228 
ON MEDICINE AND PHARMACY IN TURKEY. 
grouped in stars. Chlorine appears to combine equally well with 
aloine ; but the chlorinated bodies are deprived of the power of 
crystallizing. 
It has been long known in medicine that the aqueous extract of 
aloes is by far the most active part of the purgative ; a fact easily 
accounted foi, when we consider that aloine, the real active prin- 
ciple of aloes, is soluble in cold water. 
M. Stenhouse finishes his treatise, by suggesting that other 
species of aloes contain aloine, and that the crystallization of this 
principle is alone prevented by the extractive matters associated 
with it, and which oxidise easily in contact with the air during 
the evaporation of the extract. — Journal de Pharmacie,from Arm. 
der Chem. und Pharm. lxxviii. 
MEDICINE AND PHARMACY IN TURKEY. 
By M. Landerer, Athens. 
In all the large towns of the Ottoman empire, especially at 
Constantinople, Smyrna, Thessalonica, and Prussa, there are very 
distinguished physicians. These practitioners are chiefly Greeks, 
Germans, Italians, and French, who, having studied abroad, have 
come to follow their profession in the East, where, twelve or fif- 
teen years ago, the want of qualified physicians was much felt. It 
may be safely stated, without depreciating other medical men, that 
German doctors and those who have studied in Germany, enjoy 
throughout the East the greatest reputation, and obtain a prefer- 
ence over all others. In the provinces and in the army, physi- 
cians of scientific education are rarely found, and the practice is 
confined to empirics, who have previously been Pharmaciens. 
Many of them have originally been employed by scientific physi- 
cians, and have become suddenly hekins (the name of Turkish 
physicians.) Although most of them do more harm than good, 
yet there are some who, in the course of years, have acquired 
practical knowledge, and perform real service to sufferers. These 
hekins are also Pharmaciens, and furnish the medicines themselves 
