Am.  Jour.  Ptaarm.  > 
November,  1902.  / 
The  Writing  of  a  Thesis. 
531 
development  of  pharmacy.  Let  it  contain  at  least  one  new  fact, 
and,  if  possible,  several. 
In  writing  a  thesis,  the  first  thing  is  to  have  your  facts  well  estab- 
lished by  experiment,  the  work  producing  the  same  having  been 
mapped  out  for  you  or  by  you  in  advance.  This  is,  of  course, 
primarily,  the  principal  work  and  value  of  the  thesis,  and  for  most 
students  this  work  must  be  mapped  out  by  their  teachers.  There 
are  plenty  of  facts  to  be  established  and  plenty  of  work  to  do,  for 
you  can  take  up  almost  any  drug  used  to-day  and  find  several  chap- 
ters in  its  history  concerning  which  we  are  totally  in  the  dark. 
Thus,  take  so  simple  a  drug  as  aloes.  We  know  it  contains  aloin, 
but  we  do  not  know  what  aloin  is,  and  we  have  no  positive  data  as 
to  the  amount  of  aloin  the  various  varieties  of  aloes  contain,  nor 
the  difference  between  their  respective  aloins.  We  know  it  contains 
about  13  per  cent,  of  resin,  10  per  cent,  of  water  and  63  per  cent, 
of  water-soluble  substances,  but  we  do  not  know  what  the  latter 
are.  We  know  that  the  resin  of  Barbadoes  or  Curacoa  Aloes  is 
Aloresinotannol  cinnamate,  but  we  do  not  know  if  it  is  as  efficient 
as  aloin,  and  we  should  know  it,  for  we  discard  it  in  the  manufacture 
of  aloin.  Here  in  Aloes  alone,  we  see  at  least  four  fruitful  subjects 
for  theses.  Take  Belladonna,  Stramonium,  Scopola  and  Hyoscya- 
mus.  We  know  they  contain  several  alkaloids,  and  in  assaying 
them  we  always  determine  the  total  alkaloids  they  contain.  A  beau- 
tiful and  valuable  thesis  would  be  to  isolate  from  several  samples  of 
each  their  alkaloids,  and  determine  just  which  are  contained  in  each 
drug  and  their  relative  amounts.  This  can  be  done  quite  readily, 
and  I  should  like  to  see  one  of  my  hearers  undertake  it.  Again, 
take  Capsicum,  commonly  known  to  students  as  "hot  stuff;"  we 
know  little  about  it  save  that  it  is  hot  and  that  it  contains  an  oleo- 
resin,  but  we  know  that  this  is  not  a  pure  substance  but  a  mixture. 
A  crystalline  substance  called  Capsaicin  has  been  obtained,  and  it  is 
claimed  to  be  the  burning  principle  ;  but  we  don't  know  how  much 
it  contains,  and  to  what  extent  it  is  contained  in  the  different  kinds 
of  capsicum  on  the  market.  And,  so  on,  I  might  mention  dozens 
and  dozens  of  fruitful  topics  for  theses,  and  theses  that  would  reflect 
credit  upon  their  writers.  In  writing  your  thesis,  it  is  desirable  to 
begin  by  giving  a  careful  and  exhaustive  resume  of  all  work  that 
has  previously  been  done  upon  your  subject,  giving  names  and  refer- 
ences to  the  literature.    In  order  to  do  this  you  must  be  familiar 
