A%Jo°"^if79"m"}  Study  of  Organic  Chemistry  by  Pharmacists,  531 
Before  proceeding  to  our  subject,  let  us  ask  as  a  preliminary  question, 
what  is  organic  chemistry  ?  It  is  the  chemistry  of  carbon  compounds, 
and  all  the  products  of  vegetable  and  animal  life  are  carbon  compounds. 
But  what  are  the  materials  handled  by  the  pharmacist  ?  A  very  little 
reflection  will  tell  us  that  it  is  just  these  products  of  plant  and  animal 
life  that  constitute  five-sixths  of  our  materia  medica,  and  are  the  basis 
of  the  preparations  to  be  made  in  pharmacy.  Obviously,  then,  this  is 
the  branch  of  the  subject  that  we  should  consider,  because  it  embodies 
the  results  of  what  is  known  about  the  very  things  that  the  pharmacist 
must  work  with  daily.  We  would  seem  to  be  saying  only  what  the 
plainest  reason  dictates  when  we  state  that  a  well-educated  pharmacist 
ought  to  have  not  only  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  results  but 
some  knowledge  of  the  theories  of  modern  organic  chemistry. 
Can  he  follow  intelligently  the  directions  of  the  books  for  making 
an  oleate  unless  he  knows  the  difference  between  a  natural  fat  and  a 
fatty  acid?  Should  he  not  know  that  there  is  more  difference  between 
essential  and  fixed  oils  than  simply  the  smell  ?  If  he  proposes 
merely  to  compound  prescriptions  satisfactorily,  must  he  not  be  ac- 
quainted with  the  general  principles  of  classification  of  organic  com- 
pounds, so  as  not  to  be  led  into  grievous  mistakes  ?  What  is  a  com- 
mitting of  lists  of  incompatibles  but  a  crude  attempt  to  master  just  this 
difficulty  ?  If,  however,  he  is  ambitious  to  do  a  little  manufacturing  of 
pharmaceutical  preparations  of  his  own,  for  profit,  is  it  advisable  for  him 
to  risk  both  his  money  and  his  professional  reputation  unless  he  has  a 
very  thorough  acquaintance  with  his  article  and  the  best  conditions  for 
its  manufacture  ? 
We  shall  most  readily  prove  our  point  in  this  case  by  examining 
some  of  the  objections  made  to  the  study  of  modern  organic  chemistry, 
and  seeing  how  far  they  are  tenable  on  general  grounds  and  to  what 
degree  they  apply  in  the  special  case  of  the  pharmacist. 
It  is  said  that  works  on  organic  chemistry  are  filled  with  too  much 
theory  and  speculation — matters  which  practical  men  find  it  difficult 
to  understand  and  in  which  they  take  no  interest.  We  would  say  in 
reply  that  such  is  the  mass  of  material  collected  in  this  domain  of 
organic  chemistry  that  working  theories  are  absolutely  necessary  as 
frame-work  upon  which  to  arrange  the  multitude  of  facts  and  observa- 
tions. Let  any  of  us  take  up  one  of  the  treatises  on  organic  chemis- 
try of,  I  was  going  to  say,  twenty-five  years  ago,  but  I  know  works  on 
