530     Study  of  Organic  Chemistry  by  Pharmacists.  {AmkJo°vU,ri8>79arm' 
these  analytical  methods  nearer  to  perfection,  and  chemistry  might  have 
remained  an  empirical  science. 
There  was,  however,  another  branch  of  the  subject  that,  undevel- 
oped as  yet,  required  different  methods  before  its  study  could  be  made 
to  yield  any  adequate  reward.  The  application  of  the  simple  analyti- 
cal methods  to  vegetable  and  animal  substances  tells  us  little  of  their 
real  character.  We  find  carbon  and  hydrogen  together  with  oxygen, 
and  perhaps  nitrogen,  and  that  is  all.  Two  substances  utterly  unlike 
in  physical  and  physiological  characters  may  show  on  analysis  exactly 
the  same  percentage  composition,  and  we  have  no  clue  as  to  what  con- 
stitutes the  difference.     Other  methods  have  obviously  to  be  used. 
If,  instead  of  determining  the  elemental  composition  of  an  organic 
compound,  we  endeavor  to  decompose  it  gradually  by  the  application 
of  different  reagents,  or  in  other  words,  to  effect  its  proximate  analysis, 
we  get  results  of  far  greater  value.  Differences  which  may  serve  as  a 
basis  of  classification  soon  show  themselves,  and  hydrocarbons,  alcohols 
and  acids  range  themselves  in  groups  as  the  result  of  such  treatment. 
But  there  is  yet  another  and  perhaps  a  greater  possibility  in  the  case  of  or- 
ganic compounds.  If  we  can  take  them  apart  gradually,  by  piece  meal 
as  it  were,  can  we  not  build  them  up  step  by  step  ?  This  process,  called 
synthesis,  as  distinguished  from  analysis,  has  been  applied  to  organic 
chemistry  with  the  most  brilliant  results,  both  for  the  science  and  for 
the  world. 
We  have  now  reached  the  third  stage  in  the  study  of  our  science. 
So  soon  as  we  gain  an  insight  into  the  character  of  an  organic  body, 
from  the  application  to  it  of  the  methods  of  proximate  analysis,  we 
may  predict  what  may  be  done  with  it  by  the  aid  of  synthesis;  what 
alterations  in  its  structure  may  be  made  by  the  action  of  other  bodies 
upon  it ;  what  complex  substances  may  be  built  up  with  the  aid  of  it. 
We  open  up,  it  will  be  seen,  a  vast  field  of  possibilities,  many  of  them 
fraught  with  the  most  valuable  and  far-reaching  results.  The  chemistry 
of  to-day  is  no  longer  an  empirical  science,  but  we  are  able  to  reason 
from  its  general  laws,  and  to  predict  what  will  be  the  result  under  a 
given  set  of  circumstances. 
I  propose,  this  evening,  to  take  this  latest  and  most  highly  developed 
branch  of  the  science,  organic  chemistry,  and  ask  whether  it  is  of 
value  to  pharmacists  to  study  its  theories  and  methods  of  classification, 
and  whether  it  has  a  practical  side  for  us. 
