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                                  THE
                            Alumni Journal

                            [Illustration]

             Entered at the New York Post Office as second
                             class matter.

                         VOL. II.      No. 2.

                            February, 1895.

                               Contents.


    “THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF PHOTOGRAPHY,”                 29
    By Prof. ARTHUR H. ELLIOTT, Ph.D., F.C.S.

    EDITORIAL--THE ABILITY OF CONSTRUCTION,                 41

    NEW LITERATURE,                                         43

    THE MOST RECENT WORK,                                   47

    NOTES HERE AND THERE,                                   48

    ALUMNI ASSOCIATION,                                     48

    COLLEGE NOTES,                                          49

    SENIOR CLASS NOTES,                                     50

    JUNIOR NOTES,                                           51

    MEDICINE AND PHARMACY,                                  52
    By N. H. MARTIN, F.L.S., F.R.M.S.

    OFFICINAL OR OFFICIAL,                                  55

                             PUBLISHED BY
           THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY
                        OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK




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    provides a valuable auxiliary for his up building because it
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          “_That so he might recover what was lost._”
                                                    (Henry VI.)

                      THE ARLINGTON CHEMICAL CO.,
                            Yonkers, N. Y.




                                  THE
                            Alumni Journal

                  PUBLISHED BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
          OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.

     Vol. II.          New York, February, 1895.           No. 2.




“THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.”

BY PROF. ARTHUR H. ELLIOTT, PH.D., F.C.S.


The topic of my lecture this evening is one of my old hobbies, so that
if I am a little prolix sometimes you must pardon me. It is something
in which I have been more or less interested for the last twenty-five
years, and, like most of our hobbies, we sometimes drive them to death,
to the discomfort of other people.

The fundamental ideas upon which photography is based are very
old--older than the Christian era, certainly. They depend upon two
facts: First--that light, in passing through a small opening, produces
an inverted image in a dark chamber. Imagine, for instance, that you
are in a dark chamber, outside of which is an object; that there is
in the chamber a small hole a sixteenth or an eighth of an inch in
diameter, and that you have in this dark chamber a piece of paper.
Upon that paper you will get a picture of the object opposite the
hole. That was known a long time ago. The other fact is that certain
salts of silver, notably the chloride, iodide and bromide of silver,
are sensitive to light and become blackened by light, was known to
the Egyptians. The action of light upon  bodies must have been
known to the very earliest observers among men. The bronzing of the
human skin under the tropical sun must have been noted by every one;
and it is on record, in the most ancient annals of the human race,
that men--the fair men from the North--when they went to the tropics,
returned with tanned skins. Ptolemy, over two thousand years ago, noted
that beeswax was bleached in sunlight, and the old Greeks noted that
the gems which we call opal and amethyst lost their colors when exposed
to sunshine. These are some of the first and most rudimentary notions
upon the actions of light, and we have no definite statements about
making pictures without light. The Chinese have a tradition--and they
have a great many curious ones that are often founded on facts--that
the sun makes pictures upon the ice of lakes and rivers.

A Frenchman, named Fontamen, wrote an imaginary voyage to a strange
country, and among other things he said that objects were reflected
upon the water and when the water was frozen the images were retained.
So this idea of certain surfaces being capable of receiving
impressions by means of light was very ancient. There was another
Frenchman, named Devique Delaroche, who made a still more curious
statement. In 1760 he wrote a book in which his hero is wrecked upon
a strange coast, and the spirits of that place showed him how to make
pictures, as he called it, “painted by nature.” It is not quite sure
what he means, but his words are something like these: “You know,” says
his guide, “that rays of light are reflected from different bodies and
form pictures. The spirits have sought to fix these pictures, and have
a subtle matter by which these pictures are formed in the twinkling of
an eye. They coat canvas with this peculiar matter, and hold it before
the object.” The manner of holding it is not stated. “The canvas is
then removed to a dark place and in an hour the impression is dry and
you have a picture, the more precious in that no art can imitate its
truthfulness.” These words were written one hundred and fifty years
ago. This, as far as we know, was purely imagination; yet the idea--the
germ of photography--was there. We shall presently see that this flight
of fancy on the part of Delaroche was very near the truth, and foretold
what has since become possible, and only a very short time after he
said it.

As time went on and observations of men became more definite, we
obtain records of facts that were noted with regard to the action of
light upon certain chemical compounds. You know those old alchemists
had queer ideas, one in regard to their elixir of life, and another
that they could turn the baser metals into gold. They discovered a
material in the silver mines of the Hartz Mountains which they called
“luna cornea.” The word luna was at that time applied to silver. Luna
cornea was horn silver--what we know to-day as silver chloride. They
noted that when this was first brought from the mine it was white and
that after it had been exposed to the air and the sunlight it turned
black, and they also noticed that it was only the surface that turned
black--that if they scraped the surface off it was white underneath.
They also found that if they kept it in the mine it did not get black.
This observation was made about 1550 by Frobrishes, one of the early
workers in chemistry; but you must remember that they were not studying
the action of light upon this substance. Their sole object was the
turning of the baser metals into gold, and therefore they did not pay
much attention to this idea, although this fact was placed on record.

Some time after this we learn that a German named Schultze made copies
of drawings with a mixture of chalk and silver nitrate spread on a
level surface. The time of this is doubtful, but it was probably about
the year 1700. He passed the light, as he says, through translucent
paper (made translucent with oil or wax), and objects placed upon
the paper left a white impression on the mixture of chalk and silver
nitrate--or, as he called it, “lunar caustic.” This was in about
1700, as I said. About fifty years after this time (and indeed it was
a little more, it was seventy years, in 1777) Scheele, the Swedish
apothecary’s assistant, took up the examination of this horn silver. It
seemed to him well worthy of study; and as the result of his work he
obtained the first germs that led to the art of photography. But before
Scheele could have prosecuted his researches, and before photography
could make any important advances, there were two other discoveries in
science--and in optics particularly--that had to be made. The first of
these was the decomposition of white light, by Sir Isaac Newton, by
which he obtained the prismatic colors; that is to say, the colors
that we know as violet, indigo, blue, green, and so on down to the
red. That was the first step. The next step was the discovery by
Baptiste Porter, an Italian, in Naples, which preceded the discovery
of Newton (it was about 1590), that a small opening in a dark chamber
produced an inverted image on the wall of the chamber. So that between
1590 and 1666 Baptiste Porter and Sir Isaac Newton paved the way for
the researches of Scheele upon the action of light upon this simple
substance, as they called it, “luna cornea” or chloride of silver. Now
Scheele, therefore, at his time, 1777, knew of the discovery of the
prismatic colors, or the decomposition of white light by Sir Isaac
Newton, and he made the experiment of submitting this horn silver
or silver chloride to the action of light after the light had been
passed through a prism and he found the light as we know it to consist
of violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Placing the
silver chloride in this band of colors, he discovered the important
fact that in the red rays the silver chloride received no change--that
there was no change made in it. But, as he got along toward the other
end of the spectrum, and got into the green and the blue and the
indigo and the violet, he found that the color of the silver chloride
changed much more rapidly, and he found that the most active in its
effect upon the silver chloride were the blue and violet rays. In
addition to this fact he found that the light discolored the silver
chloride. Scheele still further proved that the silver chloride was
decomposed by the light, and that chlorine gas, or, as he called it,
dephlogisticated marine acid gas, was produced. He became acquainted
with this previously from his experiments on the mineral braunstein
with muriatic acid. So that when he perceived the odor of the chlorine
from the decomposition of the silver chloride, he recognized the
gas at once, and he says: “When this silver chloride turns black it
gives out chlorine,” and that was a very important fact. At the red
end of the spectrum he found there was little or no effect upon the
silver chloride. This was the principle of the camera obscura, and the
principle of the camera obscura is the principle of the photographic
camera to-day. Practically the photographic camera consists of a dark
box, with a hole at one end and at this end there is a place to receive
an image. Instead of having a lens there in the front of the camera,
as was formerly the practice, it is perfectly possible to get the
picture with a small opening, say an eighth or sixteenth of an inch
in diameter, and, furthermore, that is the most perfect picture you
can get in a camera--a picture without a lens. Now, that is a strange
statement, and perhaps in these days it may appear a little wild;
but (exhibiting a photo about 5 × 7) there is a picture made with an
opening not larger than a pinhole, and it is a good deal better than
many of the pictures taken by the amateurs to-day. This opening being
so small necessitates a good deal of time in the action of the light
upon the sensitive silver salts behind, and that is the object of
placing the lens there. By placing the lens here, instead of having
a small opening, you make a larger opening which collects the light
in the same manner, brings it to the focus and then the rays diverge
again and you get the picture. Now, the rays as they pass through the
opening without a lens, begin to diverge as soon as they are in the
camera, but with a lens there they are brought together first and then
cross and then you get the picture. That is the first step, then, in
photography, the production of images by the camera obscura--and that
is all the photographic camera consists of--a modification of it. Now,
when the facts ascertained by Scheele, _i.e._, the action of light upon
silver chloride--turning it black and producing gas (and by the way
Scheele never found out what this gas was and to-day it is a matter of
controversy and a problem among chemists)--with the facts ascertained
by Scheele, in regard to the action of light Thomas Wedgewood and
Vueder made pictures, in 1802. These pictures were very peculiar. They
spread upon paper and upon glass plates that had some gummy material
upon them silver chloride--as a precipitate, and then they set their
subjects up, so as to get a profile shadow with a strong light upon the
surface. Now, where the light passed, of course they got a black mark
upon the silver chloride, but the silhouette of the face was in white.
Now, that was very remarkable, because they got some very remarkable
pictures of which drawings were made. They were white silhouettes on a
black background, but remember that the pictures that were thus made,
the white silhouettes (if I may use the term) were made by the action
of some light. If you wanted to copy them you had to copy them out of
the light; otherwise the whole mass would get black, and that was the
difficulty. In other words, the white impression could only be examined
by candle or some other weak light, and they ultimately became shrouded
in darkness and were lost--so we have now none of those pictures.

