Aspirin and Heroin were both synthesized by a German chemist, Heinrich Dreser , working for Bayer around the turn of the century. Bayer even copyrighted the name.
There were some preliminary work done on both in England during the 1870-80s but this did not become commercial. I have seen nothing crediting the gentleman you refer to with either though he could well have been experimenting with similiar drugs.
Watie has this way of pulling names out of thin air, although it's sometimes possible to trace them. "S.L.A. Morton," for instance, bears a striking resemblance to military historian S.L.A. Marshall.
For the record, though, the British chemist who first synthesized heroin was named C.R. Alder Wright. The year was 1874.
No explanation from Watie about the aspirin thing, though.
the American Indian had used the SAME exact chemical as aspirin for HUNDREDS of years, before the Europeans came to the western hemisphere. they boiled the inner bark of the weeping willow tree to obtain it. aspirin is a NATURAL product, rather than an "invented" one.
"your German" MAY have figured out how to make aspirin from something other than willow bark. (my guess is that you, ONCE MORE, don't know anything about that subject, just as you know so little about other subjects of the 19th century.)
free dixie,sw