frederick Belding power 1853–1927: pioneer pharmaceutical scientist

source for this basic pharmaceutical science
for decades. The pharmacy program
continued at a steady pace, with enrollment
increasing from 27 to 63 during
the 1891–1892 school year. 12 Power’s
laboratory work with students was productive
and of high quality. 7 Power delivered
the 1893 graduation address, during
which he spoke of the role of scientific
and technical knowledge imparted by a
pharmacy education and argued that this
was the way to weed out incompetents so
that “the quacks, the pettifoggers would
disappear.” 13 In addition to his teaching
and research at the university, Power
also contributed the lessons in chemistry
and physics to a series under the title
National Institute of Pharmacy, published
by G.P. Engelhard and the Western Druggist.
This early distance-learning program
was instituted by Carl Hallberg and
other faculty from the Chicago College of
Pharmacy. 14
Power resigned from the University
of Wisconsin in 1892 because of inadequate
salary. 9 He accepted the position
of Scientific Director for Fritzsche Brothers,
which was the American branch of
Schimmel & Company of Leipzig, Germany.
Flückiger had worked with Schimmel,
which may well have been a factor
in Power’s acceptance of the position.
In his 4 years with the company, Power
published a series of studies dealing with
essential oils important to pharmacists
and the perfumers’ art, including oils
of wintergreen, bay, peppermint, and
clove.
Wellcome chemical
research Laboratories
In 1896, the industrial pharmacist
Henry Wellcome established his chemical
research laboratories in London and
convinced his old PCP classmate, Power,
to accept the position as its first director.
Wellcome stated that he had made
the “most important, single appointment
so far in the history of Burroughs
Wellcome—that of Frederick Power as
the firm’s chief scientific chemist and
researcher into the unknown.” 15 At the
dinner for Power at the opening of the
Heroes of pHarmacy
Frederick Belding Power (1853–1927) in his phytochemical laboratory, 1916–1919, at
the Bureau of Chemistry in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1924, he was the first
pharmacist elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
laboratories, Wellcome noted that the
work would be “entirely separate and
distinct from all their business departments
... The work would be carried out
on no selfish lines. It would be controlled
and dictated with the highest regard
for science.” 16 The laboratories started
slowly, and initial efforts were directed
at production and quality control for the
manufacturing plant. 17 By 1899, however,
Power was in his own building with a staff
of more than 20. 18
Wellcome had a long-standing interest
in tropical disease. Chaulmoogra oil
had a long tradition of use for leprosy, and
in 1904, Power undertook a study to identify
the source of the oil and its chemical
makeup. Three trees were identified as
sources of chaulmoogric acid and hydnocarpic
acid, which became the major
treatments for leprosy until the advent of
sulfones in the 1940s. 19
Power and the Chemical Research
Laboratories exhibited results of its work
Journal of the American Pharmacists Association www.pharmacist.com J u l /Au g 2008 • 48:4 • JAPhA • 551
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