1014 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[June 15,1S?2. 
destroyed the locomotive power of the vibrios. Carbolic 
acid, sulphate of quinine, chloride of zinc and sulphuric 
acid nearly destroyed the locomotive power of all the 
vibrios present. Picric acid and sulpho-carbolate of zinc 
left only a few that retained the power of swimming, 
hut allowed them gradually to increase in number. 
Chloride of aluminium, sulphurous acid and prussic acid 
acted injuriously at first, hut after sixteen days the so¬ 
lutions contained as much vibrio-life as the standard 
putrid albumen. Bleaching-powder, bichloride of mer¬ 
cury, chlorine solution, caustic soda, acetic and nitric 
acids, sulphate of iron, and the sulpho-carbolates of pot¬ 
ash and of soda acted injuriously at first, but afterwards 
allowed the vibrios to increase more rapidly than in the 
standard albumen solution. Arsenious acid, common 
salt, chloride of calcium, chlorate of potash, sulphate of 
lime, bisulphite of lime, hyposulphite of soda, phosphate 
of lime, turpentine and pepper exercised no action upon 
the animalcules. Lime, charcoal, permanganate of pot¬ 
ash, phosphate of soda and ammonia favoured the produc¬ 
tion of animalcules and promoted putrefaction. 
THE SCIENTIFIC RELATIONS OF GERMANY, 
FRANCE, AND ENGLAND. 
BY M. BERTHELOT. 
In a remarkable article recently published in the 
Temps , by M. Berthelot, upon the relations that should 
exist between Germany and France, he argues that 
the great scientific results which have been attained in 
the past by the joint efforts of the scientific men of 
Germany, France, and England, are evidence of the 
importance to mankind of their still working in concord. 
We extract some of the principal passages :— 
We know that modern civilization depends upon 
three nations, which should at all times and at any cost 
remain united,—namely, France, Germany and Eng¬ 
land, each with its peculiar genius and its share in the 
historic development of the human race. From the 
seventeenth century each of these nations has taken an 
active and prominent part in the progress of science. 
To speak first of physical and mathematical sciences: 
though the initiative was due principally to a few men 
of other countries,—Galileo, an Italian, and Copernicus, 
a Pole, being the founders of modern astronomy and 
mechanics,—yet the development of these sciences was 
concentred chiefly in France, Germany and England. 
In France, Descartes discovered the methods of geo¬ 
metric analysis, which have proved more durable than 
his philosophical and cosmogonical theories. In Ger- 
many, Kepler invented the laws of planetary movement; 
and Leibnitz, who by education and the clearness of his 
conceptions, was perhaps more French than German, laid 
down the rules of the differential calculus under a form 
in which they still exist amongst us. At the same time, 
England producedNewton, greater, perhaps, in the science 
of nature, than either Descartes, Kepler or Leibnitz; 
for Newton discovered both new methods of calculation 
and the laws of astronomy, and since his time we have 
scarcely done more than develope his ideas and doctrines 
in studying the movement of the stars. 
This same concourse of the three great nations of 
modern times is seen also in the foundation of chemical 
science, which in the present day plays so important a 
part, whether it be in the theories relative to atoms and 
the constitution of matter, to the formation of stars and 
of the successive layers of the terrestrial globe, to the 
origin of life itself; or, on the other hand, in the appli¬ 
cations of human industry, dealing with metals, colour¬ 
ing matters, remedies, agriculture and manufactures. 
Towards the end of the eighteenth, and at the com¬ 
mencement of the nineteenth centuries, chemistry was es¬ 
tablished upon a durable basis, after having floated during 
nearly two thousand years amongst mystical, obscure 
and incoherent notions. It was a Frenchman, Lavoisier, 
who fixed these indecisive ideas, by the definitive prin¬ 
ciple of the stability of matter, invariable in the nature 
and weight of its simple bodies. Perhaps, as has been 
asserted, Lavoisier did not discover any particular fact; 
but, according to Aristotle, principles and causes are 
things which are of more scientific importance, for by 
them we arrive at other knowledge. Now Lavoisier 
discovered the fundamental principle of chemistry: the 
science dates from him. 
Is this saying that Lavoisier divined all, per* 
ceived all, traced for all time the plan of chemical 
science ? Not at all; no more than that Newton alone 
founded astronomy. For this the inevitable concourse 
of the three great nations was required. Whilst Lavoisier 
published his immortal researches, the English Priestley 
and Cavendish discovered the principal gases and the 
nature of water,—inventions that were seized immediately 
by Lavoisier to support his theory. The Swedish Scheele 
brought also his precious contingent to the common 
work. Some years afterwards, an Englishman of genius, 
Humphry Davy, completed the edifice by the discovery 
of the alkaline metals, which he obtained by the applica¬ 
tion to chemical decompositions of the pile recently dis¬ 
covered by a great Italian, Yolta. 
Germany equally marked its place in the foundation 
of the new science. It was in the law of numbers that 
its work was principally characterized : Richter, Wen¬ 
zel and the great Berzelius (a Swede) established the 
law of chemical equivalents, that is to say, a law as 
general and as absolute in chemistry as the law of New¬ 
ton in astronomy. It is remarkable that the part of' 
the Germans in this discovery has been principally 
experimental and practical, contrary to the opinion 
generally received of the German genius. On the-, 
contrary, the atomic theory, properly so called, of a 
character more abstract and more litigious, is due to an 
Englishman—Dalton ; whilst its demonstration by the 
physical study of the gase3, has been accomplished by a 
Frenchman, Gay-Lussac. This shows that the geniuses, 
of the European races are not so different as has been 
asserted. Give them a common and equally high culture*, 
and from each will proceed inventions equally original. 
This conjunction of Germany, France and England 
is to be seen in every great epoch in the history of 
modern science. The demonstration could be carried 
down to the present time, proving that neither of thes& 
three nations has degenerated from its past: the doc¬ 
trine of substitutions, the theory of the ethers, that of 
the polyatomic alcohols, dissociation, the idea of organic 
ferments, the methods of synthesis of organic principles, 
have been principally established by French discoveries 
the theory of the radicals and that of the polyatomic- 
elements are rather to be attributed to German dis¬ 
coveries ; whilst the electro-chemical theory and the- 
method of double decompositions have been invented in 
England. Finally, the great doctrine of the equivalence 
of the natural forces, more particularly designated under 
the name of the mechanical theory of heat, was first 
discerned by a German, Mayer, and an Englishman, 
Joule. Developed afterwards by a German mathema¬ 
tician, it has been established in chemistry principally 
by the experiments of French, English and Danish, 
scientific men. But it would not be wise to dilate upon, 
the science of the present day ; we are too near to it, 
and are too much engaged in it for any estimate to escape 
suspicion of partiality. 
In looking back over this short sketch of the progress- 
of the science with which I am best acquainted, I would 
not ignore the part of Italy, which in the past was so 
great (may it resume its importance in the future!), nor 
that of the United States nor of Russia. But, I repeat, 
the initiative of the ideas and discoveries has rested for- 
more than two centuries in the bosom of three nations 
—English, French and German. Their union and their 
reciprocal sympathy is indispensable, under the penalty 
of a general loss to civilization. 