While they were experimenting in England, a man named Niepse, a
Frenchman, was at work upon the same subject--the action of light upon
various materials, but in a somewhat different direction. In 1813, or
probably before that time, he discovered that certain kinds of bitumen
were soluble in oil of lavender, and that when you exposed these
pieces of bitumen to some light the oil of lavender would not dissolve
them any more. He conceived the idea (how, is not on record), but he
thought that if he could coat plates with this bitumen and then expose
them to light in a camera he could get a picture upon this bitumen,
and where the light had acted the bitumen would be insoluble in oil
of lavender. Where the light had not acted that he could dissolve it
out. He proceeded to do this, and succeeded in getting pictures upon
metal plates. He then, afterwards, etched the plates and thus got a
perfect drawing or picture. So he used it simply as a means to produce
a picture by etching. Now, understand, using the camera, he obtained
an impression upon metal plates coated with bitumen. After exposing
the plates in the camera he washed them in oil of lavender and then an
etching fluid, and cut the impression into the matter and then they
were printed. Some of these pictures are still in existence, they say.
I have never seen any of them. After a time the plates were cleaned,
and by the help of an etcher’s tools or an engraver’s tools they were
cut still deeper and made very good engraving plates; so that his
object was not simply to etch them but to produce plates for engraving.

While this was going on Herschel made an important discovery in 1819,
and that was that chloride and bromide and iodide of silver were
not soluble when blackened by light. He found that after you had
exposed these materials to the light--this silver iodide, bromide
or chloride--and had washed all these with hypophosphite of sodium,
they would not dissolve. That was important. That made it possible to
preserve the silhouette pictures devised or discovered by Wedgewood
and Vueder. Therefore, after exposing the plates in the camera, as did
Niepse, the Frenchman, he washed them in a solution of hypophosphite
of sodium. That took off the chloride of silver that was not acted
upon by the light and he preserved the pictures. Some of the first
pictures that he made were rather curious. I have not one of his
original pictures; I wish I had, but I have a picture made in the same
manner. He took a piece of paper and saturated it with salt (he said
that he used Bristol drying paper, which was a peculiar paper, made at
that time in England). This was soaked in chloride of sodium or common
salt, and then it was dipped and had flowed over it nitrate of silver.
Therefore he had in the pores of the paper chloride of silver in very
intimate contact with the paper. Then he took such objects as ferns and
pieces of paper, cut it in various shapes, and laid it on the paper.
That produced such an effect as where the objects had laid they had the
white impression. If you took this out in the sunlight it would all
get black. But he made this important discovery and thus preserved the
picture. This was the first photograph made. We do that to-day, and
produce other pictures with various other compounds, but I will speak
of that later.

In the year 1824 we hear of another Frenchman (now, remember this was
a long while ago, in 1819, and we had no photographs yet, although
you might call that a photograph (exhibiting the fern picture) yet
it is not). In the year 1824 we hear of another Frenchman who was
a scene-painter at a theatre in Paris, and he had been using the
camera obscura to obtain pictures from nature from which to paint
his scenery. That is to say he had a tent built something like that
(drawing figure on blackboard) with a lens something like that that
was part of a right angled prism, and this light coming from the
view, the image was formed in here and spread out upon a table from
which he could make a drawing. He used that and was much annoyed at
the time it took to get those pictures. He was very impatient, like
a great many other Frenchmen. He conceived the idea of “fixing these
pictures” as he called them. He did not want to have the trouble of
drawing them. He said: “If I could only find some way of getting that
fixed on the surface without the trouble of drawing it it would be
a great convenience.” This Frenchman was Louis Daguerre, really the
father of photography. Now he worked independently for some time, when
he met Niepse, the Niepse that had been working on bitumen and oil of
lavender, and they formed a kind of partnership in 1829. Now, remember,
1819 was the time that Sir John Herschel had discovered hypophosphite
of sodium and its action on these silver compounds. They formed a
partnership in order to work out “scene pictures” as they called them.
In the year 1833 Niepse died--got tired of the work pretty much, I
suppose--and Daguerre continued the work. What his early experiments
were we have very doubtful records of. Daguerre did not seem to keep
very good records. In the year 1839, little more than fifty years ago,
he communicated to the French government a method for making pictures
in the camera upon metallic plates. In other words he divulged the
secret of the first photographic picture we have--the daguerreotype.
This was such a great success and such a wonderful discovery that
the French government pensioned Daguerre for his life time, and by
an agreement with them the process became public property on August
10th, 1839. Now I have the good fortune to have here to-night the
daguerreotype apparatus. This is practically all the paraphernalia of
the daguerreotype. First of all was the camera (and you must pardon
the condition of it as it is almost forty years old). I know of no
other complete set in the United States, so this is rather a relic,
and it requires a good deal of care in handling it for it almost
falls to pieces (showing the apparatus). Here is where the lens was
put and in here is where the plate holder was put. They first had to
fix the lenses in the ordinary way with ground glass. Then they had
a plate-holder something like ours, that they put the metallic plate
in. Now having fixed it, the next thing to do was to present to the
sitter this metallic plate, and I have here one of just such plates.
Now, into this plate-holder are fitted “kits” as we call them to hold
different sized plates. Unfortunately part of this apparatus is lost;
_i.e._, to say all these little details of kits, but they could all be
made out of little pieces of wood. Now, the daguerreotype is this: They
take a silver-copper plate (a piece of copper plated with silver. When
they first did this, they used to solder upon copper plates a piece
of silver, then put it in a press and roll it out. After that time,
in latter years when the galvanic battery had been discovered and was
in common use, they electroplated it). Now, this particular plate was
put into a holder that was held like that. Now the small boy was given
one of the buffers or he was put at a wheel that had upon it a backing
of felt and on the front of it was chamois leather (it is now long
gone on this one--been rubbed off). This plate was then rubbed with a
great deal of dexterity and you had to be very careful that you did not
scratch it. That was the most important thing about them. It spoilt the
picture if you scratched them. They had to be perfectly smooth. As I
said, this was sometimes done by holding the plate on a wheel, but the
ordinary way was by using one of these buffers. The silver plate was
taken out by undoing this screw at the corner. Now, the first thing
to do with it, then, is to make it sensitive. It is merely a silver
surface now. It was made sensitive by placing it in one of these boxes
(showing it) called coating boxes. Now that plate was put into that
box (showing the same box), and see there is the lime in the box and
it is now probably forty years old, having never been disturbed. In
that lime was placed bromine, and it was then covered with a glass
cover that fits over this glass trough or dish--it is rather deep.
This was then placed with a little pressure--in order to keep the
box tight and not let the bromine fumes get all over the studio--and
they put the plate in here and pulled this over, so, leaving it there
a certain number of minutes, and by action of the bromine vapor it
becomes coated with bromide of silver. Then they either put some iodine
into this same box or they had an iodine box. After the plate was in
there a few minutes, they took it out and put it in there and gave it
a dose of bromine. It was found, and by whom I am not sure, that the
addition of a little iodine or a small proportion of iodide of silver
with iodine of silver gave better effects. So it was then taken out
and it was sensitive to light. Now, Daguerre discovered all that. This
was then put in the plate holder and exposed in the camera and he got
a picture. And it bothered him a great deal, for it faded. If he put
that hypophosphite of sodium on it that our friend Herschel discovered,
it cleaned the whole picture off. There was not enough of it. So he
watched and watched and was weary with making these pictures and having
them fade, until he went one day to a closet where he had a lot of
these pictures stored, and he was delighted to see that the picture
of a certain monument (I think it was) that he had made he thought on
that plate some time before, and it was a good picture and a permanent
picture. How it came about puzzled him a great deal. In looking around
the closet where these pictures were exposed--where these plates were
stored--he found that for some reason or other the bottle of mercury
had been broken, and he tried almost every imaginable material in the
closet, and at last it struck him it might be mercury. Well, he put
some mercury on the plate and he ruined it. “Well, no,” he says, “it
is not mercury but mercury in a very fine state. I wonder if it is the
_Vapor of Mercury_?” He tried it and found that it was. That led to
the development of the daguerreotype. Then all he did with a plate was
to put it into a vessel with a few drops of mercury, and underneath a
little spirit lamp. Then he would put the plate in and watch the heat
(some now have a thermometer) and he would just pick it up every once
in a while to see how it is developing. That process gave to him the
first picture, the daguerreotype, and those are to-day the handsomest
pictures ever made by photography. I have two or three of them which
are partly spoiled, but to-day they far surpass anything we have ever
since done in the science of photography. After the mercury process,
it was very easy to wash the plate off. The object of the development
was this: that where the light had acted there the mercury seemed to
take hold and bring out the picture. Where the light had not acted
you could dissolve the silver surface off with cyanide of potassium,
which was generally used. But, if you will look at this old-fashioned
daguerreotype, you will see that you had to look at them in a certain
light; otherwise, you could see nothing.

