ASgusri9'2'S: }      Pharmaceutical  Events  in  1870.  571 
RKDTENBACHER. 
Joseph  Redtenbacher  was  born  in  18 10  at  Kirchdorf,  Austria. 
He  advanced  to  professor  of  chemistry  and  attained  fame 
through  his  work  on  glycerin  and  the  preparation  of  oenanthyhc  or 
heptical  acid,  CeHnCOOH,  by  the  oxidation  of  oleic  acid  with  nitric 
acid.    Redtenbacher  died  in  1870. 
BLASIUS. 
Johann  Heinrich  Blasius  was  born,  October  8,  1908,  in  Ecker- 
bach,  near  Cologne.  After  being  a  school  teacher  in  Krefeld  he  be- 
came, in  1836,  Professor  of  Natural  Sciences  at  the  Carolina  Uni- 
versity, Braunschweig.  Here  he  was  also  director  of  the  Botanic 
Gardens  and  the  Museum  of  Natural  History.  He  died  May  27,. 
1870. 
MAGNUS. 
Henrich  Gustav  Magnus,  celebrated  chemist  and  physicist,, 
born  in  Berlin,  May  2,  1802,  studied  in  his  home  city  and  Paris  and 
also  under  Berzelius  in  Stockholm.  In  1831  he  became  teacher,  in 
1834  extraordinary  professor,  and  in  1845  professor  of  physics  and 
technology  at  the  University  of  Berlin.  In  1869  he  retired  and  died 
April  5,  1870. 
Magnus  enriched  Physics  and  Chemistry  with  many  important 
researches.  He  determined  the  coefficient  of  expansion  of  several 
gases,  the  tension  of  vapors,  the  density  of  ice  at  different  tempera- 
tures. His  papers  dealing  with  electricity,  magnetism  and  hy- 
draulics are  published  mostly  in  Poggendorff's  Annalen. 
Although  not  pharmacists  or  chemists,  the  following  four  mem- 
bers of  the  medical  profession  deserve  to  be  remembered  here. 
SYME. 
James  Syme  (i 799-1 870)  of  Edinburg,  was  a  cousin  of  the  cele- 
brated Dr.  Robert  Liston.  He  succeeded  the  latter  in  his  very 
large  Scotch  practice  as  well  as  his  professorship.  In  clinical  sur- 
gery his  name  continues  to  live  by  the  amputation  of  the  ankle- 
joint,  known  as  Syme's  Amputation.  With  Simpson  and  Pirogoff 
he  was  the  first  European  surgeon  to  adopt,  in  1847,  ether  anesthesia. 
In  1868  he  was  also  the  first  to  welcome  the  antiseptic  method  of 
his  best  and  greatest  pupil  and  his  son-in-law,  Lord  Lister. 
