"Try and fall sick .."-the composer, chemist, and surgeon Aleksandr Borodin.
Although Aleksandr Porfir’evič Borodin is considered one of the outstanding Russian composers of the 19th century, he left only a very small volume of musical work. He is particularly renowned for the world-famous “Polovtsian Dances” from the opera “Prince Igor” and for his membership in “The Mighty Handful”. Also noteworthy, aside from the forementioned opera “Prince Igor”, are his three symphonies, two string quartets, and a symphonic poem “In the Steppes of Central Asia”. The reason for his small œuvre is that he considered himself a sunday composer, composing for fun and only in his rare spare time or when he was ill. In fact, he was a professor of chemistry, and chemistry was avowedly his first passion. There were also other fields, besides chemistry, to which he was more committed than composition. Despite this declared priority for chemistry, Aleksandr Borodin is mostly unknown as a chemist to chemists of today, and—much to my regret—even as composer. This surely is not justified, since he is the discoverer of outstanding reactions, although unfortunately at a time when it was uncommon to name reactions after their inventors. This Essay is intended to shed light on all the various facets of Borodin, with a special focus on his chemical work.
The Quiet Revolution: Hermann Kolbe and the Science of Organic Chemistry
Organic chemist Hermann Kolbe (1818-1884) is the subject of this vigorously contextualized biography, which combines the approaches of cognitive and social history of science. Kolbe was one of the most outstanding chemists during the remarkable period in which German science, like the wider manifestations of German industrial and political power, rose to a position of world dominance. Rocke portrays Kolbe as a leading actor in the transformation of the institutional and pedagological dimensions of the physical sciences, as well as in the rapid growth of technologically powerful pure sciences. In all these areas there was a sharp inflection point around 1860 when, as Rocke persuasively argues, the primary discipline in the drama was organic chemistry.
Nitro-Glycerine as a Remedy for Angina Pectoris
It is only quite recently that nitro-glycerine has been much recommended in cases in which the nitrite of amyl had been found to be of service, the physiological effects of the two drugs being very similar. From this little work, however, we learn that some twenty-five years ago the action of this substance was studied, and its effects described by Mr. A. G. Field, of Brighton. The publication of his experience led others to try it, with the result that his conclusions were challenged. But opinions were so conflicting that some five years ago Dr. Murrell began investigating the subject for himself, and the result is the present work?some of the cases in which have already been published in the Lancet (1879). The physiological effects which he has observed on himself