Sometime afterwards a man named Fitsherbert, a Frenchman, conceived
the idea of changing this peculiar picture in silver plate into a gold
picture. In other words, he put into the plate a little chloride of
gold and produced a daguerreotype which can be seen pretty clearly by
looking squarely at it.

The beginning of the daguerreotype flourished only a short time. While
Daguerre and others were working at the daguerreotype, Fox Talbot, a
rich Englishman, took up the subject from another point of view. He
conceived the idea of making a negative. Of course, every picture you
took by Daguerre’s method you had to make a sitting for it. Such are
the pictures up in the School of Mines of William Lloyd Garrison and
Daniel Webster. They had to sit right down in front of the box, and
copies could not be had. That was the trouble with the daguerreotype.
You had one picture for every sitting. To make the difference between
the positive and negative more clear, I have brought here to show you
to-night (producing them) some positives and negatives printed on the
same piece of paper. When the picture comes out of the camera and the
plate is developing (exhibiting it) that is what it looks like--where
the light struck all the light parts of the picture are black, and
where the light did not strike all the black parts of the picture are
white. If I take the same surface, containing the bromide of silver,
iodide of silver or chloride of silver, and place it underneath that
and expose it to the sunlight, where the light strikes through it will
produce black, just as in the original object, and when I get through
I get the positive. So there is a negative and there is a positive
from the same picture. Now, that was Fox Talbot’s idea. He says “If
I can do that, I can make pictures _ad libitum_.” With this object
in view he coated paper with silver chloride. He exposed it then in
the camera, fixed it in a solution of salt--common salt or iodide of
potassium--and when he got through the picture was a permanent one,
because the iodide of potassium dissolved out the white parts that were
not affected by the light. From this negative he obtained other prints.

Now, various modifications of Fox Talbot’s process, were brought
out, and a man named LaGray, I think (or at least it was just about
the time he lived) conceived the idea of making these pictures more
transparent by waxing them. That was the first good negative we had.
It was a modification of Fox Talbot’s idea, only he waxed the paper.
Then about the same time it was found that a mixture of chloride of
iron and cyanide of potassium, when mixed together were acted upon by
light. Herschel discovered this, and that was the way we obtained the
blue print, which is far older than the photograph. Sir John Herschel
found that a mixture of chloride of iron and cyanide of potassium, when
exposed to sunlight made Prussian blue. So that if you take paper and
coat it with this mixture and then expose it under a negative you get a
blue picture.

The trouble with these paper pictures was that you could not eliminate
the grain of the paper, and if you will examine these close enough you
will see that they are blurred. This one printed from that particular
negative is blurred--very much blurred. These sensitive silver
compounds are so sensitive that the grain of the paper produces an
impression. Now, in 1848, Niepse, a nephew of the first Niepse, thought
it would be a good idea to use glass plates coated with albumen.
He took chloride or iodide of silver, mixed it with white of egg,
spread it on plates, heated the plates, which, of course, coagulated
the albumen, and that fixed his film upon the glass plates. That was
quite a step. Now, we had gotten rid of the paper. By the way, I made
a little mistake there about the way he got the picture. He got the
picture by putting salt in the albumen and then coagulating it, and
then he dipped the plate into a solution of silver nitrate and in that
way got the precipitate in the film itself. This was important but
troublesome and not always successful.

Now, a few years before another discovery was made. Remember that this
was in 1848 that Niepse worked with the albumen process. In 1840,
Schurben, a Swiss chemist, discovered gum cotton. This gum cotton is
a nitrated compound of cotton, made by the action of concentrated
sulphuric and nitric acids upon cotton. Sometime afterwards Maynard,
a Yankee, in Boston, discovered that this gum cotton was soluble in
alcohol, and ether, and then he found that by evaporating the substance
he got the thin film of collodion. Scott Archer, an Englishman,
conceived the idea of using this film as a vehicle for these
particularly sensitive silver salts for photographing. His method was
pretty much that which is followed to-day and that is still in use to
quite a large extent.

In this process we have this series of operations: First, the plate
must be perfectly clean. That is essential. Any little spot upon it
will form a nucleus which will spread over the surface of the plate.
The plate is then coated with albumen and allowed to dry without
heating. It is then flowed with this collodion, and in the collodion is
put the chloride, iodide or bromide of silver, which you need. It is
generally the chloride, iodide or bromide of silver. This collodion is
afterwards dipped into a silver bath, and then we get the sensitized
silver surface, very thin and perfectly transparent. It is then ready
to go into the camera. It is put into the camera soaking wet with
nitrate of silver. It is exposed and then developed with a solution
of sulphate of iron with some acetic acid. After it is developed, the
developer is washed off, fixed with hypophosphite of sodium, dried,
varnished and we get the negative.

Now, the curious part about this wet plate process is that it is
slow. The compounds are not very sensitive compared with the modern
compounds. In the second place it is essential to use it wet. If you
took the plate out of the silver bath where you sensitized it and
washed off the nitrate of silver adhering to it and put the plate in
the camera you would not get a picture. The silver nitrate is essential
to the production of the picture. It acts in this way: Where the light
has acted upon the sensitive silver compounds and you proceed to
develop the picture, when you mix the sulphate of iron and pour the
developer upon the plate, as the iron comes in contact with the nitrate
of silver, with which the plate is wet, it produces metallic silver,
which adheres to those parts of the picture which have been acted upon
by the light. That seems to be the philosophy, because if you wash the
nitrate off you cannot develop a picture upon such a plate.

Now, this process of photography revolutionized the daguerreotype,
revolutionized photography and the daguerreotype became obsolete. I
think it displaced the daguerreotype in three years. This process
was such an advantage--collodion was such a nice substance to work
with--that it revolutionized the photography of those days, and the
daguerreotype fell out of existence.

Now, when you take into consideration the time that people had to sit
for their pictures--five or six minutes--you can conceive how hard it
was to keep still. They had such queer contrivances to keep the head
straight, they screwed you up in various positions, and this was
particularly exasperating where they had to take pictures requiring a
good deal of time. Dr. Draper, who took some of these daguerreotypes,
and who I believe was the first photographer of these pictures,
desired to take a photo of his estimable lady. His studio was in the
old University Building in Washington Square. I believe Mrs. Draper
had to sit twenty minutes for that picture. In order to produce the
best effect he had a tank made in the top of the laboratory so as to
produce a blue light. Mrs. Draper was very patient while he was at
work with this, and unfortunately, Dr. Colton tells me, the result was
two pictures on the same plate. I should think it would. That was the
first effort ever made to take the human face with the daguerreotype.
Of course, with all that paraphernalia, with that slowness of action,
anything that worked within a minute was considered wonderful, and that
was practically what happened when Scott Archer discovered collodion.

This wet plate process continued from 1851 to 1871, about twenty years.
I have the pleasure of showing you an amateur outfit for this process,
used in 1860 to take to the Rocky Mountains (exhibiting it). That is
an amateur outfit carried over the Rocky Mountains in 1860 to take
pictures. Here is the old tank that carried the water. Here are some of
the bottles of chemicals, and the way it was managed was this: This was
hooked up, on the end of these sticks. This was the black cloth used
as the developing room by the operator. Here is a little window with
yellow glass to develop the pictures. The plates and bromide of silver
was carried in these two boxes. That was carried on top of the mule and
the boxes on the sides of the mule, so that he had a pretty good mule.

Now, to-day we do the same work with that apparatus (exhibiting
apparently a Kodak), and a great deal better work it is.

In 1871 a more important revolution took place even than the wet plate
process or the daguerreotype. Many efforts had been made to overcome
the use of the wet plate--the plate wet with nitrate of silver, and
some of the efforts were very successful but usually troublesome.
The plate was kept moist in a variety of ways: by honey, by tea,
by infusion of tea, by beer, by coffee, and a multitude of all the
funniest concoctions you could think of, but the process was destined
to fail.

In about 1870 it was conceived that you could make an emulsion of these
peculiar compounds of silver--these sensitive silver compounds--that
you could make an emulsion that you could pour upon the plate and
produce a picture just when you pleased, and it was found that by
mixing the chloride that produces the sensitive material in one portion
of your collodion and putting nitrate of silver into another portion of
the collodion, in certain proportions, you could produce a collodial
emulsion. They had to be mixed in just exactly the right proportions,
so as not to have an excess of nitrate of silver or an excess of
bromide.

But that process failed and only lasted a few years; although I have
here one of the plate holders used by such a process.

This was between the time of the wet plate process and the modern
dry plate, when they used collodial bromide emulsion. It was a kind
of a compromise between the wet plate and the dry plate. In 1871,
Dr. R. L. Maddox, of Bath, England, had the idea that he would use
gelatine, instead of albumen or collodion, as a vehicle to hold these
silver salts upon the glass surface, and he found, among other things,
something that surprised him--that when he put the silver salts in to
contact with this gelatine they became wonderfully more sensitive than
ever before.

