Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June.  1S00. 
William  Procter,  Jr. 
261 
Three  years  previous,  S.  Calhoun,  M.D.,  Professor  of  Materia 
Medica  in  Jefferson  Medical  College/Philadelphia,  published  in  the 
American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  Vol.  V,  the  investigation  of  an 
acidified  extract  from  lobelia,  which  foreshadowed  the  presence  of  an 
alkaloid,  but  did  not  succeed  in  isolating  the  principle.  Professor 
Procter  was  aware  of  Dr.  Calhoun's  investigation,  and  refers  to  it  in 
his  supplementary  paper,  published  in  1841 — a  "casual  omission,"  as 
he  states,  in  not  having  done  so  in  his  thesis.  In  November,  1850, 
Mr.  William  Bastick  read  a  paper  before  the  Pharmaceutical  Society 
of  Great  Britain  on  "  Lobelia  Inflata."  He  refers  to  Dr.  Calhoun's 
paper,  but  evidently  was  not  aware  of  Professor  Procter's  researches 
in  1837  and  1841.  Mr.  Bastick  isolated  the  alkaloid  and  describes 
it,  and  his  name  is  associated  in  the  books  with  its  discovery.  In 
January,  185 1,  Professor  Procter  writes  to  the  editor  of  the  Pharma- 
ceutical Journal,  London,  as  follows :  "  For  some  reason,  these  (my) 
essays  appear  to  have  been  entirely  overlooked  by  the  press  and 
writers  on  your  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  now  that  the  drug  is 
attracting  the  attention  of  your  medical  men,  its  chemical  rela- 
tions are  exciting  the  curiosity  of  your  pharmaceutists.  I  should 
not  have  taken  the  trouble  to  bring  their  existence  to  your  notice, 
had  I  not  observed  the  .paper  of  Mr.  Bastick  in  your  journal  for 
December,  in  which  he  states  his  ignorance  of  any  previous 
researches  having  the  same  tendency  as  his  own." 
The  Pharmaceutical  Journal  then  published  Professor  Procter's 
essay,  placing  him  thirteen  years  in  advance  of  Mr.  Bastick  as  the 
discoverer  of  lobelina. 
In  the  same  year  with  the  publication  of  his  thesis,  we  have 
"  Remarks  on  an  Oil  Obtained  by  Distillation  from  Wild  Cherry 
Bark,  and  Evidences  of  Its  Similarity  to  Oil  of  Bitter  Almonds." 
In  1838,  a  paper  "  Demonstrating  the  Existence  of  Amygdalin  in 
Several  Species  of  the  Genera  Prunus  and  Amygdalus." 
In  1839,  "Observations  on  Dextrin  and  Diastase,"  and  "On 
Lobelia  Cardinalis,"  showing  the  presence  in  that  plant  of  an  alka- 
loid differing  in  some  respects  from  the  alkaloid  found  in  Lobelia 
inflata. 
In  1840,  a  paper  "On  the  Power  of  Saccharine  Substances  in 
Protecting  from  Decomposition  Solution  of  Protiodide  of  Iron." 
In  1 841,  an  essay  "Supplementing  his  Thesis  on  Lobelia  Inflata, 
and  Showing  that  the  Alkaloid  Therein  Described  Represents  the 
Plant  in  Medicinal  Qualities." 
