ANovemLS4?-}       Blunder  in  Medical  Chemistry.  553 
It  is  a  chemical  exemplification  of  the  truth  of  the  old  proverb 
about  one  man  being  able  to  lead  a  horse  to  the  water,  etc.  It 
would  be  extremely  convenient  as  regards  uric  acid  patients  if  lithia 
water  could  be  made  to  act  in  this  way,  but  the  laws  of  chemical 
combination  do  not  admit  of  it.  The  medical  profession,  therefore, 
must  recognize  the  fact,  and  seek  elsewhere  for  a  remedy  or  pallia- 
tive for  their  patients. 
An  analogous  case  occurred  in  the  gas  world,  where  gas  engineers 
strove  for  many  years  to  purify  the  gas  from  bisulphide  of  carbon 
vapor  by  means  of  sulphide  of  calcium  ;  and,  at  the  same  time, 
endeavored  to  make  the  spent  lime  inodorous  by  converting  it  into 
carbonate  before  taking  it  out  of  the  purifier.  Here,  again,  it 
would  have  been  very  convenient  if  carbonate  of  calcium  could 
have  been  induced  to  combine  with  carbon  bisulphide,  but  it  is 
hardjy  necessary  to  remark  that  the  attempt  was  a  failure. 
Although  it  is  a  matter  for  regret  that  the  science  of  therapeutics 
should  be  in  such  an  elementary  stage  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
still  the  physician  is  but  in  the  same  predicament  as  the  chemist 
whose  work  lies  in  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms.  Take,  for 
example,  the  apparently  simple  question  of  water  analysis.  The 
intellect  of  the  civilized  world  for  fifty  years  or  more  has  been 
unable  to  devise  a  process  (physical,  chemical,  microscopical  or 
biological)  which  will  enable  the  operator  to  say  with  certainty: 
"  This  water  is  wholesome."  There  are  several  processes  which  are 
capable  of  detecting  a  bad  water,  but  in  many  cases  this  can  be 
done  by  the  senses  alone,  and  so  recourse  must  be  had  to  indirect 
methods,  such  as  ascertaining  the  mortality  and  sickness  amongst 
the  people  who  use  the  water,  or  examining  the  source  as  to  the 
probabilities  of  pollution.  Little  wonder,  then,  that  medical  science 
is  frequently  baffled  in  the  attempt  to  deal  with  the  complex  prob- 
lems of  human  pathology.  Mineral  analysis  is  but  child's  play 
compared  with  the  study  of  morbid  actions  taking  place  in  closed 
vessels,  suspended  in  another  closed  vessel,  the  walls  of  all  of  them 
being  opaque. 
There  are  a  few  pomegranates  from  California  in  the  market,  but  evidently 
the  growers  of  that  state  have  not  yet  learned  to  raise  this  fruit  successfully, 
as  the  specimens  sent  to  the  eastern  markets  are  quite  inferior  in  appearance 
and  flavor  to  the  imported  ones. 
