"a miracle of genius;" "yes, he is a miracle of genius because he is a miracle of labor; because, instead of trusting to the resources of his own single mind, he has ransacked a thousand minds; because he makes use of the accumulated wisdom of the ages, and takes as his point of departure the very last line and boundary to which science has advanced; because it has ever been the object of his life to assist every intellectual gift of nature, however munificent and however splendid, with every resource that art could suggest, and every attention diligence could bestow." All of his students know this too well. The Chemical Museum of Havermeyer Hall-not to be duplicated anywhere because of this spirit-speaks better than anything else of these qualities of Dr. Chandler. We do not wonder that the Society of Chemi

cal Industry, at its recent meeting at Newcastle-on-Tyne, has honored Professor Chandler with the Presidency of that body. As we have already said, we appreciate that it is a great honor to Professor Chandler, but we also recognize that it is an honor for the Society to select such a man as President, who has been esteemed by men of letters, and science and art, as well as by men of large business enterprises of this and other lands, for nearly two generations. We rejoice that his step is as elastic, and his mind as active, and his health apparently as good to-day as ten years ago, when we first had the pleasure of knowing him. HENRY KRAEMER, '95, School of Mines of Columbia University.

THE AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF PHARMACY

OCTOBER, 1899.

ROBERT BUNSEN.

DIED AUGUST 16, 1899.

The death of Prof. Robert Wilhelm Eberhardt Bunsen, at Heidelberg, August 16th, marks the passing away of the last of the great German chemists of the older school. Liebig, Wöhler, Hofmann, Kopp and Fresenius had all preceded him, and now, at the ripe age of 88, Bunsen, known better by name, at least, to every laboratory student throughout the civilized world, has followed them.

Bunsen was born March 31, 1811, at Göttingen, where his father was a professor of Oriental Literature. His special branches of study at the university were chemistry, physics and zoology. After graduation he continued his studies at Paris, Berlin and Vienna, and in 1833 began his career as lecturer on chemistry at Göttingen. He became a professor of chemistry at the Polytechnic School at Cassel in 1836, removing to Marburg in 1838, to Breslau in 1851, and to Heidelberg in 1852, where the remainder of his fruitful life was spent. How fruitful in results his career was to the science of chemistry a brief review of the most important of his discoveries will show.

His first considerable investigation was that upon alkarsin (fuming liquid of Cadet), in 1833 and following years, which resulted in the discovery of cacodyl and the compounds of arsendimethyl, the first of the organo-metallic radicals, as well as the suggestion on his part of ferric hydrate as the most efficient antidote for arsenic poisoning. In 1838 and 1839 he published studies on the composition

of the gases of the blast furnace process, which had the very important result of showing their value for fuel, thus pointing out the means of effecting an enormous saving to the ironmaster, as well as of improving his whole process. Incidentally this opened the way for his later studies on gasometric analysis, which branch of investigation he may be said to have created and brought to the highest perfection.

In 1840 came the invention of the Bunsen battery cell, replacing the platinum of the Grove cell by the cheaper element, carbon, as well as gaining in electro-motive force. In this connection we may state that the suggestion for the use of acidified bichromate of potash in the one liquid cell is also said to have been made by Bunsen, although the form in current use is known as the Poggendorf cell. With a large battery of the zinc-carbon cells, Bunsen began, in

1844, his studies of the arc light, obtained with different metals volatilized at the electrodes, viewing these colored flames with a prism and noting the characteristic bright lines obtained. This was developed more fully by him in 1859, when, in association with Kirchhoff, he announced the principles of spectrum analysis and invented the spectroscope. Meanwhile he carried out prolonged studies on the electrolytic production of the alkali and alkaline earth metals, obtaining some of them for the first time in a state of purity. In 1861 he announced the discovery of the metals cæsium and rubidium as a result of the application of spectroscopic methods of analysis. One of the special benefits conferred upon a chemical world by this great master was the invention of convenient forms of laboratory apparatus. We need only mention the Bunsen burner, the Bunsen battery cell, the Bunsen filter pump for rapid filtration, the spectroscope, and apparatus for gas analysis.