The idea is this: That you make a gelatine mixture of a certain
strength--the proportions required a certain amount of soft gelatine
and a certain amount of hard gelatine. Into that gelatine you pour,
with constant stirring; you pour a mixture at the same time--some
particular bromide, generally bromide of potassium and nitrate of
silver--in a very thin stream and keep it thoroughly stirred up. If
you go too fast, you will not get the right result; but the result is,
when you get through and do it right, you get a beautiful milky fluid,
and that fluid contains bromide of silver in a wonderful state of
suspension--very thin--and it remains suspended in this fluid. Now let
that set--this cream or “emulsion,” as they call it--and you have as a
result iodide of silver and iodide of potassium. You let the emulsion
set and it produces a jelly, that jelly is then cut up into shreds,
rubbed through a sieve or something of that kind to make it thoroughly
divided, and washed thoroughly with water. Having done that it can be
melted, and if you melt it and heat it to a certain temperature, there
does not seem to be any limit to the sensitiveness of the material. If
you use it cold it requires a second or two to produce a picture. If
you cook it, however, you will find that it will become more and more
sensitive to light, until it is actually possible to take a picture
of a projectile traveling four hundred metres per second. I have such
a picture. The only trouble is that some of the plates made are so
sensitive to light that we cannot get a light non-active enough to
develop them. Having these bromide plates then in the camera--this
sensitive material coated on these glass plates in the camera--you
have got to be very careful that the light does not get to them. The
consequence is that the plate holders are made with extreme care.

The result of this gelatine-bromide of silver process is this: that we
can have plates in packages. We can put these emulsion plates and carry
them off where we please, and, what is still more important, we can put
the emulsion upon very thin material, and I have here (exhibiting them)
thin sheets of celluloid upon which this emulsion has been spread and
pictures taken. That is not all, either; they can make it still thinner
(producing small camera) they can put it on a roll and in this camera
is one of those rolls, and in that box I can take a hundred pictures
without reloading the instrument. The way it is done, I, when I want to
produce a new surface, simply wind the old one off with this winding
machine. There is an opening at the front of the camera. Press just
below this, so, and you have the picture. Now just wind the film off
and you are ready for the next picture. Now pull it again, and this is
so easy that some manufacturers say: “You simply push the button and we
do the rest for you.” That is nonsense, they don’t do the “rest” for
you. A friend of mine took one of these to Europe, and with it a dozen
rolls of film, all of which he used. When he returned he sent them to
the manufacturers and I think he got about twelve pictures back. Not
every time you press the button is a good picture produced. You have to
know a little bit about the science and use a little judgment.

Such is the state of photography to-day that this material can be
spread upon any kind of transparent surface. In the case of plate,
they are put in holders like this, generally only two on each side,
and slipped into this frame in a dark room, in which no light can be
used except one emitted through a deep red chimney. (The professor
here exhibited such a chimney.) Then, the material that is used for
developing these pictures is somewhat different from the old method. We
use organic compounds, alkaline solutions, and organic matters capable
of taking up oxygen. These organic materials, in conjunction with some
alkali, are capable of taking up oxygen. They produce a disoxygenizing
action. After dipping, that gives you the negative.

The prints are made in a variety of ways. The facility with which these
apparati can be used has led to an enormous variety. You can have an
apparatus something like that, or something like this, which is smaller.

In the United States there are to-day probably about ten thousand
professional photographers and thirty or forty thousand amateurs, who
usually do nothing but spoil plates. To give you an idea of some of the
work done, not altogether by professionals, I have picked out from the
number of pictures I have a few samples of the work. Here is a picture
of a cattle ranch in Colorado. I have one a little larger of a horse
race, but this is about as large as they can be made. That will give
you an idea of the instantaneous effect. The distance between the foot
and the top of the mountains is about twelve miles, so that you can get
an idea of the capacity of the camera, of the sensitiveness of these
compounds. Here is a Mexican picture which shows the great beauties
of the Mexican flora--the cacti. Here is a study “King Lear” made by
Buffler, the photographer. That is about as large as you can get. It is
a pretty large plate to handle. Then there is another study “The Five
O’clock Tea” some ladies at tea, by the same man as “King Lear.” Here
is another study, “A Game of Sixty six.” Those are all silver prints,
made with chloride of silver, using glass negatives and producing the
positives by having the chloride of silver in albumen. The best vehicle
to-day for making positive prints is albumen with chloride of silver.

It is found that if you take a mixture of gelatine and bichromate of
potassium, and put into the mixture some pigment and expose it under a
negative where the light acts, the gelatine is made insoluble and holds
the pigment, and where the light does not act the gelatine is still
soluble and can be washed away. Here is such a picture and it is very
interesting--“In Camp.” The shadows in that picture are on the white
paper underneath.

Here are a couple of pictures of silver, two Bavarian pictures. This
one, of a little girl, is by Einlander of Cologne, instantaneously
taken without a head-rest, which is a very difficult piece of work.
This is the same idea, instantaneously taken. Here are two pictures
very interesting, which were in the exhibition at Chicago. They are
pictures in platinum, showing that we are not confined to simply silver
salts. We have here in this last picture one of the chlorides of
platinum, the platine chloride. It cannot be spoiled in any way. The
picture is good as long as the paper is good.

Here is an example of a yacht picture. It is the English yacht Iris. It
is a fine picture. The yacht is travelling very fast.

Here is a picture on the East River, made by Dr. Habershaw, showing the
work of amateurs in this line.

I could tell you a good deal more about this subject, but there is only
one other thing I would now like to mention. Some of you, I suppose,
have heard a great deal about taking photographs in colors. We are very
near it. They have produced in France, Germany and England pictures of
the spectrum in the silver salts: that is to say, with the colors of
the spectrum. They are very weak and have to be looked at in a certain
light. They are the result of interference of the thin films. We are
doing something more important. We are learning to make the whole
spectrum. For example, we can to-day get just as good an impression
upon silver salts with a red light as Scheele did with a violet light
in 1774. That leads to what is called ortho-chromatic photography, that
is photography that will give us every color in the spectrum. It has
been found possible to make pictures in certain colors. A long time
ago, the spectrum was separated into three colors, red, yellow and blue
of certain kinds.

Now, if you take a picture in a red light of a certain character, and
another of the same subject in a yellow light of a certain character,
and another in a blue light of a certain character, you have three
negatives. You can make three negatives, one of the red light, one of
the yellow light and one of the blue light. Now, by taking pigments
and printing in a press like a lithographic press, you can make a red
positive from the red negative, and a blue positive from the blue
negative and a yellow positive from the yellow negative, and in that
way you may get three impressions, which is the result in the same
colors. You must not stop there, however. There is a certain amount
of shadow, and the result of it is that they have to what they call
“over-lay,” taking the three colors separately and superimposing them
in printing. Remember, the red parts of the picture are taken with the
red light. That is, suppose you put a red piece of glass in front of
your camera, then only the red parts of the picture pass through to the
sensitive plate. Then repeat the operation with the blue glass and the
yellow glass, and the result will be as above.

Now I hope I have not bored you by any profuse details. I did not
intend to. I only tried to interest you in one of the most important
inventions of the Nineteenth Century. The steam engine, the telegraph,
the telephone and the photograph are four of the grand inventions which
the century has produced, and I think every intelligent person should
learn something about them. I am afraid that I have had too little time
to do the subject justice. You can understand how much more there is
behind this superficial view. I only have to thank you for your very
kind attention.




                                  The
                            Alumni Journal

                  Published under the auspices of the

             Alumni Association of the College of Pharmacy

                       OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK,

                       115-119 WEST 68th STREET.

              Vol. II.      February 1, 1895.      No. 2.

             THE ALUMNI JOURNAL will be published Monthly.

        Entered at New York Post Office as second-class matter

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                          HENRY KRAEMER, 115-119 West 68th Street.

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    should be addressed to

                     A. HENNING, Treas., 115-119 West 68th Street.

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    to

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                                EDITOR,

                         HENRY KRAEMER, PH. G.

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                        FRED. HOHENTHAL, PH. G.
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                          ASSOCIATE EDITORS,

                         CHARLES RICE, PH. D.
           CHARLES F. CHANDLER, PH. D., M. D., L.L.D., etc.
                  ARTHUR H. ELLIOTT, PH. D., F. C. S.
                         HENRY H. RUSBY, M. D.
                VIRGIL COBLENTZ, A. M., PH. G., PH. D.




THE ABILITY OF CONSTRUCTION.


At this stage of the world’s history men of ability and even of genius
in a certain sense are not rare. The result is that in all of our
institutions of learning the requirements become more stringent and
by the time graduation arrives we see the survival of only the very
best men. We find the same classes of men throughout life that we find
in college--we find men of energy and slothfulness, men devoted to
pleasures and by nature politicians, men of ability of construction
and men of power in criticism. While at College the training to-day
is chiefly analytical and the result is that men are prone to examine
everything closely and some even learn to take delight in tearing
things to pieces. There are some men who are utterly ruined so far as
their inward happiness and that of those about them is concerned by
their critical tendencies. They do this to the detriment of their own
energies and abilities of construction and hence never or but seldom
build anything, but employ their days in tearing down what others have
built. The critic is necessary and essential in every department of
labor where human thought is allowed entrance. Criticisms that are
honest always help the builder and are a gain to posterity.

