The making of medicines from coal tar began in 1874 when Kolbe made
salicylic acid from carbolic acid. Salicylic acid is a rheumatism remedy
and had previously been extracted from willow bark. If now we treat
salicylic acid with concentrated acetic acid we get "aspirin." From
aniline again are made "phenacetin," "antipyrin" and a lot of other
drugs that have become altogether too popular as headache remedies--say
rather "headache relievers."

Another class of synthetics equally useful and likewise abused, are the
soporifics, such as "sulphonal," "veronal" and "medinal." When it is not
desired to put the patient to sleep but merely to render insensible a
particular place, as when a tooth is to be pulled, cocain may be used.
This, like alcohol and morphine, has proved a curse as well as a
blessing and its sale has had to be restricted because of the many
victims to the habit of using this drug. Cocain is obtained from the
leaves of the South American coca tree, but can be made artificially
from coal-tar products. The laboratory is superior to the forest because
other forms of local anesthetics, such as eucain and novocain, can be
made that are better than the natural alkaloid because more effective
and less poisonous.

I must not forget to mention another lot of coal-tar derivatives in
which some of my readers will take a personal interest. That is the
photographic developers. I am old enough to remember when we used to
develop our plates in ferrous sulfate solution and you never saw nicer
negatives than we got with it. But when pyrogallic acid came in we
switched over to that even though it did stain our fingers and sometimes
our plates. Later came a swarm of new organic reducing agents under
various fancy names, such as metol, hydro (short for hydro-quinone) and
eikongen ("the image-maker"). Every fellow fixed up his own formula and