In person, Bunsen was tall and of a swarthy complexion. He had lost the use of one eye by an explosion in connection with his cacodyl research. Bunsen was never married. When a young professor at Marburg he had joined with a young English chemist, Lyon Playfair (afterwards Lord Playfair), in making an elaborate study of the blast furnace process, and for this purpose the two young chemists spent some months in Scotland, living in the house of a wealthy ironmaster. Both were smitten with the daughter of their host, but she became Mrs. Playfair, so Bunsen went back to Germany single, and so he remained to the end. But he became the centre of a circle of devoted friends at Heidelberg, and so remained during more than a generation of active, fruitful life.

S. P. S.

ASPIRIN, OR ACETYL-SALICYLIC ACID.-Wohlgemuth ( Therap. Monatshefte, May, 1859) has tested some of the compounds of salicylic acid. By the action of anhydrous acetic acid on salicylic acid he obtained white crystals of acetylsalicylic acid, readily soluble in alcohol or ether, and to the extent of 1 per cent. in lukewarm water. The drug does not decompose in the stomach until it has been there two or three hours, so that it is, to a great extent, passed into the intestine unchanged, and does not irritate the gastric mucous membrane, as does salicylate of soda, which is decomposed almost as soon as it enters the stomach. The alcoholic solution of the new compound, aspirin, having such a bad taste, the drug was usually given in capsules. Its therapeutic effects are identical with those of salicylic acid, except that disagreeable gastric symptoms are almost entirely done away with.-Abstract in Medical News, August 12, 1899.

DIRECTIONS FOR CERTAIN ALKALOIDAL ASSAYS.1

BY H. M. GORDIN AND A. B. PRESCOTT.

A GENERAL METHOD FOR THE EXTRACTION OF ALKALOIDS IN ASSAYS.

I. AS A METHOD BY PERCOLATION.2

One to four grammes of the finely powdered drug is weighed into a low wide-mouthed vessel, with a round bottom, holding 8 or IO ounces, and having a well-fitted cork, such as a screw-top ointment jar. The powder is rubbed up with a small pestle to a fine paste, by adding a little of a solvent mixture, composed of stronger ammonia water and alcohol, each 5 c.c., chloroform, 10 c.c., and ether, 20 c.c. Then a few more cubic centimeters of this mixture are added, so as to have the drug well covered with the liquid, using in all about five times the amount of the drug taken. The vessel is corked, with the pestle inside, and is set aside for about four or five hours, taking care to agitate by circular movement very frequently during that interval. After that time the cover is removed, and the vessel kept in a current of air, stirring frequently till all odor of ammonia has disappeared. With a good draught and frequent stirring, the powder will be almost perfectly dry in about one hour. The vessel is then put into a vacuum desiccator over sulphuric acid for about four or five hours.

1 In the work of Research Committee D, Section 2, Committee on Revision and Publication of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States, 1890-1900. Read at the meeting of the American Pharmaceutical Association, September, 1899. 2 These directions were published, nearly as here given, by the authors, in an article, "Emetine Octoiodide," etc., Pharm. Review, Vol. 17, 1899. This general method is not applicable to Ipecacuanha. See under " Assay of Ipecacuanha," further on.

3 An ordinary teacup fitted with a specie cork answers well. In the case of Hydrastis canadensis the chloroform is replaced by an equal volume of ether.

NOTE.-Analytical results in support of these directions were given in an accompanying paper, "Further Work Upon the Estimation of Alkaloids and the Assay of Alkaloidal Drugs," presented to this Association at the same date. Also, in the paper entitled "Certain Alkaloidal Periodides, and the Volumetric Estimation of Alkaloids as Higher Periodides," by the same authors, Proc. Am. Phar. Assoc.," 1898, p. 340; Pharm. Arch., I, p. 121; Jour. Am. Chem. Soc., 1898, p. 724. A paper on "Hydrastine Hexiodide and Assay of Hydrastis," AM. JOUR. PHARM., 1899, p. 257. Further, see the article "The Periodides of the Alkaloids as Molecular Forms for Estimation," etc., by A. B. Prescott, 1897, Pharm. Review, Vol. 15, and other papers since 1895.