MUNIFICENCE  OF  M.  ORFILA. 
217 
1st.  To  extract  from  the  most  important  compound  medicines 
all  the  proximate  principles,  or  other  active  substances,  belonging 
to  them.  We  should  not  believe,  because  an  alkaloid,  or  any- 
other  body  possessing  a  certain  degree  of  power,  has  been  obtained 
from  a  drug,  that  science  can  do  no  more  ;  in  fact,  a  substance  ex- 
tracted from  a  compound  medicine  may  account  for  a  certain  por- 
tion of  its  therapeutic  effects,  but  often,  many  other  effects  are  due 
to  ingredients  not  isolated.  It  is  necessary  to  be  quite  certain  in 
this  regard,  that  all  which  relates  to  the  action  of  compound 
medicines  on  the  animal  economy  may  be  completely  understood, 
and  the  part  which  the  different  active  principles  take  in  this  ac- 
tion ascertained.  This  question  will  furnish,  without  doubt,  a 
number  of  subjects  for  prizes. 
2d.  To  determine,  by  experiment,  what  are  the  substances  in  the 
several  kingdoms  which  should  never  be  associated  in  the  same 
formulae,  because  they  decompose  each  other,  with  products  com- 
pletely inert.  To  ascertain,  on  the  contrary,  which  are  the  sub- 
stances, which,  in  combining  and  in  decomposing,  yield  medicines 
gifted  with  a  certain  activity  useful  to  the  physician.  To  indicate 
the  kind  of  changes  that  occur  in  these  various  substances,  nnd  the 
nature  of  the  new  compounds  formed. 
3d.  To  explain  the  best  processes  for  discovering  certain  sophis- 
tications which  have  not  yet  been  the  object  of  serious  study. 
4.  To  decide  what  modifications  certain  drugs,  of  vegetable  and 
animal  origin,  will  undergo  by  continued  exposure  to  heat  and 
light,  and  to  dry  or  moist  air,  etc.,  and  to  say  whether  the  products 
which  result  from  the  alteration  of  these  drugs  will  cause  acci- 
dents, in  case  they  are  employed  in  medical  practice. 
5th.  To  analyze  the  saliva,  the  urine,  and  the  perspiration  in  the 
principle  acute  diseases  called  specific,  so  as  to  be  able  to  state  the 
changes  that  occur  in  those  fluids;  added  to  which,  the  expired 
"  air  should  be  examined. 
6th.  To  search  if,  in  lying-in  women,  the  milk  partially  aban- 
dons the  galactiferous  organs,  and  is  carried  to  other  vessels,  and 
especially  if,  in  the  so-called  milk  diseases,  to  which  women  recently 
confined  are  sometimes  subject,  the  milk  has  been  carried  to  the 
bladder,  into  certain  serous  cavities,  &c. 
7th.  To  submit  the  mineral  waters,  yet  but  little  known,  to  analy- 
sis, and  to  re-study  those  which  enjoy  great  celebrity,  with  the  ob- 
ject of  ascertaining  whether  some  new  active  substances  cannot  be 
