570 
Albert  Hilger. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I   December,  1905. 
selected  as  successor  to  Professor  Buchner,  of  Munich.  The 
Pharmaceutical  Institute,  like  all  others  in  Germany  at  that  time, 
was  conducted  on  a  very  modest  scale,  being  inadequate  to  the 
needs.  This  condition  was  largely  due  to  the  antagonism  of  the 
chemical  departments.1  Through  the  untiring  energy  of  Hilger, 
the  new  and  elaborately  equipped  Institute  was  built  on  Karlstrasse, 
next  to  the  Bayer  laboratories,  in  1896.  The  new  building,  which 
was  but  two  stories  high,  covered  a  considerable  area,  a  higher  struc- 
ture being  objected  to  by  the  Catholic  Basilica  some  distance  below 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street.  A  better  and  more  completely 
equipped  laboratory  for  scientific  research  is  scarcely  to  be  found. 
As  a  teacher  Professor  Hilger's  energies  were  devoted  chiefly  to  the 
development  of  the  practical  side  of  the  education  of  the  German 
apothecary,  and  as  a  chemist  and  toxicologist,  to  advancing  the 
interests,  scientific  and  civic,  of  food  chemistry.  In  this  latter 
branch,  Professor  Hilger  stands  foremost  among  European  chemists 
as  the  primary  organizer  of  the  Royal  Laboratories  for  the  exami- 
nation of  foodstuffs  and  beverages,  which  embraced  the  Universities 
of  Wuerzburg,  Munich  and  Erlangen.  The  chief  aims  of  these  com- 
missions for  controlling  pure  foods  and  beverages  were  more  in  an 
educational  and  advisory  capacity  to  the  producers  than  as  public 
prosecutors.  This  form  of  organization  for  the  inspection  and  con- 
trol of  foods  has  given  the  greatest  satisfaction  and  thrived  without 
opposition  for  over  twenty-one  years.  Hilger  was  the  organizer  and 
president  of  the  Free  Association  of  German  Food  Chemists,  where 
his  influence  and  energy  were  directed  towards  systematizing 
and  securing  greater  uniformity  in  the  methods  employed  for  the 
examination  of  foods  and  beverages.  In  conj  unction  with  Professor 
Husemann  he  issued  the  valuable  work  entitled  "  Die  Pflanzen- 
stoffe  ; "  further,  he  was  the  editor  of  the  Zeitschrift fuer  Uniersuchung 
1  It  was  considered  sufficient  if  the  pharmacy  candidate  heard  the  regular 
course  of  chemical  lectures.  In  many  of  the  larger  German  universities 
the  lectures  on  general  inorganic  and  organic  chemistry  are  more  especially 
directed  to  the  wants  of  the  medical  students  and  are  therefore  of  little  interest 
to  the  chemist  and  do  not  by  far  take  the  place  of  a  course  in  pharmaceutical 
chemistry.  The  writer,  after  having  heard  such  courses  for  ten  semesters  in 
various  German  universities,  fails  to  see  any  relationship  between  these  lec- 
tures and  medical  or  pharmaceutical  chemistry  as  taught  in  the  United  States, 
or  such  as  were  delivered  by  Professors  Flueckiger,  Hilger,  or  at  present  by 
Professor  Schmidt  of  Marburg. 
