Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
December,  1904.  j 
Pharmacy  and  Chemistry. 
565 
systematic  arrangement  of  the  objects  displayed.  But  there  are 
many  articles  that  do  not  lend  themselves  to  this  mode  of  display  ; 
the  so-called  systematic  in  practice  often  proves  a  failure.  So  we 
need  not  be  surprised  that  many  features  had  an  unrivalled  success ; 
others  had  all  the  ginger  taken  out  of  them  by  the  attempted  sys- 
tematic arrangement,  due  to  an  overdoing  of  the  otherwise  excellent 
idea.  It  is  especially  in  the  exhibit  of  chemicals  that  this  systematic 
arrangement  was  applied  to  an  excess.  Chemicals  are  used  in  many 
forms,  in  many  industries  and  for  many  purposes.  Can  we  wonder 
that  chemists  did  not  care  to  linger  at  their  display  of  chemicals? 
Will  a  modern  specialist  hunt  up  what  may  be  interesting  to  him 
from  out  of  thousands  of  compounds  shown  ?  Experience  is  our 
guide ;  chemists  did  not  stay  and  study  the  chemical  display  hours 
at  a  time,  but  simply  glanced  here  and  there  and  passed  on. 
Theorie  und  Praxis  are  very  often  found  not  to  go  together  very 
well.  The  wonderful  products  of  German  thought  and  skill  are 
often  found  to  be  in  very  queer  company  ;  a  highly  important  chemi- 
cal of  recent  date  is  often  associated  with  a  purely  technical  article 
Americans  make  on  a  large  scale.  Do  we  not  lose  the  idea  of  im- 
portance of  a  discovery  or,  vice  versa,  of  the  technical  article  by 
this  association  ?  Surely  what  Germany  produces  by  the  millions 
of  pounds  annually  will  appeal  more  strongly  to  some  chemists  than 
that  which  was  only  made  once  and  that  sample  now  before  you. 
Indeed,  when  you  come  right  down  to  the  first  principles  o~  inor- 
ganic chemistry,  is  not  a  study  of  metals,  bodies  having  many  points 
in  common,  but  differing  by  slight  variations  in  malleability,  lustre, 
color,  ease  of  production  from  ores,  insolubility,  etc.,  more  easily 
studied  and  learnt  than  when  these  same  metals  are  thrust  upon  you 
unassociated  with  their  kind  ?  Is  it  not  the  acid  radical  that  gives 
a  salt  its  true  chemical  character,  which  is  modified  gradually  step 
by  step  as  we  have  another  metal  in  combination  therewith  ?  What 
would  one  think  of  a  man  that,  treating  of  a  hydrocarbon  in  organic 
chemistry,  follows  this  with  all  the  derivatives,  ethers,  etc.,  in  which 
that  same  radical  may  enter  ?  The  latter  may  do  for  a  dictionary, 
but  hardly  for  an  Unterrichts  Ausstellung. 
In  spite  of  the  heterogeneous  nature  of  the  German  systema- 
tists'  attempt,  here  and  there  an  article  may  be  found  that  is  import- 
ant medicinally  or  shown  to  us  under  a  new  garb  of  purity  and 
strength.    We  detected  a  number  of  colloidal  metals,  such  as  col- 
