Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
October,  1899.  / 
Robert  Bunsen. 
461 
1844,  his  studies  of  the  arc  light,  obtained  with  different  metals  vola- 
tilized at  the  electrodes,  viewing  these  colored  flames  with  a  prism 
and  noting  the  characteristic  bright  lines  obtained.  This  was  devel- 
oped more  fully  by  him  in  1 859,  when,  in  association  with  Kirchhoff, 
he  announced  the  principles  of  spectrum  analysis  and  invented  the 
spectroscope.  Meanwhile  he  carried  out  prolonged  studies  on  the 
electrolytic  production  of  the  alkali  and  alkaline  earth  metals,  ob- 
taining some  of  them  for  the  first  time  in  a  state  of  purity.  In  1861 
he  announced  the  discovery  of  the  metals  caesium  and  rubidium  as 
a  result  of  the  application  of  spectroscopic  methods  of  analysis. 
One  of  the  special  benefits  conferred  upon  a  chemical  world  by  this 
great  master  was  the  invention  of  convenient  forms  of  laboratory 
apparatus.  We  need  only  mention  the  Bunsen  burner,  the  Bunsen 
battery  cell,  the  Bunsen  filter  pump  for  rapid  filtration,  the  spectro- 
scope, and  apparatus  for  gas  analysis. 
In  person,  Bunsen  was  tall  and  of  a  swarthy  complexion.  He 
had  lost  the  use  of  one  eye  by  an  explosion  in  connection  with  his 
cacodyl  research.  Bunsen  was  never  married.  When  a  young  pro- 
fessor at  Marburg  he  had  joined  with  a  young  English  chemist, 
Lyon  Playfair  (afterwards  Lord  Playfair),  in  making  an  elaborate 
study  of  the  blast  furnace  process,  and  for  this  purpose  the  two 
young  chemists  spent  some  months  in  Scotland,  living  in  the  house 
of  a  wealthy  ironmaster.  Both  were  smitten  with  the  daughter  of 
their  host,  but  she  became  Mrs.  Playfair,  so  Bunsen  went  back  to 
Germany  single,  and  so  he  remained  to  the  end.  But  he  became 
the  centre  of  a  circle  of  devoted  friends  at  Heidelberg,  and  so  re- 
mained during  more  than  a  generation  of  active,  fruitful  life, 
S.  P.  S. 
Aspirin,  or  AcBTyi^-Saijcylic  Acid. — Wohlgemuth  (  Therap.  Monatshefte, 
May,  1899)  has  tested  some  of  the  compounds  of  salicylic  acid.  By  the  action  of 
anhydrous  acetic  acid  on  salicylic  acid  he  obtained  white  crystals  of  acetyl- 
salicylic  acid,  readily  soluble  in  alcohol  or  ether,  and  to  the  extent  of  1  per 
cent,  in  lukewarm  water.  The  drug  does  not  decompose  in  the  stomach  until 
it  has  been  there  two  or  three  hours,  so  that  it  is,  to  a  great  extent,  passed  into 
the  intestine  unchanged,  and  does  not  irritate  the  gastric  mucous  membrane, 
as  does  salicylate  of  soda,  which  is  decomposed  almost  as  soon  as  it  enters  the 
stomach.  The  alcoholic  solution  of  the  new  compound,  aspirin,  having  such 
a  bad  taste,  the  drug  was  usually  given  in  capsules.  Its  therapeutic  effects  are 
identical  with  those  of  salicylic  acid,  except  that  disagreeable  gastric  symp- 
toms are  almost  entirely  done  away  with. — Abstract  in  Medical  JVews,  August 
12,  1899. 
