A woman's urine, combined with apple cider creates a powerful sedative.

Several legends - one claims it was named for a man's mistress who was a barmaid. Another:

A German chemist, Adolph von Baeyer, founder of what was to become the Bayer Chemical Co., who in 1905 won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, happened in for some celebrating of his own. It was on that day that he had synthesized "malonylurea" from a reaction of urea with malonic acid, a chemical found in apples. No one knows exactly what he was trying to accomplish, but malonylurea became known as "Barbituric acid", making St. Barbara Day even more important!

        
http://www.chemcases.com/pheno/pheno01.htm

A Prussian chemist, Adolf von Baeyer, is credited with inventing and naming barbituric acid in 1863 or 1864. He created the acid out of a compound of malonic acid and urea. On the day of his discovery, Baeyer is said to have gone to a nearby tavern to celebrate. Some sources say it happened to be the feast of St. Barbara that day; others say the barmaid was named Barbara. In any case, he named the compound barbituric acid.

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-7/Sleeping-Pill.html

Sincerely,

Gaargoyle

Somewhere - out there is a REALLY good story about this discovery - funny and shocking both.