August 19,1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
143 
they looked well after the army dispensaries, and 
collected much statistical information hitherto greatly 
neglected. 
At the end of the war, in 1807, matters had some¬ 
what resumed their former regularity, and especially 
t he different branches of the university seem to have 
done their best to advance scientific life and interest. 
In the botanical department, Don R. A. Philippi 
published a fresh report on Father Feuillee’s 
valuable work, ‘ Las Plantas Chilenas,’ a record of 
travels in Chili and Peru in the years 1709 to 1712. 
Don T. Domeyko, professor of mineralogy, sent in 
analyses of several Chilian minerals ; while in zoo¬ 
logy Don R. A. Philippi supplied a critical commen¬ 
tary. 
At a meeting of the Council of the University in 
March, 1807, it was decided to adopt as textbook for 
public instruction Don Anjel Vasquez’ treatise en¬ 
titled ‘ Tratado de Quimica Organica, con aplicacion 
a la Farmacia y Medicinaclearness in the expo¬ 
sition of matters, complete study of organic chemis¬ 
try, enlargement of the parts treating of animal 
chemistry, were given as special recommendations. 
But, unfortunately, the necessary funds for printing 
the book, which the university had to find, were 
not forthcoming, and the publication had to be post¬ 
poned. 
In October, 1807, the Dean of the Medical Fa¬ 
culty, Don Ceslao Diaz, submitted a plan for regu¬ 
lating the pharmaceutical education, entitled, ‘ De 
Estudios para los Aspirantes a la Profesion de 
Farmacia;’ and a month later the Dean, Don I. I. 
Aguirre, proposed certain regulations by which the 
exercise of pharmacy and the sale of medicines and 
drugs are properly limited, and by which the phar¬ 
macist has seemingly acquired a proper legal status. 
This—‘lleglamento para el Ejercicio de la Pro¬ 
fesion de Farmacia, venta de Medicinas y Drogas ’— 
treats of the medicines and of those who are entitled 
to sell them; of the exercise of pharmacy; of the 
Pharmacopoeia and the lists of officinal substances ; 
of the visitation of pharmacies ; of the sale of drugs ; 
and of the fines in case of contraventions. The 
list of natural and chemical products exclusively 
medicinal, and which drysalters or druggists are 
allowed to sell only wholesale, and without previous 
preparation, comprises 238 substances ; poisons 
which non-pharmacists are not allowed to sell with¬ 
out special precautions, such as registering the 
names of bikers, intended use of poisons, etc., are 
88 in number; and the list of medicinal noil-poi¬ 
sonous plants, the sale of which is free, contains 86. 
Besides these regulations, there are a number of 
restrictions, issued by the medical police, to which 
the pharmacist is bound to submit. The conditions 
of the study of pharmacy for apprentices or assis¬ 
tants are twofold; they refer to the number of years 
required for a pharmaceutical course, and to the 
different branches of study. Ten years are pre¬ 
scribed, the first five for school training, and the 
following five for special studies, viz. 1st year, inor¬ 
ganic chemistry and botany; 2nd, organic chemistry, 
analyses of drugs and medicines, zoology; 3rd year, 
analyses as before, materia pharmaceutica ; 4tli 
year, practical pharmacy, comprising chemical phar¬ 
macy, dispensing of medicines, officinal substances, 
and study of formulas and prescriptions; 5th year, 
legnl pharmacy, including theoretical and practical 
toxicology, study of the Pharmacopoeia, and again 
investigations of drugs and medicines. 
In 1868 there were eighteen students, “ aspirantes 
a la profesion de farmaceutico,” at the University of 
Santiago. 
THE GASEOUS AND LIQUID STATES OF MATTER. 
BY THOMAS ANDBEVS, M.D., F.B.S., 
Vice-President of Queen's College, Belfast. 
The liquid state of matter forms a link between the 
solid and gaseous states. This link is, however, often 
suppressed, and the solid passes directly into the gaseous 
or vaporous form. In the intense cold of an Arctic 
winter hard ice will gradually change into transparent 
vapour without previously assuming the form of water. 
Carbonic acid snow passes rapidly into gas when ex¬ 
posed to the air, and can with difficulty be liquefied in 
open tubes. Its boiling-point, as Faraday has showm, 
presents the apparent anomaly of being lower in the 
thcrmometric scale than its melting-point; a statement 
less paradoxical than it may at first appear, if w'e re¬ 
member that water can exist as vapour at temperatures 
far lower than those at wffiich it can exist as liquid. 
Whether the transition be directly from solid to gaseous, 
or from solid to liquid, and from liquid to gaseous, a 
marked change of physical properties occurs at each step 
or break, and heat is absorbed, as w r as proved long ago 
by Black, without producing elevation of temperature. 
Many solids and liquids will for this reason maintain a 
low temperature, even wffien surrounded by a wliite-hot 
atmosphere, and the remarkable experiment of solidi¬ 
fying water, and even mercury, on a rod-hot plate, finds 
thus an easy explanation. The term spheroidal state, 
wffien applied to water floating on a cushion of vapour 
over a red-hot plate, is, how r ever, apt to mislead. The 
wmter is not here in any peculiar state. It is simply 
water evaporating rapidly at a few degrees below its 
boiling-point, and all its properties, even those of capil¬ 
larity, are the properties of ordinary w r ater at 96*5 C. 
The interesting phenomena exhibited under these con¬ 
ditions are due to other causes, and not to any new' or 
peculiar state of the liquid itself. The fine researches 
of Dalton upon vapours, and the memorable discovery by 
Faraday of the liquefaction of gases by pressure alone, 
finished the w r ork which Black had begun. Our know-- 
ledge of the conditions under which matter passes ab¬ 
ruptly from the gaseous to the liquid, and from the 
liquid to the solid state, may now be regarded as almost 
complete. 
In 1822 Cagniard de la Tour made some remarkable 
experiments, which still bear his name, and may bo re¬ 
garded as the starting-point of the investigations which 
form the chief subject of this address. Cagniard de la 
Tour’s first experiments w T ere made in a small Papin’s 
digester, constructed from the thick end of a gun-barrel, 
into which he introduced a little alcohol and also a small 
quartz ball, and firmly closed the wffiole. On heating 
the gun-barrel, with its contents, over an open fire, and 
observing from time to time the sound produced by the 
ball wffien the apparatus w r as shaken, he inferred that 
after a certain temperature was attained the liquid had 
disappeared. He afterwards succeeded in repeating the 
experiment in glass tubes, and obtained the following- 
results :—An hermetically-sealed glass tube, containing 
sufficient alcohol to occupy tw'o-fifths of its capacity, 
was gradually heated, wffien the liquid was seen to dilate, 
and its mobility at the same time to become gradually 
greater. After attaining to nearly twice its original 
volume, the liquid completely disappeared, and w r as con¬ 
verted into a vapour so transparent that the tube ap¬ 
peared to be quite empty. On allowing the tube to 
cool, a very thick cloud was formed, after which the 
liquid reappeared in its former state. 
It is singular that in this otherwise accurate descup- 
tion, Cagniard de la Tour should have overlooked the 
