Abstract
THE Fine Chemicals Group of the Society of Chemical Industry has for its objects "The discussion of fine chemicals especially such as are of therapeutic or biological interest". The Group held its inaugural meeting at the Royal Institution on October 5, with Sir Jack Drummond, chairman of the Group, presiding. Prof. J. H. Burn, professor of pharmacor logy, University of Oxford, delivered the inaugural address and reviewed much of the important work that has been done in the production of fine chemicals for medicinal use. He recalled the lapse of time between the discovery of penicillin in 1929 and its use in 1941, and suggested that, but for the recognition of the curative value of sulphonamides, it is possible that the use of penicillin might have been held up indefinitely owing to the false notion that "an antibacterial agent for use in man is an impossibility". Prof. Burn referred particularly to the work in the fields of tuberculosis and cancerous growths, of which the latter is still, in his opinion, the outstanding unsolved problem; it is one thing to deal with bacteria in the blood and extracellular fluid, but quite another thing when the bacterial agents are inside the cell or even in the nucleus. Much knowledge is to be gained from the classical work of Dale and Laidlaw with Carr, Barger and Ewins on adrenaline (and sympathomimetic amines), histamine and acetylcholine. It is increasingly obvious that the effect of chemical substances in the body is to modify or interfere with the action of these three compounds. This matter is of great importance in the study of anaesthetics, and it would be worth while to promote research in this direction. In the general problems of research, Prof. Burn felt that the university worker ought to pass on more of his knowledge to the industrial laboratories, and the industrial men of science must take ‘refresher' courses in the academic laboratories to keep abreast of new techniques. The crying need of to-day is not for more fundamental knowledge but more application of the present existing knowledge. In conjunction with this, Prof. Burn expressed the opinion that the value of elaborating quantitative methods for the estimation of biological properties is indisputable. This work has been criticized as not leading to any fundamental discovery; but since 1926 chemical work has been much facilitated by the introduction of biological standards, and the Pharmaceutical Society has made a wise decision in establishing a laboratory for the study of biological standardization.
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Society of Chemical Industry: Fine Chemicals Group. Nature 162, 728 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162728c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162728c0