AjaSa?yPih9oom-}     Contamination  of  Drinking  Water.  25 
of  manifest  advantage  to  both  pharmacy  and  chemistry.  To  chem- 
istry because  it  marks  in  each  case,  as  a  fact  established,  a  milestone 
for  the  guidance  of  subsequent  workers,  and  chronicles  the  existence 
of  another  truth;  to  pharmacy,  because  its  advent  means  another 
step  toward  possibly  improved  medicaments,  not  to  mention  possibly 
greatly  cheapened  drugs.  When  morphine,  for  instance,  shall  be 
constitutionally  known,  its  synthesis  from  phenanthrene  is  within 
the  range  of  probability,  and  with  this  comes  the  ultimate  reduction 
of  its  price  to  that  of  quinine,  or,  perhaps,  less.  To  pharmacology 
it  means  a  step  in  case  of  each  alkaloid  toward  the  attainment  of 
ideal  medication,  i.  e.,  medication  with  one  specific  effect  and  not 
with  accompanying  side  effects.  Just  as  these  side  chains  affect 
chemical  properties  so  they  undoubtedly  affect  physiological  proper- 
ties, and  if  morphine,  for  instance,  is  a  narcotic  and  an  anesthetic, 
and,  perhaps,  has  certain  deleterious  influences  on  the  brain  centres, 
the  lining  of  the  stomach,  kidneys,  etc.,  that  we  may  call  bad  side 
effects,  and  that  are  unfavorable  to  the  use  of  the  drug,  there  is  a 
possibility  opened  to  view  of  so  removing  some  of  these  chains  or 
groups  and  adding  others  as  to  make  of  morphine  an  anesthetic 
without  any  narcotic  effects  or  without  those  brain  and  stomach 
effects  that  now  render  it  the  curse  of  many  a  family.  That  this  is 
possible,  nay,  more,  that  it  will  be  the  natural  development  of  medi- 
cine and  pharmacology  in  the  next  century,  I  am  prepared  to  posi- 
tively assert.  It  will  come  as  sure  as  the  sun  rises  in  the  east  and 
sets  in  the  west,  for  the  whole  trend  of  advanced  medical  thought  is 
in  that  direction,  and  when  it  does  come  it  will  come  as  the  result  of 
just  such  study  as  I  have  been  endeavoring,  I  hope  with  some  meas- 
ure of  success,  to  lay  before  you  this  evening. 
A"LGM  AS  A  CAUSE  OF  THE  CONTAMINATION  OF 
DRINKING  WATER. 
By  G.  T.  Moore. 
The  widespread  interest  which  has  been  aroused  throughout  the 
country  within  the  last  ten  years  with  regard  to  the  securing  of 
sanitary  water  supplies  is  evidence  of  the  importance  of  the  prob- 
lem, and  no  effort  is  now  considered  too  great  or  too  costly  that 
will  insure  to  the  public  a  constantly  pure  and  wholesome  flow  of 
this  most  necessary  article. 
