42 
W. L. WEST. 
of this country is on trial at this time in the meat inspection ser¬ 
vice to a greater extent than in any other line of its work, and 
any one who unnecessarily, and without cause or reason casts 
reproach upon this inspection, which is being put entirely into 
the hands of veterinarians, is doing more to wrong and injure 
the profession than are the people at whom were aimed the bit¬ 
ter words that have just been quoted. 
GOAL TAR AND SOME OF ITS MEDICINAL PRODUCTS. 
By W. L. West, Sr. 
A paper read before the Veterinary Medical Society, Ontario Veterinary College, 
Toronto, Can. 
Mr. President and Fellow Students: —To write a 
complete description of coal tar and its products would require 
the outlay of considerable time, and a large volume would re¬ 
sult; my purpose this evening is but to bring to your notice a 
few of its compounds which I have thought most useful to us as 
veterinarians. 
When coal tar is subjected to destructive or dry distillation, 
besides illuminating gas and coke, there are formed numerous 
other substances, varying in amount and character according to 
the quality of the coal, and the manner of its decomposition. 
These substances are volatile, boiling at varying temperatures, 
and originally condensed into a thick black liquid, the familiar 
coal tar. Formerly this was a waste product, and a source of 
considerable loss and trouble to the gas manufacturer. It is 
now, through the discoveries of chemists, a most valuable bye- 
product, and a source of an infinite series of compounds of in¬ 
terest in the arts, science and medicine. 
Among the latter, which are especially applicable in veter¬ 
inary practice, and which I have to mention, are naphthalene, 
methyl-napthalene, diplinec retene, which are solids. Benzine, 
toluene, mesitylene are liquids, while among the acid compounds 
