Portable medicine chests and supply of medicines in Serbia from the 1830s to the mid-20th century: analysis of medicines list.

The first portable medicine chests appeared in Serbia immediately after liberation from Ottoman rule around 1830. The network of portable medicine chests grew very quickly and became the first effective public health method of supplying medicines and medical items to people living in cities without community pharmacies and to the rural population in villages. According to their purposes, three categories of portable medicine chests could be identified: Portable medicine chests owned by physicians or veterinarians in the cities, portable medicine chests established by the Department of Workers Health Insurance, and portable medicine chests of the Health Cooperatives that operated in the villages This paper analyzes all three types of portable medicine chests. We specifically examine the regulations concerning the management of portable medicine chests, their content, and supply chains of medicines from the third decade of the 19 th century through the first half of the 20th century. We conclude that portable medicine chests represent a specific type of pharmacy in the territory of Serbia that provided very effective medical service. The medicines in these pharmacies were handled and dispensed to patients by physicians not by pharmacists. Patent medicines, compounded medicines, sanitary items and bandage materials were dispensed as well. Future research is needed to ascertain if physicians who owned or worked with the portable medicine chests actually prepared and compounded simple preparations as they were specified in the laws.

Thickness-dependent ordering of water layers at the NaCl(100) surface.

We have determined the ordering properties of water adsorbed at room temperature on the rock salt (100) surface under four different conditions: ultrahigh vacuum, dry nitrogen atmosphere, 45% and 75% relative humidity. Details of the atomic structure are determined for both sides of the solid-liquid interface. The top most layer of NaCl shows a small relaxation that changes from an expansion to a contraction with increasing humidity. Under all measured conditions water monolayers with different ordering properties are present at the interface. Surprisingly, we find that the amount of ordering in the first layer is increasing with increasing thickness of the water film. At a solid-liquid interface, the ordering appears to be correlated with the solubility.

Liquid order at the interface of KDP crystals with water: evidence for icelike layers.

We present a surface x-ray diffraction study on the KDP-water interface in which the structure of both the crystalline and liquid part of the interface has been measured. We have been able to determine the ordering components in the liquid in both the perpendicular and parallel directions. We find interface-induced ordering in the first four layers of water molecules. The first two layers behave icelike and are strongly bound to the surface. The next two layers are more diffuse and show only minor lateral and perpendicular ordering. Subsequent layers are found to behave similar to a bulk liquid.

New (sqrt3 xsqrt 3)R30 degrees phase of Pb on Ge(111) and its consequence for the melting transition.

Depending on the preparation method, we find two different structures of the Pb/Ge(111) system at a nominal coverage of 4 / 3 monolayer that exhibit different melting points. One is the well studied beta phase that melts at 270 degrees C, but the other is a new and metastable phase that melts at 330 degrees C. Using surface x-ray diffraction the atomic structure of both phases is found to be surprisingly similar. The difference in melting points can be explained by the distribution of the excess Pb present on the surface, which has a direct effect on the vacancy density. We propose a modified phase diagram, in which the melting temperature of the beta phase depends strongly on coverage.