192 
EDITORIAL. 
of  the  Seventh  Prussian  Pharmacopoeia,  and  of  the  recently  completed 
Pharmacopoea  Germanica. 
Dr.  Otto  Carl  Berg  died  on  the  20th  of  November,  1866.  By  his  death 
one  of  the  largest  Universities  in  the  world  lost  one  of  its  most  prominent 
teachers,  and  Science  one  of  her  most  zealous  and  devoted  scholars,  who, 
by  faithful  and  unceasing  labor  among  discouraging  circumstances,  became 
a  lasting  ornament  to  science,  and  to  the  profession  of  pharmacy  in  par- 
ticular. 
.  Ed.  Francois  Fremy,  a  venerable  French  Pharmacien,  died  at  Versail- 
les, on  the  lQth  of  November,  at  the  age  of  93  years,  in  the  full  possession 
of  his  mental  faculties.  He  was  born  at  Auxerre  on  the  20th  of  Sept., 
1774,  entered  the  republican  army  in  1792,  and  in  1797  returned  to  Paris, 
where  finding  M.  Courtois,  (who  afterwards  discovered  Iodine,)  a  pupil  of 
his  father,  engaged  as  preparateur  in  the  laboratory  of  M.  Fourcroy  at  the 
Ecole  Polytechnique,  he  was  invited  to  join  him,  and  for  two  years  M.  Fre- 
my remained  in  that  service,  where  he  gained  the  friendship  of  Fourcroy 
and  Thenard.  Soon  after,  he  entered  the  laboratory  of  Seguin,  a  chemist 
who  had  acquired  much  wealth  by  conducting  the  tanneries  for  the  sup- 
ply of  leather  to  the  army  in  the  early  days  of  the  Republic,  and  who  be- 
ing ambitious  to  acquire  a  scientific  reputation,  established  a  large  labora- 
tory at  Jouy,  and  Courtois  and  Fremy.  were  admitted.  These  two  friends 
passed  four  years  in  this  laboratory,  and  it  was  during  this  time,  and 
under  the  immediate  labors  of  Courtois,  that  the  investigations  on  opium, 
which  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  the  substance  now  known  as  morphia, 
were  made,  and  the  memoir  containing  all  the  investigations  of  Courtois 
was  read  by  Seguin  before  the  Institute  on  the  24th  of  Dec,  1804,  and 
subsequently  printed  under  his  name  in  the  Annates  de  Chimie.  When 
afterwards  Sertuerner  discovered  the  true  nature  of  and  gave  the  name  to 
morphia,  Vanquelin  sought  to  reclaim  for  Seguin  the  priority  of  the  dis- 
covery, After  three  years  here  he  commenced  lecturing  gratuitously  on 
chemistry  to  the  junior  students  and  to  physicians,  some  of  whom,  to 
testify  their  sense  of  his  disinterested  kindness,  offered  to  purchase  a 
Pharmaceutical  shop  for  him  at  Versailles,  which,  by  the  advice  of  Thenard, 
he  accepted,  the  latter  aiding  him  with  funds.  This  Pharmacy  became 
afterwards  the  most  celebrated  in  Versailles.  We  have  not  space  to  fol- 
low the  subsequent  career  of  M.  Fremy,  but  will  merely  state  that  in  1811 
he  was  appointed  by  Napoleon  to  the  Military  School  at  St.  Cyr.  He  con- 
ducted a  private  analytical  laboratory,  was  much  engaged  in  medico-legal 
and  agricultural  chemistry  ;  in  1834  he  was  made  Chevalier  of  the  Legion 
of  Honor  and  became  an  officer  in  1859.  M.  Fremy  has  left  two  sons, 
both  of  whom  are  well  known  in  science.  The  city  authorities  of  Versail- 
les testified  their  appreciation  of  his  worth  and  standing  by  tendering  him 
funeral  honors. 
