268  Life  and  Work  of  Charles  Tanret.  {As^'J^r'l^m- 
enduring  fame  was  the  isolation  of  the  active  principles  of  ergot. 
Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  experiment  required  a  good  deal 
of  money,  he  with  self-denial  investigated  the  nature  of  the  prin- 
ciple and  finally  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  crystalline  alkaloid,  ergo- 
tinine.  Upon  the  completion  of  this  work  on  ergot,  he  undertook 
a  study  of  the  alkaloids  of  pomegranate  bark.  His  success  in  this 
study  was  so  great  that  it  attracted  wide  attention.  He  isolated  four 
alkaloids,  which  he  named  after  the  French  chemist,  Pelletier. 
Furthermore,  it  was  found  that  the  anthelmintic  properties  of  pome- 
granate were  due  to  these  alkaloids  and  the  Academy  of  Sciences 
awarded  him  the  Barbier  prize. 
Tanret  was  much  encouraged  by  the  success  of  his  work  and 
feeling  that  if  he  were  in  a  larger  city,  where. the  libraries  were  more 
comprehensive  and  the  opportunities  for  scientific  research  greater, 
he  might  accomplish  more,  he  therefore  gave  up  his  store  at  Troyes 
and  moved  to  Paris.  He  rented  a  room  on  la  Rue  Denfert- 
Rochereau  street,  spending  his  mornings  in  investigations  and  the 
rest  of  the  day  in  the  laboratory  of  Berthelot  at  the  College  de 
France.  These  were  among  his  happiest  days.  His  associates  were 
among  the  master  minds  of  France.  He  was  perfecting  himself  in 
analytical  methods  and  acquiring  a  technique  which  made  him  one 
of  the  most  exacting  of  investigators.  It  was  while  living  under 
these  simple  conditions  that  he  finished  his  work  on  the  study  of 
ergot  and  granatum.  It  was  here  also,  in  collaboration  with  Villier 
that  he  published  a  paper  on  the  inosite  of  the  leaves  of  the  walnut. 
In  1880  he  acquired  a  little  drug  store  at  the  corner  of  the  Rue 
de  Seze  and  the  Boulevard  de  la  Madeleine.  Here  his  success  as 
an  apothecary  was  almost  immediate  and  one  might  almost  think  that 
as  he  had  tasted  enough  of  the  dregs  of  poverty,  he  might  give  up 
his  researches.  Not  so  Tanret.  He  fitted  up  a  little  room  in  the 
cellar  in  which  he  could  steal  away  from  his  clientele  and  continue 
his  scientific  investigations.  Indeed  Tanret's  personality  was  such 
that  his  customers  looked  up  to  him  as  a  distinguished  savant  and 
hesitated  to  intrude  upon  him  unnecessarily.  While  occupying  this 
store  he  published  important  papers  on  the  active  principles  in  con- 
vallaria  and  vinca,  double  salts  of  caffeine,  extract  of  cinchona,  ter- 
pinol,  alkaloids  produced  by  the  action  of  ammonia  on  glucose,  etc. 
Tanret  published  36  papers  from  the  time  of  graduation  from  the 
College  de  France  to  1886  and  these  were  assembled  in  a  special 
pamphlet  which  he  published  and  distributed  among  his  friends. 
