Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
February,  1921.  J 
Pharmaceutical  Research. 
137 
tific  investigation  of  the  Cinchonas,  the  subject  is  not  exhausted. 
The  paper  by  Howard  and  Chick  on  "Some  Recent  Samples  of  Grey 
Cinchona  Bark,"1  demonstrates  the  necessity  for  a  thorough  re- 
investigation of  the  grey  cinchonas  of  Peru  to  determine  positively, 
by  newly  collected  authentic  specimens,  the  species  yielding  the  bark 
containing  the  high  percentage  of  cinchonine  reported,  and  whether 
this  was  due  to  the  altitude  at  which  the  trees  grew.  This  paper 
presents  the  possibilities  for  duplicating  the  cultivation  of  the  Ledge- 
riana  variety  of  Cinchona  Calisaya  in  which  quinine  almost  alone  is 
present  to  a  high  percentage  by  the  cultivation  of  a  selected  Cinchona 
of  the  grey  bark  group  for  the  production  of  cinchonine. 
In  addition  to  the  classification  of  research  as  "pure"  and  "ap- k 
plied,"  I  would  advocate  a  further  subdivision  as  especially  appli- 
cable to  pharmacy;  namely,  major  and  minor  investigation  in  both 
pure  and  applied  research.  Every  apothecary  has  opportunities 
from  time  to  time  to  note  improvements  in  formulas,  methods  of 
manipulation  and  niceties  in  compounding,  what  our  friend  Thomas 
McElhenie  calls  "wrinkles,"  These  observations,  although  they 
may  apear  individually  as  comparatively  insignificant,  yet,  if  they 
be  but  suggestions  for  improvement,  in  the  aggregate  they  will  make 
toward  a  substantial  advancement  in  the  art  of  pharmacy.  As  a 
part  of  his  collegeiate  training  and  to  inculcate  the  faculty  of  ob- 
servation and  deduction,  every  student  in  pharmacy  should  have 
assigned,  some  topic  of  pharmaceutic  interest  for  special  study,  in- 
vestigation and  report,  even  though  these  subjects  be  but  very  ele- 
mentary problems  in  pharmaceutic  research. 
Notable  events  have  marked  influence  in  stimulating  the  char- 
acter of  research  and  the  results  achieved.  The  foundation  of  a 
school  of  pharmacy  in  America  for  the  systematic  education  of 
pharmacists  had  a  decisive  effect  in  the  development  of  such  charac- 
ters as  Daniel  B.  Smith  and  Dr.  George  B.  Wood,  and  this  event 
was  the  stimulus  to  which  may  be  attributed  the  preparation  of  that 
master  work  the  Uinted  States  Dispensatory. 
The  introduction  of  the  process  of  displacement  made  the  sub- 
ject of  percolation  and  the  preparation  of  the  various  classes  of 
galenicals  by  this  method,  topics  demanding  extensive  experimenta- 
tion, and  as  a  result  we  have  recorded  the  classical  investigations 
1  The  Pharmaceutical  Journal  and  Pharmacist,  July  24,  1920.  Reprinted 
in  The  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  October,  1920. 
