and status being raised to a 
higher standard. Our ever-to-be-remembered Jacob 
Bell and William Allen, with others of advanced views, 
steadily persevered in the attainment of this object, and 
hoped "on in the face of strenuous opposition to see the 
things that we see. 
Two years ago we obtained the long-wished for Phar¬ 
macy Act, but at our last meeting we had no practical 
experience of its working. All was in embryo. Since 
that time a twelvemonth has elapsed; and, though too 
short a time perhaps for a conclusive verdict, yet I ven¬ 
ture to say that it has worked well, and now more than 
ever its expected benefits loom more decidedly in the 
future. 
Let us always beware, however, of infusing a merce¬ 
nary spirit into the conduction of our Pharmaceutical 
Society. Its main object is, and ever- must be, the up¬ 
raising of our Pharmaceutical education, and not the 
lowering it into a trades’ union, a spirit which I am bold 
to say would prove its ruin. 
We must not be too impatient of a little more nursing 
by the valued hands of the older members of the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society. 
Chemistry, botany and physics are to us only secon¬ 
dary in importance to a well-grounded general educa¬ 
tion. 
The study of botany is peculiarly a necessity, since we 
derive so many of our preparations from various plants ; 
but its demands have been so well put before you on 
former occasions by our esteemed Professor Bentley that 
I must not take up your time by dwelling on them now. 
Our younger members will need no reminder from me 
that great changes have within the last few years taken 
place in chemical philosophy. Chemistry now, more 
than ever, claims to be an exact science ; and, although I 
fear many of us have bemoaned the change in notation 
and the attendant difficulty of unlearning an old system, 
yet the more simple explanation of puzzling organic me¬ 
tamorphoses will amply repay any trouble taken by the 
persevering student. 
Nearly twenty years ago, our countryman, Professor 
Williamson, introduced to public notice the modern view 
of chemical types. Three years afterwards Gerhardt 
added to the Professor’s water-type two others, the hy¬ 
drochloric acid and ammonia. 
From these views we have a more complete classifica¬ 
tion of the elements and their combinations than we ever 
had before. Ere many more years have elapsed, works 
on chemistry must be arranged on quite a different 
plan, especially with regard to the terms inorganic and 
organic. 
In our older books the compounds included under 
these heads were supposed to be as distinct as if they be¬ 
longed to the animal and mineral kingdoms. The term 
“organic” then denoted those compounds which were 
thought only producible in the bodies of plants and 
animals, and that their production was due to a supposed 
“ vital force.” Of course I here allude to organic and 
not organized bodies. 
In later years many of these have been, and pro¬ 
bably all will be formed by the chemical transformation 
of inorganic elements or molecules; as cases in point, I 
would mention the artificial production of alcohol, sugar, 
acetic acid, etc. etc. 
Perhaps the best definition of an organic substance is, 
that it is a carbon compound, and that carbon in che¬ 
mistry is analogous to desmids and diatoms in micro¬ 
scopy. The latter seems to be debatable ground between 
the animal and vegetable kingdoms, as carbon is between 
inorganic and organic chemistry. 
Oxalic acid was once considered to be only found in 
the juices of plants. Now it has been prepared from 
purely inorganic elements. By the decomposition of a 
piece of chalk we produce the well-known gas carbonic 
anhydride or carbonic acid. Then by passing this gas 
over sodium and sand we have oxalic acid, identical in 
every respect with that found in the Rumex and Oxalis. 
2C0 2 + 2K = K 2 C 2 0 4 
Carbonic Oxalate of 
acid. potassium. 
Our well-known alcohol is another instance of the arti¬ 
ficial production from inorganic ingredients of what was 
formerly supposed to be formed only by the fermentation 
of starch or sugar. 
By passing the vapour of that commonest of all mine¬ 
rals—sulphur—over the surface of red-hot charcoal, we 
have carbon disulphide, the disagreeable liquid so often 
used for dissolving india-rubber. Then, again, if we mix 
this with hydro-sulphuric acid gas, and pass the mixture 
over red-hot copper, or with carbonic oxide over iron, we 
may, as proved by the experiments of Mr. Berthelot, 
produce olefiant gas, or, as it is now called, ethylene 
(C 2 H 4 ). 
2 CS 2 + 2 H 2 S + 6 Cu = C 2 H 4 + 3 Cu 2 S. 
Carb. Hydro- Ethy- Cupric 
disulph. sulph.acid. leue. sulphide. 
Lastly, if we dissolve the ethylene in strong sulphuric 
acid, dilute with water and distil, we shall have as the 
result alcohol, similar in every way to that prepared by 
the distillation of grain— 
c,h 4 + h 2 so 4 + h 2 o = c 2 h 6 o + h 2 so 4 . 
Ethylene. Sulph. acid. Alcohol. Sulph. acid. 
We might, in like manner, follow the synthetical forma¬ 
tion of acetic acid from the same inorganic materials, 
carbon and sulphur. 
The vegetable alkaloids, it is true, have not yet been 
artificially produced; but so great an advance is being 
made in the formation of organic compounds by artificial 
means, that I think it is not too chimerical an idea to 
expect a pharmaceutical solution of the philosopher’s 
stone problem, and to manufacture quinia and morphia on 
the large scale. We should then be entirely indepen¬ 
dent of the Cinchonacece and Papaveracece , on which we 
now entirely rely for these invaluable medicines. 
In the January number of the Journal de Pharmacie et 
de Chimie is an article by M. Bourgoin on the electrolysis 
of the vegetable alkaloids,—an interesting subject that 
has not hitherto received the attention it deserves. 
It has for some time been known that the salts of ve¬ 
getable alkaloids, when subjected to galvanic action, 
obey the usual law of metallic bases and acids, for the 
alkaloid appears at the negative and the acid at the po¬ 
sitive pole. 
The author states that the sulphates of atropia, brucia, 
strychnia, codeia, and quinia, when acted upon by the 
galvanic current, behave exactly like ammonium sul¬ 
phate— 
NH 4 S0 4 = S0 4 + NH 4 . 
+ — 
But, more than this, he goes on to say, that when 
an acid solution of either alkaloid was used, and the 
conductibility of the liquid thereby rendered more per¬ 
fect, the electrolytic action was much more violent. 
The solution became coloured round the positive elec¬ 
trode, and evolved oxygen, carbonic acid and carbonic 
oxide gases. 
The most remarkable result of the experiment was 
that, in each case, the colour produced teas identical with 
that seen when the alkaloid teas acted upon by strong nitric 
acid. Thus, atropia and strychnia gave a yellow, brucia 
a blood-red, and codeia an orange colour. 
This effect was the result of true oxidation, and not 
from the formation of nitric acid. 
The experiment appears to strengthen the idea of 
Liebig, that the nitrogenous alkaloids are substitu¬ 
tion compounds containing amidogen, N H 2 ; in other 
