452 
THE PHEFAEATIONS OF CONIUM MACULATUM. 
• 
as it possesses a joint power of furnishing, whether potash salts or products of the destruc¬ 
tive distillation of coal, like aniline and its consequent dyes. In these cases the element 
time no longer appears as a factor in our estimates, and hence we may anticipate that 
the future developments of industrial chemistry will chiefly relate to inorganic mattei’. 
One result of such development must be the introduction of new remedial agents, and 
from this almost untrodden field we may anticipate the discovery of medicines, not in¬ 
ferior to those we now obtain from plants. We owe the discovery of aniline dyes to Mr. 
Perkin’s endeavour to make quinine artificially. He failed in this, but achieved a dis¬ 
covery of greater importance. A guide to any such attempts to improve our Materia 
Medica would be found in the systematic cultivation of the science of Therapeutics, the 
principles of which are yet unknown ; physicians having devoted themselves far more to 
discriminating the indications of disease or diagnosis, than to studying the principles 
upon which remedies act. At the late meeting of the General Medical Council, Dr. 
Acland urged a grant for such experiments, which, however, would not be made from 
the funds at the disposal of the Council. 
And now. Gentlemen, the time at my disposal is exhausted, although it has only 
sufficed to speak of so very few of our common objects, I have not hesitated to quote 
freely from the Eeport of the Jurors from the Chemical Department of the Exhibition 
of 1862, and there are two reasons for such a course, the first, that Professor Hofmann 
has made it an exhaustive summary of the progress of technical chemistry for a decade ; 
the second, that from the mode of its publication it is by no means universally known. 
We ought not to content ourselves without trying to discover the lessons to be learned 
from such a Eeport. One of the most striking, appears to me to be this—that the ma¬ 
jority of the new industrial developments which have come under our notice have been 
made, not by Englishmen, but by the citizens of other countries, having smaller com¬ 
mercial interests, and hence presumably less likely to initiate improvements. 
Is not this the result of our neglect of the natural sciences in the educational systems 
of this country ? Look at the position they hold as proved by a blunder that occurred 
in the ‘Times ’ newspaper of December 13 last. Here is a paragraph giving the names 
of the Natural Sciences Tripos at Cambridge, on December 12; but the term has been 
so strange to the staff of the paper (who would have given a Latin or Greek quotation, 
without- an error), that they gravely head the list— National Sciences Tripos ! The 
country newspapers copied the blunder without detecting its absurdity, and if any ex¬ 
ception to this occurred, it was not here. 
This neglect of science is not the fault of the youth of our country, for they would 
readily embrace the opportunities which they ought to have for studying its principles. 
I will conclude by quoting Professor Lyon Playfair upon this subject. He truly says, 
“ All the aspirations of youth are towards science, especially that depending on observa¬ 
tion, but we quench the God-born flame by freezing drenches of scholastic lore. Is 
this the education for the youth of a nation depending for its country’s progress on their 
development ? How is it possible that dead literature can be the parent of living science 
and of active industry ?” 
The meeting concluded with thanks to the author of the paper. 
OBIGINAL ATiTD EXTHACTED ARTICLES. 
THE PREPAEATIONS OF CONIUM OF THE BRITISH PHAR- 
MACOPCEIA, 1864, AND THE TINCTURE OF CONIUM OF 
THE LONDON PHARMACOPCEIA. 
BY JOHN HARLEY, M.D. LOND., F.L.S., 
ASSISTANT PHYSICIAN TO KINd’s COLLEGE HOSPITAL, AND TO THE LONDON FEVER 
HOSPITAL, ETC. 
(Continuedfrom p. 416.) 
In my former communication upon this subject I stated that the results of 
* Consult ‘ Modern Culture, its True Aims and llequirements.’ Edited by Edward L. 
Youmans, M.D. (Macmillan, 1867.) 