It is questionable if it is desirable for the conscientious young man
to encourage in his life a too critical tendency. It is not necessary
to look at the bright side of the affairs of life, or even to look
upon men charitably, so to speak. It is sufficient for every young man
especially to look upon events of life as they are. It is decidedly
important for the man of aspiration to look upon life with its duties
when he has had sufficient rest and food and exercise. Wrongs may be
righted and errors corrected in but two ways: the thoughtful way and
the thoughtless way. The thoughtful way is always attendant of health
and with a broad minded and large hearted individual. It is not our
desire, however, to dwell too long upon the subject in the abstract
as we are anxious to reprint the closing words of Senator Henry Cabot
Lodge’s Phi Beta Kappa oration delivered last June at Harvard College.
He said in closing:

“How then is a university to reach the results we ought to have
from its teachings in this country and this period? Some persons may
reply that it can be obtained by making the university training more
practical. Much has been said on the point first and last, but the
theory, which is vague at best, seems to me to have no bearing here.
It is not a practical education which we seek in this regard, but a
liberal education. Our search now and here is not for an education
which shall enable a man to earn his living with the least possible
delay; but for a training which shall develop character and mind along
certain lines.

“To all her students alike it is Harvard’s duty to give that which
will send them out from her gates able to understand and to sympathize
with the life of the time. This cannot be done by rules or systems or
text-books. It can come from the subtile, impalpable, and yet powerful
influences which the spirit and atmosphere of the great university
can exert upon those within its care. It is not easy to define or
classify these influences although we all know their general effect.
Nevertheless, it is, I think, possible to get at something sufficiently
definite to indicate what is lacking and where the peril lies. It all
turns on the spirit which inspires the entire collegiate body, on the
mental attitude of the university as a whole. This brings us at once to
the danger which I think confronts all our large universities to-day,
and which I am sure confronts that university which I know and love
best. We are given over too much to the critical spirit and we are
educating men to become critics of other men instead of doers of deeds
themselves.

“This is all wrong. Criticism is healthful, necessary, and desirable,
but it is always abundant and infinitely less important than
performance. There is not the slightest risk that the supply of
critics will run out, for there are always enough middle-aged failures
to keep the ranks full if every other resource should fail. Faith
and hope, and belief, enthusiasm, and courage are the qualities to
be trained and developed in young men by a liberal education. _Youth
is the time for action, not criticism._ A liberal education should
encourage the spirit of action, not deaden it. We want the men whom
we send out from our universities to count in the battle of life and
in the history of their time, and to count more and not less because
of their liberal education. They will not count at all, be well
assured, if they come out trained only to look coldly and critically
on all that is being done in the world and on all who are doing it. We
cannot afford to have that type, and it is the true product of that
critical spirit which says to its scholars: “See how badly the world is
governed; see how covered with dust and sweat the men who are trying to
do the world’s business, and how many mistakes they make; let us sit
here in the shade with Amaryllis and add up the errors of these bruised
grimy fellows and point out what they ought to do, while we make no
mistakes ourselves by sticking to the safe rule of attempting nothing.”
This is a very comfortable attitude, but it is one of all others which
a university should discourage instead of inculcating. Moreover, with
such an attitude of mind towards the world of thought and action is
always allied a cultivated indifference than which there is nothing
more enervating.

“The time in which we live is full of questions of the deepest moment.
There has been during the century just ending the greatest material
development ever seen. The condition of the average man has been
raised higher than before, and wealth has been piled up beyond the
wildest fancy of romance. We have built up a vast social and industrial
system, and have carried civilization to the highest point it has ever
touched. That system and that civilization are on trial. Grave doubts
and perils beset them. Everywhere to-day there is an ominous spirit
of unrest. Everywhere is a feeling that all is not well, when health
abounds, and none the less dire poverty ranges by its side, when the
land is not fully populated and yet the number of unemployed reaches
to the millions. I believe we can deal with these doubts and rents
successfully, if we will but set ourselves to the great task as we
have to the trials and dangers of the past. But the solution will tax
to the utmost all the wisdom and courage and learning that the country
can provide. What are our universities, with their liberal education
to play in the history that is now making and is still to be written?
They are the crown and glory of our civilization, but they can readily
be set aside if they fall out of sympathy with the vast movements about
them. I do not say whether they should seek to resist or to sustain or
to guide and control these movements. But if they would not dry up and
wither they must at least understand them.

“A great university must be in touch with the world about it, with its
hopes, its passions, its troubles, and its strivings. If it is not it
must be content.

    ‘For aye to be in the shady cloister mewed,
    Chanting faint hymns to the cold, fruitless moon.’

“The university which pretends to give a liberal education must
understand the movements about it, see whether the great forces are
tending, and justify its existence by breeding men who by its teachings
are more able to render the service which humanity is ever seeking.”

       *       *       *       *       *

Professor Fried. Aug. Flückiger died on Dec. 11, 1894, at Berne. He was
the foremost pharmacognosist and scientific pharmacist of his time. An
extended account of his life and works will appear in a later issue of
THE ALUMNI JOURNAL.




NEW LITERATURE.


Readers desiring any of the works contained in this list can obtain
them through B. Westerman & Co., 812 Broadway, Gustav E. Stechert, 810
Broadway, or other foreign booksellers.


_Bacteriology._

_Mikrophotographischer Atlas der Bakterienkunde._--C. Fraenkel u. R.
Pfeiffer. 2 Aufl. 11, u. 12. Lfg. Berlin: August Hirschwald.

_Mikrophotographischer Atlas der Bakterienkunde._--Itzgerott u.
Niemann, Leipzig: J. A. Barth.


_Botany._

_Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Bestandtheile von Cnicus benedictus_
mit hauptsächliche Berücksichtigung des darin enthaltenen bitter
schmeckenden Korpers.--Karl Schwander. Inaug.--Diss. Univ. Erlangen.

An examination of the constituents and particularly the better
principle of Cnicus benedictus.

_Beitrag zur Kenntniss des Bitterstoffes von Citrullus
colocynthis._--Rud. Speidel. Inaug.--Dissert. Univ. Erlangen.

_Weitere Beiträge zur Cheimischen Kenntniss einiger Bestandtheile aus
Secale cornutum._--Hans Zeeh. Inaug.--Diss. Univ. Erlangen.

_Uebersicht der Leistungen auf dem Gebiete der Botanik in Russland
während des Jahres, 1892._--Zusammengestellt von A. Famintzin u. S.
Korshinsky unter Mitwirkung von Anderer. Aus dem Russ. ubers. von
F. Th. Köppen. Leipzig: Voss. A review of the history and events in
botanical works in Russia during 1892.

_Atlas der officinellen Pflanzen._--A. Meyer u. K. Schumann. 1892-1894.
Leipzig: A. Felix. Darstellung und Beschreibung der in Arzneibuche für
das Deutsche Reich erwähnten Gewächse. Zweite verbesserte Auflage von
“Darstellung und Beschreibung sämmtlicher in der Pharmacopœia Borussica
aufgefuhrten officinellen Gewächse von O. C. Berg u. C. F. Schmidt.”


_Chemistry._

_A Text-Book of Organic Chemistry._--A. Bernthsen. Translated by G.
M’Gowan. 2d Eng. Ed. Revised and Extended by the Author and Translator,
London: Blackie.

_Chemie médicale._--Corps minéreaux. Corps organiques. L. Garnier.
Paris: Rueff et ciè.

_Nozioni di Fisicia. Chimica e Mineràlogia ad Uso delle Scuole
techniche e delle Preparatorie alle Normal._--M. Borzone. Torino.

_Grundzüge der mathematischen Chemie._--Georg Helm. Leipzig: Wm.
Engelmann. The author discusses the transformation of energy by reason
of chemical action.

_Kurzes Repetitorium der Chemie._--1. Theil Anorganische Chemie. 2.
Aufl. Ernst Bryk. Wien: M. Breitenstein.

_Grundzüge der Chemie und Mineralogie für den Unterricht an
Mittelschulen._--M. Zaengerle. 3. Aufl. Munchen: J. Lindauer.


_Hygiene._

_Text Book of Hygiene._--G. H. Rohe. Philadelphia: F. A. Davis Co.

A comprehensive treatise on the principles and practice of preventive
medicine from an American standpoint.


_Materia Medica._

_Organic Materia Medica and Pharmacognosy._ Illustrated. By Prof. L. E.
Sayre: P. Blakiston & Co., Philadelphia.

In these days of degenerate rivalry among educational institutions,
and particularly among the different classes of technical schools,
when their officers are wont to prefer the very poorest of text-books,
written by one of their own number, for the best of them should it
emanate from a rival institution, we have become accustomed to looking
upon publications of this sort as serving merely, like an electoral
vote, to count one among the general collection. It can scarcely be
expected that text-books written from such standpoints and with such
motives can have much permanent value, and the future educational
historian will doubtless look with amazement upon the trash of this
character which has been brought to light during the present era. In
the midst of this wearisome train of events it is refreshing to have
presented to us a new text-book, whose publication constitutes, as to
its main part, a real event in the history of pharmaceutical education.

