March 16, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS 
753 
Paris, member of the Academie de Medecine, member 
and twice president of the Societe de Pharmacie, M. 
Guibourt appears as> an unassuming; scholar, who, undaz¬ 
zled by the glitter of fame, and devoted entirely to well¬ 
doing; and the cultivation of science, was not diverted 
from his object by any extraneous cares; whose zeal 
never needed praise as an incentive, and whose greatest 
pleas ire was to make a useful observation or to discover 
a fresh truth. 
Nicolas-Jean-Baptiste-Gaston Guibourt was born in 
Paris, July 2, 1790. He was educated under the direc¬ 
tion of his father, and showed from his infancy that 
sweetness of disposition and aptitude for work which 
were always the principal traits of his character. When, 
his “humanities” finished, it became necessary that he 
should select a profession, his choice fell without hesita¬ 
tion upon pharmacy as agreeing- with his taste for study. 
He had the good fortune to be admitted as an apprentice 
into the establishment of M. Boudet, who was justly 
esteemed to be one of the most distinguished pharma- 
ciens then in Paris. Under this able teacher he learned 
the art of manipulating and compounding mixtures, and 1 
preparing medicaments; details of knowledge without 
which men, otherwise able, sometimes find themselves 
deprived of valuable resources; details, perhaps, a little 
too much neglected in the present day, when young 
pharmacists, given up to the grand theories of science, 
scarcely deign to think of the processes of practical 
pharmacy. 
The talent that was one day to make M. Guibourt 
famous did not escape the sagacity of JM. Boudet. En¬ 
couraged by that gentleman’s wise counsels, the young- 
scholar prolonged his studies, and lienee his entrance 
into active life was marked by brilliant success. Ap¬ 
pointed successively interne at the Hotel Dieu, director 
of the annexe to the Pitie, assistant-director of the cen¬ 
tral pharmacy of the civil hospitals and superintendent 
of the stores in the same establishment, he found himself 
surrounded by the pharmaceutical riches which first 
suggested to him the idea of his ‘ History of Drugs.’ In 
1810, when scarcely twenty years of age, he bore, off the 
first prizes for chemistry and pharmacy at the Ecole de ! 
Paris, receiving them amongst public plaudits of which i 
he was already worthy, and which he then heard for the 
first time. 
When in 1816 M. Guibourt had to take the necessary 
steps for the exercise of pharmacy, he thought it to be 
due to his antecedents and to himself, to mark his re¬ 
ception by an inaugural thesis. The post that he occu¬ 
pied at the central pharmacy had enabled him to prepare 
all the galenical and chemical medicaments destined for 
the supply of the hospitals. Therefore he was not em¬ 
barrassed to find a subject for his thesis, and he chose a 
“ Study of the Combinations of Mercury with Oxygen 
and with Sulphur.” He had been struck by the ap¬ 
pearance and want of stability of some of these combina¬ 
tions, and to dissipate all doubts as to their true nature, 
he instituted a numerous and varied series of experi¬ 
ments. 
Success in the physical sciences results not only from 
the zeal of the student, but principally from an ability 
to utilize experimental method in the discovery of truth. 
It was such a method that M. Guibourt employed with 
the happiest results in this memoir, and that he always 
practised in his later ones. His thesis was remarkable ! 
equally ter the number of experiments recorded, and the | 
important lessons deduced from them. 
Scarcely in possession of his title, he hastened to open 
a pharmacy; here, however, he sought not to dazzle the 
public by a br'lliant outside. Situated at the bottom of 
a court in the Rxe Feydeau, his pharmacy would scarcely 
have attracted tny but those who knew the personal 
value of the propi’etor. But his desire was less to attain 
a fortune than to satisfy his taste for science. So, while 
not neglecting any cf the cares demanded by a first-rate 
establishment, he pursued his studies in all the branches 
i 
of pharmaceutical science. This ho did with so much 
ardour, and his researches became so multiplied, that it 
would bo quite impossible to furnish a complete list of 
them. Scattered through different works and scientific 
journals, all his memoirs, varied as the subjects are of 
which they treat, have one common characteristic, that 
of tending to the perfection of the art, and to raise the 
scientific standing of the pharmacist. 
In attempting to divide into classes the numerous 
productions of M. Guibourt, it is found that he turned 
his attention successively to chemistry, physics, toxico¬ 
logy, materia medica and pharmacy. Those which re¬ 
late to pure chemistry embrace mineral chemistry, or¬ 
ganic chemistry and animal chemistry. 
Quickly following bis inaugural thesis, M. Guibourt 
published some important remarks upon the carbonate of 
potash obtained by deflagrating nitrate of potash with 
acid tartrate of potash, showing that a slight change in 
the conditions of temperature led to a considerable differ¬ 
ence in the nature of the product obtained. The for¬ 
mation of cyanide of potassium in quantities proportionate 
to an increase of temperature illustrated the necessity 
that exists for carefully carrying out even the smallest 
details of pharmaceutical processes. 
A little later M. Guibourt published some interesting 
papers on “Arsenic and its Compounds,” “The Water 
of Crystallization of the Salts of Soda,” and “ The Puri¬ 
fication of Nitrate of Silver.” He showed that the sul¬ 
phides of arsenic, prepared artificially, contained occa¬ 
sionally as much as 96 per cent, of arsenious acid ; and 
that crystals of sulphate and carbonate of soda, exposed 
in a dry atmosphere, parted with the elements of water 
in very different proportions, the first becoming com¬ 
pletely anhydrous, whilst the second retained about 30 
per cent, of the water it originally contained. He also 
gave a simple process by which the last traces of copper 
might easily be removed from nitrate of silver. In some 
researches upon iodine in the urine, he indicated the 
combinations that some minerals form with organic 
liquids, the altered aspect that they assume, and the 
necessity for destroying the organic matter itself, in 
order to make their reactions manifest. 
The investigation of the “Saccharine Matter in Honey ” 
made in 1821, at a time when our knowledge of the 
. sugars was comparatively slight, not only confirmed the 
views of Proust upon the nature of this substance and 
its difference from cane sugar, but showed also the ex¬ 
tensive variations it might itself present, according to- 
the nature of the vegetation growing in the country in¬ 
habited by the bees. 
An examination, in 1843, of the process indicated by 
M. Pelouze, for the preparation of tannin, ledM. Guibourt 
to the opinion that pure ether alone is not a good solvent- 
of this substance, and that the employment of aqueous 
ether is indispensable to the success of the operation. 
He was also enabled to demonstrate by operating under 
conditions more favourable to success that the propor¬ 
tion of tannin contained in gall nuts was much larger 
than had been hitherto stated. 
All these investigations, conscientiously made and 
clearly described, disclosed an eminently observant mind 
occupying itself, first of all, with the practical interest 
of the subjects dealt with. The same characteristic was 
observable in the patient and minute study which M. 
Guibourt made when entrusted to make a report upon 
the subject of “ Pepsine.” The remarkable properties- 
of this substance had long been known ; but the diversity 
in the modes of preparation resulted in such variable 
products that medical men could not rely on the efficacy 
of its action. He therefore compared all the processes 
previously described, and taking advantage of the best 
points of each, he combined them in a single process 
which he submitted to the test of experiment. I he 
necessity for standax-dizing the officinal pepsine,. the em¬ 
ployment of fibrin to detei-mine its value, the influence 
of certain acids in modifying or increasing its effects,. 
