Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
August,  1897.  J 
Resume  of  Recurrent  Topics. 
409 
this  knowledge  begets  a  thirst  for  more.  Chemistry  might  be 
selected  by  choice  and  made  an  auxiliary  to  business,  and  to  busi- 
ness titles,  a  deserved  or  earned  title  being  more  worthy  than  an 
assumed  one.  Once  rescued  from  the  commercial  slough  by  the 
absorption  of  its  numerous  allied  sciences,  pharmacy  ought  to  rise 
again  to  its  true  sphere  and  mission. 
Herbs  and  Simples. — In  the  earlier  days  of  medical  and  domestic 
practice,  when  vegetable  substances  were  chiefly  in  vogue  as  reme- 
dies, there  was  quite  an  original  subdivision  according  to  their  prop- 
erties— suggestive,  sensible  properties.  For  instance,  there  were 
the  so-called  five  great  aperitive  roots — smallage,  or  celery;  fennel, 
parsley,  petty-whin,  and  asparagus — the  title  aperitive  having  the 
same  derivation  as  our  modern  word  aperient,  the  latter  being  con- 
sidered more  in  euphony.  Then  there  were  the  four  lesser  cold 
seeds — succory,  or  chicory ;  lettuce,  purslane,  etc., — and  the  four  les- 
ser hot  seeds — celery,  parsley,  bishop  weed  and  wild  carrots.  Next, 
the  four  greater  cold  seeds,  of  which  the  pumpkin  is  a  type,  and  the 
four  greater  hot  seeds,  and  so  on.  It  will  be  noticed  that  these  dis- 
tinctions were  not  medical  in  any  sense,  but  based  on  the  plainest 
descriptions,  hot  and  cold,  our  present  pungent  carminatives  consti- 
tuting the  former,  and  the  mucilaginous  and  saccharine  the  latter. 
Many  of  these  were  in  established  repute,  and  the  observations  upon 
their  properties  are  so  specific  as  to  convince  us  that  the  effects  were 
based  upon  absolute  demonstration.  With  a  large  class  of  persons 
there  yet  lingers  a  strong  predilection  in  favor  of  vegetable  medi- 
cines. If  we  except  the  tonic  varieties,  their  reasonable  use  can 
never  be  harmful.  Can  we  say  as  much  for  the  minerals?  We 
cannot,  however,  revive  the  faith  that  once  existed,  and  these  sub- 
stances are  now  the  drug-store  stock  of  indefinite  age,  and  often 
indistinguishable. 
Artificial  Peptic  Action  on  Food  Substances. — That  food  may  be 
partially  digested,  or  pre-digested  or  peptonized  by  artificial  pro- 
cess, and  yet  preserve  such  elementary  state  or  condition  as  adapts 
it  to  the  needs  of  the  human  body,  is  an  open  and  debatable  ques- 
tion. If  the  primary  digestion  only  produces  so-called  peptones, 
and  true  peptones  (which  have  never  been  isolated  or  identity  estab- 
lished) are  inseparable  from  the  acting  function  of  the  human  stom- 
ach or  the  animal  chemistry  of  food-conversion,  then  we  are  some- 
what at  sea  without  a  chart,  for  we  cannot  produce  peptones  arti- 