Prof. Sayre’s work on Pharmacognosy has a real reason for existence
in its scope, arrangement and execution. It is new and original,
and will stand by itself as a prominent American text-book. If it
possesses glaring and in some respects fatal defects, it at the same
time presents the merit of ingenuity in construction as well as in the
selection of subject matter, and it cannot fail to become a much-used
reference book, not only by the pharmaceutical profession for whom it
is intended but by physicians as well. It is perhaps unfortunate that
so many individuals, and nearly all of them students, should have been
given a free hand in the working out of the various departments, and
that their products have not been in all cases perfectly harmonized by
the master. It is also unfortunate that so many statements should have
been taken, without investigation, from other authors. A brief scrutiny
of the pages will suffice to reveal this composite origin, even if
one does not read the acknowledgments of the author in his preface.
Doubtless Prof. Sayre, while he has not greatly interfered with the
individuality of presentation of these different subjects, has taken
pains to verify the accuracy of the facts and conclusions recorded.
Should such prove upon closer investigation to be the case, the defect
referred to must doubtless be considered as one of style merely.

The appearance of an American work on Pharmacognosy is of so much
importance that it is not inappropriate that it be analyzed with
some degree of fulness. The book consists of two parts with three
appendices. Part 1 is on “Pharmacal Botany,” while part 2 is upon
“Organic Materia Medica and Pharmacognosy.” It is impossible to review
this work fairly in the interest of the public as well as of the author
without recording the opinion that the eighty-two pages comprising Part
1 should never have been published, if we regard either the reputation
of the author or the welfare of students of pharmacy.

Our American text-books on Pharmaceutical Botany, (not “Pharmacal
Botany,” as the author unhappily calls it, which would mean the Botany
of the Pharmacy, or of the place in which pharmaceutics are practiced,)
bears no evidence that any author has yet comprehended the needs
of pharmaceutical students in this direction, or has adjusted his
instruction so as to accomplish the object for which it was devised.
The idea invariably indicated by the writings, even if not intended
by the writers, is that as the application of botanical knowledge to
the practice of the pharmacy is limited, its teachings may therefore
be superficial, indefinite and vague. The true idea it seems to us is,
that it should be curtailed and limited only as to the portions of the
field covered; but these requisite portions should be taught with a
fulness of illustration, a clearness of presentation and a simplicity
of style, all the more marked because the student is deprived of the
enlightening effect contributed in other cases by those portions which
are here necessarily omitted.

As a synopsis, or summary of knowledge, intended to guide the teacher
instructed in the subject, these eighty-two pages will answer fairly
well; but to enable a student who is proceeding _de novo_ to gain a
knowledge of structural botany for the purposes of pharmacognosy,
we can see nothing but failure. Herein we criticise the book, not
specifically the author. Publishers’ books are not always authors’
books. It is doubtful if any publisher can be found willing to
publish as a business enterprise, a perfect text-book of Botany for
pharmaceutical students.

When such appears, it will be as a labor of love, by one whose regard
for the subject is such as to lead him to donate his time and labor,
and whose means enable him to bear the burden of a financially
unsuccessful enterprise.

The part of the work under criticism is a mere series of definitions,
illustrated in a highly unsuccessful manner, and frequently losing
sight of the requirement that a definition must include the whole of
the thing defined and nothing else. It is very naive to say: “All
organic matter containing a green coloring matter called chlorophyl,
belongs to the vegetable kingdom,” without directly stating that no
other class does, which statement would leave out the fungi, a part of
the definition of which is that they contain no such matter. To define
Morphology as treating--“Of the organs of plants and their relations
to each other,” is not to define it at all, as that would include the
whole of Organography, and does not even exclude Physiology, except by
virtue of the author’s preceding clause. Systematic botany, defined as
“That division which treats of the arrangement and classification of
plants,” does not suggest the vital characteristics of that subject. It
would be more philosophical to refer to the distinctive characteristics
of Phanerogams as the manner in which the embryo is produced within
a true seed, than to intimate that the embryo is entirely foreign to
cryptogamic reproduction. These definitions, taken from less than two
pages of matter, indicate to our mind a lack of the expenditure of
time requisite to bring forth a set of new definitions more perfectly
in accord with the fullest knowledge of to-day than any list which has
yet appeared; and yet when the instruction given in a new text-book is
chiefly limited to definitions, that is the very least that should have
been attempted.

Some of the morphological definitions are actually at variance with
accurate descriptive usage, as that of primary and secondary roots,
duration, etc. To call a stem an “axis” and a root an “axis” of a
different kind, is to perpetuate a term at the expense of all regard
for that accuracy which is the most important element of scientific
language. Such subjects as venation are of prime importance to the
pharmacist, and so far from restricting the teachings to several of the
more important terms presented in ordinary text-books on botany, the
classification should be elaborated in its fullest details. Compare
the definition of classes, as “Plants resembling one another in some
grand leading feature,” and of orders or families, as “Plants that very
closely resemble each other in some leading particular,” with the clear
presentation of ranks in class characteristics, given by Agassiz a
generation ago, and which should, if anything, have been improved upon
in the light of modern knowledge and perfected usage.

The subject of nomenclature, the recent agitation of which has done
more to expose and shatter erroneous practices in scientific thought
and custom than any other influence, and whose correct apprehension
is the very corner-stone of pharmacopœial definition, we do not see
anywhere treated.

It is a pleasure to turn from a contemplation so depressing to the
spirits of one who has labored hopefully for years to secure a just and
rational treatment of his favorite study at the hands of Pharmaceutical
educators, to Part II. of Prof. Sayre’s book, a work so bright and
practical, so replete with new and helpful ideas in the teaching of
practical Pharmacognosy, and so full of information, both standard and
exceptional, though unhappily marred by many errors, as to secure for
it at once a prominent place upon the shelves of the “Handy Book Case.”

The principle is here adhered to of making a single volume do duty as
a text-book of Pharmacognosy and of “Materia Medica,” as the latter
term is commonly used. We have never looked upon this method as being
practicable, but Prof. Sayre resorts to a most ingenious device never
before resorted to, by which it must be admitted that better results
have been obtained than have previously been reached. What might be
called a “Pharmacognostical Key,” or a synopsis of Pharmacognosy, is
presented separately in advance of the main body of Part II. Here
the drugs are numbered to correspond with the consecutive numbering
prominently displayed under the second arrangement, that by natural
orders, the proper method for retaining and displaying the natural
relationships of active constituents and medicinal properties. The
“Pharmacognostical Key” appears to us a failure in its practical
workings, owing to indefinite characterization, by reference to taste
only of the headings. If a drug is both bitter and aromatic, we have to
look for it both in Class I. and Class III. A bifurcating key is here
required, or better, we might take a combination of characters for each
heading. On the whole, this key, while elaborate and very full, and
subject to great improvement by a few trifling changes, we must regard
as inferior to that of Maisch’s text-book. Prof. Sayre very sensibly
omits all attempt to classify volatile oils, except by indicating their
sources.

The arrangement of the matter of the second part is, first, a
brief description of the ordinal characters, followed by a list of
the drugs belonging to that order, those official in heavy-faced
capitals; then the drugs are taken up separately, the official names
and synonyms in the important languages presented, the definition,
botanical characteristics, sources, related, and similar articles,
description of drugs, with the more important characters printed in
heavier type, accompanied generally by a picture of the plant and of
the drug, gross and structural, important constituents, actions and
uses, and a synopsis of the official preparations. The doses of the
drugs are given, but not of the preparations, though the strengths of
the latter are stated. An unfortunate feature, as in Part I., is the
illustrations. They are not at all uniform in effect. While the method
followed has given exceptionally good results in some cases, yet in
many others they are very unsatisfactory, and this is more particularly
true from a scientific than from an artistic point of view.

Valuable a contribution as is Part II., there is an evident
unfamiliarity with, or disregard of, the commercial aspects of drugs.
For instance, the important distinctions between Cassia vera and C.
lignea, and the subject of Batavian Cassia, a correct understanding of
which is a great aid in the economy of the drug store, are entirely
omitted. The distinctions between Coto and Paracoto are not clear,
and in the facts concerning commercial occurrence are reversed. Mace
is not, as described, a “membrane,” neither does it “invest the
kernel.” Moreover, nothing is said about Wild Mace, now so extensively
used as an adulterant that it is possible that it constitutes the
larger part of commercial Mace. “Reddish brown” boldo leaves are old
and worthless. The description of Piper longum is only partly true,
according to the variety under consideration, and the individual
parts are not “berries.” The part rubbed off from Piper album is not
correctly described as an “epidermis.” The important characteristics
distinguishing true from false cubebs is not given.

Appendix “A” is a valuable contribution on the subject of insects
injurious to drugs.

Appendix “B” is no less important, it being an account of the
contributions of organic chemistry to materia medica.

Appendix “C” treats of “Pharmacal Microscopy” in such a fragmentary and
superficial way that it will scarcely be found of service to any one in
these days.

