430    MANUFACTURE,  IMPURITIES  AND  TESTS  OP  CHLOROFORM. 
solid  tribromide  gives  a  glyceric  compound  by  reacting  upon 
acetate  of  silver,  this  must  be  attributed  to  a  molecular  alteration 
taking  place  at  the  moment  of  the  reaction  Comptes  Hendus, 
Aprfl,  1857,  and  Chemical  Cfazette,  June,  1857. 
THE  MANUFACTURE,  IMPURITIES,  AND  TESTS  OF 
CHLOROFORM. 
By  Edward  R.  Squibb,  M.  D.,  U.  S.  Navy. 
Assistant  Director  U.  S.  Naval  Laboratory,  New  York. 
The  importance  of  an  outline  knowledge  of  the  manufacture? 
properties,  and  tests  of  medicinal  preparations,  is  probably  not 
fully  appreciated  by  the  medical  profession  at  large,  and  thus 
the  chemistry  and  pharmacy  of  the  art  of  medicine  are  gradually, 
but  certainly,  lost  sight  of  in  the  rapid  progress  of  the  science. 
If  it  be  true,  that  the  aim  and  object  of  medical  progression 
is  to  improve  the  art  of  medicine  in  its  application,  then  the 
practice  of  chemistry  and  pharmacy  is  as  important  in  its  bear- 
ing upon  that  progress  as  any  other  element.  As  physiology 
and  pathology  afford  the  light  by  which  alone  the  indications 
and  operations  of  vitality  are  seen  and  understood,  so  chemistry 
and  pharmacy  furnish  the  means  by  which  these  operations  are 
modified  or  controlled.  If  scientific  research  and  development 
be  necessary  to  the  successful  practice  of  an  art,  the  use  of  ap- 
propriate materials  and  tools  is  equally  so.  Hence  it  is  argued 
that  no  scientific  research  can  actively  advance  the  practice  of 
legitimate  medicine  if  it  does  not  embrace  and  scrutinize  the 
materials  and  means  by  which  the  results  are  sought  to  be 
obtained. 
As  the  demand  for  medicinal  substances  increases,  the  pre- 
paration of  them  is  transferred  by  the  physician  to  the  dispen- 
sing pharmaceutist,  and  then  by  the  latter  to  the  manufacturer 
of  chemicals  on  the  large  scale.  These  substances  then  take 
their  places  in  the  common  market  as  articles  of  commerce,  and 
are  bought  and  sold  with  as  little  relation  to  their  ultimate 
effects  as  other  merchandise,  while  their  character  and  quality 
are  far  less  easily  judged  of  or  ascertained.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances these  substances  now-a-days?  deserve  much  more 
