158  '  Editorial  {'^'"ftil^r"^88^™• 
EDITORIAL  DEPARTMENT. 
Pharmacy  in  the  French  Academies. — It  is  well  known  that  phar- 
macists have  largelj^  contributed  to  the  progress  of  science,  and  that  in  this 
respect  France  stands  second  to  no  other  country.  Many  of  these  eminent 
men  were  elected  to  membership  in  the  French  academies,  a  compliment 
well  deserved  by  their  scientific  researches  and  attainments.  The  following 
brief  account  of  these  academies,  giving  also  the  names  of  the  pharmacists 
who  have  been  members  thereof,  is  copied  from  the  "  Pharm.  Journal  and 
Transactions,"  of  January  13tli : 
"A  visitor  to  the  new  School  of  Pharmacy  in  Paris  will  readily  perceive 
that  French  pliarmacists  are  by  no  means  disposed  to  forget  the  past  history 
of  their  art.  Good  reason  have  they  indeed  to  be  proud  of  the  parts  played 
in  the  world  of  science  by  their  i^redecessors,  and  M.  Lefort  needs  no  justi- 
fication for  taking  the  opportunity  afforded  by  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Paris 
Pharmaceutical  Society  to  call  attention  specially  to  the  extent  to  which 
pharmacy  has  been  represented  in  the  scientific  academies  of  France. 
"  The  first  Academy  of  Sciences  in  France  was  founded  in  the  year  1666,  by 
Louis  XIV.,  at  the  instigation  of  his  famous  finance  minister,  Colbert.  It 
was  intended  to  be  devoted  to  practical  science  rather  than  to  the  reading 
of  papers,  and  with  this  object  laboratories  were  maintained  at  the  royal 
expense  at  the  i^lace  of  meeting,  in  which  experiments  and  observations 
were  made  and  the  results  obtained  were  discussed  hy  the  members  in  com- 
mon. Animal  and  vegetable  j^roducts,  minerals,  and  especially  mineral 
waters,  were  submitted  to  such  analysis  as  was  then  possible,  and  it  was 
only  natural  that  after  a  few  years  pharmacists  should  be  called  to  take  part 
in  the  work.  The  first  i^harmacist  admitted  into  the  Academy  of  Sciences, 
in  1686,  was  Moses  Charras,  the  author  of  a  '  Pharmacopee  galenique  et 
chimique,'  and  next,  in  1699,  came  Nicolas  Lemery,  the  author  of  the 
'  Cours  de  Chimie.'  Then  followed  Boulduc,  Geoffray,  Rouelle  and  Cadet 
de  Gassicourt.  But  the  revolutionary  wave  that  swept  away  men  did  not 
spare  institutions,  and  a  few  months  before  Lavoisier  was  sent  to  the  guillo- 
tine the  academies  in  France  were  suppressed  as  useless.  In  1795,  however, 
the  Convention  established  a  new  '  Institut  des  Sciences  et  des  Arts,'  which 
included  all  the  academies  as  they  now  exist.  In  the  new  Academy  of  Sci- 
ences, as  in  the  old,  pharmacists  have  taken  an  honorable  place,  as  will  be 
seen  from  the  following  roll  of  names:  Bayen,  the  two  Pelletiers,  Vauque- 
lin,  Parmentier,  Baum^,  Deyeux,  Proust,  Serullas,  Robiquet,  Lesson,  Gau- 
dichaud,  Balard,  Bussy,  Gerhardt,  Lecoq,  Planchou,  Berthelot,  Chatin, 
Girardin,  and  Milne-Edwards.  Each  of  these  men  was  a  legally  qualified 
pharmacist ;  but  there  have  been  others  also  who  commenced  their  scientific 
career  in  a  pharmacy,  among  whom  may  be  mentioned,  Dumas,  Fr6my, 
and  Trecul. 
"  The  Academy  of  Medicine  was  founded  in  the  year  1820,  by  a  decree  of 
Louis  XVIII.,  and  one  of  its  duties  was  to  be  to  reply  to  questions  of  the 
Government  on  all  subjects  affecting  the  public  health,  and  particularly  in 
respect  to  new  and  secret  remedies,  and  natural  and  artificial  mineral 
Witters.    Originally  the  Academy  was  divided  into  three  sections,  medicine, 