H. H. RUSBY.


_Pharmacy._

_Einführung in die Maassanalyse._--M. Vogtherr. Für junge Pharmaceuten
zum Unterricht und zum Selbststudium. Unter Berücksichtigung des
Arzneibuches für das deutsche Reich und der Ergänzung desselben durch
die ständige Commission für die Bearbeitung dieses Arzneibuches. 2.
Aufl. Newied: Heuser’s Verlag.

_Pharmaceutisk Haandboog for 1895._--E. P. F. Peterson. Kjobenhaven: F.
Host & Sons.


_Photo-Micrography._

See also Bacteriology.

_Photo-Micrography._--H. van Heurick. Eng. Ed. Re-edited and augmented
by the author from the 4th French edition and translated by Wynne E.
Baxter. With Illus. London: Crosby, Lockwood & Son.


_Photography._

_Deutsches Photographen Kalender._--K. Schwier. Taschenbuch und
Almanach für 1895. 14. Jahr Weimar.


_Physics._

_Manual of Physico-Chemical Measurements._--W. Ostwald. Translated by
James Walker. London and New York: Macmillan.

_A Laboratory Manual of Physics and Applied Electricity._--E. L.
Nichols. 2 vols. London and New York: Macmillan.

_Anfangsgründe der Physik mit Einschluss der Chemie und Mathematischen
Geographie._--K. Koppe. 20. Aufl. Ausgabe B in 2 Lehrgängen. Für höhere
Lehranstalten nach den preuss. Lehrplänen von 1892. Bearbeitet von A.
Husmann. II. Th.: Hauptlehrgang. Essen: G. D. Baedeker.

_Elementi di Fisica ad Uso delle Scuole secondarie._--F. Cintolesi.
Livorno.

_Thermo Dynamics treated with Elementary Mathematics._--J. Parlseo.
London: S. Low & Co.




THE MOST RECENT WORK.


_A Seidlitz Powder._--A. Gunn made an examination of some powders and
found the blue powder to consist of magnesium sulphate and sodium
bicarbonate. The white powder consisted of tartaric acid. Evidently
there had been a mistake or else it was a bold attempt to cope with the
cutting system and its cheap prices. One wonders that the makers should
expect the unusual effect of trying to dissolve the contents of the
blue paper to pass unnoticed.--_Pharm. Jour. Trans._, 1894, 534.

_Ointment of Mercuric Nitrate._--C. H. La Wall (_Amer. Jour. Pharm.,
1894, 525_). The following fats have been suggested as a substitute
for the lard oil: Neatsfoot oil, lard, butter, peanut oil, almond oil,
caster oil, palm oil, bear’s oil, ox marrow, beef suet, stearic acid,
petrolatum, and almost all of the other fats from the animal and the
vegetable kingdoms, and even one from the mineral kingdom, appear to
have been experimented with in the vain hope of finding some fat or oil
which would make a good and durable ointment.

Several writers have taken another course and have tried to preserve
the products obtained from former processes. One advises keeping the
ointment in a jar and covering it with a layer of glycerin to prevent
oxidation; others have tried the addition of camphor; still others have
given their attention to the mercurial portion of the ointment, and
suggest making the nitrate from the oxide of mercury instead of making
it from the metal. Some have even been skeptical as to the reliability
of any process, but those who have approximated the truth more nearly
are they who advise careful manipulation, especially as regards
temperature.

The author employs the official ingredients and quantities and heats
the lard oil to 100° C., removes heat, and adds the nitric acid without
stirring and reapplies heat when effervescence ceases until all gas is
expelled. It is best to use a vessel of six times the capacity of the
quantity to be made to allow for the copious effervescence which takes
place. When the foregoing mixture has cooled to 40° C., the solution of
mercuric nitrate is added and the temperature is raised gradually to
60° C., and maintained until no further evolution of gas is noticed. If
it is then agitated until cold, as usual, the resulting product will
comply with the requirements of the Pharmacopœia.

Ointment made by the U. S. P. method, which has become spongy, may
be remedied by elevating the temperature to 60° C. and cooling with
agitation.

_Typical Bacilli._--_E. Klein_ [_Quart. Jour. Micros. Sci._, 1894,
1-9 (1 _pl_)] concludes from observations on the bacilli of anthrax
diphtheria, and tubercle, that these species are not such typical
bacilli as they are usually represented to be. For though under
many conditions their morphological characters are those of typical
bacilli, yet under others they revert to or assume forms indicating
their relationship to Saccharomyces or a still higher mycelia fungus.
In the case of anthrax, the typical bacilli may be represented by
oval and spherical bodies, some of which may contain vacuoles, and
under conditions (early stages of growth on plates composed of beef
bouillon, gelatin 10 per cent., pepton 1 per cent., salt 1 per cent.),
the colonies are composed of large spindle-shaped, spherical or
oval elements in which vacuolation is frequent. Similar appearances
are to be observed in colonies of the thrush fungus. From this it
is inferred that while _B. anthracis_ is a typical bacillus as a
pathogenic microbe, yet in its early stages of growth on gelatin
it may assume characters having much resemblance to _Saccharomyces
mycoderma_ or _Oidium_ and thus return temporarily to an atavistic
stage in its evolutionary history. With regard to _B. diphtheriæ_
the author points out that the club-shaped expansions of one or both
ends are not to be regarded as due to involution, for both under
natural and artificial conditions where there is active growth these
expansions will be found, and have moreover a striking resemblance to
the ends of growing hyphæ. Their existence, therefore, is only to be
explained by their representing a relationship to a mycelial fungus.
In the case of the tubercle bacilli, preparations not unfrequently
show threads or filaments composed of unequal elements, some of them
being conspicuous for knob-shaped expansions, similar to those of
diphtheria. Such appearances occur not only in sputum but in artificial
cultivations e.g. glycerin agar after some weeks incubation at 37°.
All these preparations behave in the same way as _B. tuberculosis_
when treated with appropriate staining reagents; and that they are not
involution forms is evident, as the unbranched nature of the filaments
and the existence of lateral bulgings prove that they are in an active
condition of growth.

_Lysidin._--Ladenburg describes a compound obtained in the state of
hydrochloride by heating ethylene diamene hypochloride with sodium
acetate. The composition of the freebase is C₄H₈N₂ and is termed
_lysidin_. The aquems solutions dissolve uric acid and the application
of lysidin in the treatment of diseases arising from the secretion of
uric acid is being investigated. Grawitz describes it as a crystalline
body of a light red color, readily soluble in water and possesses a
peculiar taste. It is administered in doses from 15 to 80 grains daily,
dissolved in carbonic acid-water.--_Deutsche med. Wochenschr._, 1894,
786.

_Gaseous Formaldehyde._--R. Cambier and A. Brochet prepare this
aldehyde for disinfection in two ways: 1. By the depolymerization of
trioxymethylene by heat, and, 2. Direct production by the incomplete
combustion of methylic alcohol. Formaldehyde possesses antiseptic
properties only when it is in the condition of a gas. On cooling,
ordinarily, it is spontaneously polymerized to an inert solid. If it is
allowed to cool, in the presence of much air this process does not take
place and hence the formaldehyde retains its bactericidal properties.
Experiments made at the bacteriological laboratory of Montsouris have
enabled the authors to sterilize the ordinary dust of rooms as well as
cultivations of various pathogenic micro-organisms.--_Compt. Rend._,
1894, _No._ 15.




NOTES HERE AND THERE.


_Soda Water._--In Byron’s “Don Juan” we find the following in Canto
II., 81, 186:

    Ring for your valet--bid him quickly bring
    Some hock and soda water, then you’ll know
    A pleasure worthy Xerxes, the great king;
    For not the best sherbet sublimed with snow,
    Nor the first sparkle of the desert spring,
    Nor Burgundy, in all its sunset glow,
    After long travel, _ennui_, love or slaughter,
    Vie with that draught of hock and soda water.

_The Essence of Rose Industry in Turkey._--The _Bulletin du Musée
Commercial_, in its issue for September 1st, states that the essence
of rose industry in Turkey, which was until quite recently one of
the principal resources of Eastern Roumelia and the principality of
Bulgaria, has within the last few years shown a decided decline, the
falling being the quantities and values of the exports during that
period:--1889, 2,767 kilos., valued at 1,542,544 francs; 1890, 3,163
kilos., valued at 1,771,427 francs; 1891, 534 kilos., valued at 317,937
francs; 1892, 439 kilos., valued at 267,379 francs. In 1893 the value
of the exports was only 143,185 francs. This decline is due largely to
the fact that in France, Germany, and in several other places in Turkey
besides Roumelia a development has taken place in the growing of roses,
so as to provide to some extent for the requirements of consumption in
these places.--_Brit. and Col. Drug._, 1894, 421.




Alumni Association.


Minutes of the Executive Board meeting held January 9, 1895.

The meeting was called to order at about 8.30 P. M. by the President.
There were present Miss K. C. Mahegin and the Messrs. Graeser, Henning,
Ehrgott and Hoburg.

On motion, the reading of the Minutes of the last Executive Board
meeting was dispensed with.

Reports of Committees:

The Letter-Box Committee reported progress, and that the “box” will be
up in a few days.

Motion made and seconded that the Alumni Room Furnishing Committee be
discharged with the heartfelt thanks of the association, and that the
Secretary notify the chairman of said committee, Mr. Hohenthal, of this
action. Motion carried.

The report of the Treasurer was very satisfactory, and was forthwith
adopted.

The business manager of the JOURNAL reported it as being in a very
flourishing condition, which reassuring report was gladly adopted.

After having duly notified the following gentlemen, they were to-night
dropped from membership in the Alumni Association, a motion, which
was seconded and carried having been made to that effect, and that
the Secretary request the return of their certificates of membership,
according to a clause in our Constitution to that effect. These
gentlemen are Messrs. George W. Snedeker, A. Zimmerman and A. T.
Halsted.

The resignation of W. M. Rheineck was recently received, and since he
gave sufficient reason for so doing, his resignation was accepted with
regrets.

The resignation of Mr. A. Henning as Business Manager of the JOURNAL
was also handed in this evening, and under the existing circumstances
it had to be accepted, with the sincerest regrets of the association.

It was then regularly moved and seconded that the salary of the editor
of THE ALUMNI JOURNAL be increased on account of three extra issues of
the JOURNAL per annum.

After a very interesting discussion of important business for an hour
or so, the meeting came to a pleasant termination.

W. A. HOBURG, Jr., Sec’y.

       *       *       *       *       *

The following list of names are of persons who have changed their
addresses and consequently the Treasurer of THE ALUMNI JOURNAL is
unable to supply them with the information that they are entitled to.
If these persons or any one knowing of their addresses will communicate
with Mr. A. Henning, this end will be attained:

Adam Vogt, 787 8th avenue, city; A. Levy, 125 Grand street, city; G.
J. Wolston, Cortland, Cortland Co., N. Y.; H. W. Walp, 536 5th avenue,
city; Gustav Katz, Lenox avenue and 125th street, city; Alfred Miller,
537 9th avenue, city; Fred. T. Hartman, 703 3d avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.;
Thos. H. McDonald, Cairo, Ill.; A. J. Van der Bergh, 213 6th avenue,
city; C. E. W. Lewin, 106 2d avenue, city; Emil Th. F. Holthusen, 20
Rutger street, city; Emil Buchler, 100 St. Marks Place, city; Frank K.
Burr, 821 7th avenue, city; A. W. Moschowitz, 1099 Broadway, city; L.
D. Huntoon, Port Oram, N. J.; Chas. E. Stammler, 172 Varick street,
city; Chas. H. Everest, 27 West 34th street, city; Edward Stone, 1501
Broadway, city; Fred. Peiter, 301 3d avenue, city; Major C. Brown,
874 Broadway, city; Louis Hess, Scranton, Pa.; A. Zimmerman, 561 5th
avenue, city; Otto C. B. Groin, Denver, Col.; Jacobo Alvarado, Paso
del Norte, Mexico; G. S. Badger, 52 East 42d street, city; Frank A. M.
Schleiff, 242 East 27th street, city.

       *       *       *       *       *

    “We’ll learn the perfect skill,
    The nature of each herb to know,
    Which cures and which can kill.”




College Notes.


MARRIED.--Smith Ely Jelliffe, M. D., to Helena Dewey Leeming, both of
Brooklyn, by Rev. Dr. Kelsay, of Brooklyn, assisted by Rev. T. LaFleur,
of Montreal, Thursday, Dec. 20th, 1894. In the 6th Ave. Baptist Church,
Brooklyn, at 8 P. M.


’94 NOTES.

Apropos of the New Year, it is seemingly proper that we should endeavor
to surpass our former records by carrying out such resolutions that we
may deem proper both for the welfare of ourselves and the gratification
of our associates.

At the present time, I think one of the most important resolutions
should regard the memory of our Alma Mater. Therefore let me suggest
that the bonds of friendship that have hitherto existed, be not cast
asunder, but on the contrary, be more tightly strengthened. Let us in
the strife and turmoil of commercial life, pause, if but for a moment
and think of the pleasant days spent at college, the recollections of
which not even time can efface from our memories.

To enable us carry out this resolution, our Alumni Association has
extended their characteristic hospitality by inviting us to their
monthly lectures, therefore why should we not show our appreciation
of their kindly feeling, by taking advantage of the opportunity, and
thus not only serving to further make these meetings enthusiastic and
successful ones, but also demonstrating to our fraternal friends that
sociability is not a lost art among us.

       *       *       *       *       *

EX-SECY. INHOFF is at present in Colorado seeking the high altitude
of the Rocky Mts. as a substitute for the many panaceas, usually
recommended for obesity. Last reports were to the effect that the trip
was not taken in vain.

       *       *       *       *       *

Despite the prevailing rain and cold winds, many of our “Gilded
Pharmacists” braved the elements in order to have Prof. Haubold give
them a few “pointers” on digestion. It is needless to say that they
were liberally rewarded, for, who would not enjoy the pleasure of an
“Iodine Sandwich with a test tube of genuine pancreatic juice on the
side,” handed him, particularly when the latter was the self-sacrifice
of a wandering specie of canine.

Our class was represented by Messrs. Race, Burger, Ely, Hutchinson,
Struck, Pond, Krueder, Katz, Wurthiman and Stoezer, who did justice to
our familiar. Pento! Meta! Boraci!

       *       *       *       *       *

EX-SEC’Y LINNIG has been advised by his physician to drink no more
water as its reaction on his cast iron constitution might result in an
incrustation commonly known as Rust.

MOSE KATZ as bright and jovial as ever is still with Messrs. J. N.
Hegeman & Co., 3d Ave. and 31st St. He anticipates being present at
most if not all of the Alumni lectures this winter.

FRED HILTZ left for Cleveland, Ohio, a few weeks ago. He anticipates
entering the Medical University of that city next year; subsequently he
will finish in the P. and S. College, this city under the guidance of
Harry W. Carter, Ph. D., A. M., of Brooklyn.

JOHN P. WILCOX is located in Plainfield, N. J.

One of our most successful graduates is AUG. W. BRATER, who together
with his brother is conducting a cosy pharmacy on Park Ave., cor.
76th St. Brater is as energetic as ever and devotes no little time in
making an exquisite window display, which is the admiration of the
neighborhood’s fair ones.

ARTHUR BASTEDO is indeed quite a genius, for besides attending to his
duties with Caswell & Massy, he has found sufficient time to dissect
several times a week at the P. and S. College, which will be an
advantage to him when he commences the study of medicine. Arthur has
also joined the Alumni Association and is such an active member that he
may be found at all their meetings.

Through the endeavors of J. REMINGTON WOOD (with a little bunch
of whiskers on his chin), we hope to have a reunion dinner before
commencement. His success on former committees of this kind gives us
every confidence of his ability to make such an occasion a success at
this time.

THOS. E. DAVIES is hospital steward of the Eighth Battalion, N. G. S.
N. Y., and a quite popular one too. At their receptions and drills the
Red Cross of his uniform is always conspicuous. He spent two weeks in
State camp during the summer, of which his reminiscences are many as
well as interesting. Mr. Davies has just met with a severe loss in the
death of his Father.

NELSON S. KIRK, PH. G., 9 E. 59th St.




Senior Class Notes.


D. M. WELLS on returning home one evening found his room in a somewhat
disjointed condition. The bed was taken apart, pillows tacked to the
wall, and books, clothes, ladies’ photos and old suspenders heaped up
in artistic fashion on the floor. He thought the place was struck by
lightning, but was informed that it was the work of a couple of friends
who had called to see him.

The servant girl has a gun loaded. So beware, Cooley.

Wells says home coming is not pleasant when you have to climb through
the transom to get into your room.

       *       *       *       *       *

For the Johnson & Johnson excursion Brown is going to have his whiskers
trimmed, Manville is having his voice scoured; Joe is going to wear his
new white hat; Gifford is going to have his hair cut so as to disguise
himself; Morse and his extra eyes will be there too; Clarey says I am
going if my fair one does too.

Thum is going to have his trousers pressed and his hair banged.

Sherman is going to put glucose on his mustache to swap for cold sores.

Cooley says, no, thanks, I have had the grip twice this year: no cold
sores in mine.

Dalton is going to try and keep awake during the entire trip.

The things which are troubling the students:

First--Is New Brunswick a prohibition town?

Second--Is there to be any acts between the drinks?

Third--How many slices of ham between New Brunswick sandwiches?

Messrs. Steihener, Scharnibon and Koerber have been appointed by
section one a committee to furnish sauer <DW62> for that section while
on the excursion.

    All the boys they will be there,
    Vanderbeck will comb his hair,
    Kneuper will flirt with the ladies sweet,
    While Ferguson cries, when do we eat?

    Roberts will bring in his tambourine,
    Watling will sing when he is not seen;
    Bricks will be placed in easy reach
    In case he is discovered making such a breach.

    Flick will make a mash I am sure,
    While on that plaster hunting tour:
    For who could resist such charming eyes,
    When on them Flicky only tries.

    Boenke will give a song and dance,
    McClellan will go quietly off in a trance,
    The Heffley boys will spin some jokes,
    Which are rivals in age of the mighty Oaks.

       *       *       *       *       *

MR. H. E. COOLEY, who had a slight attack of the grip, is around again
to the rejoicing of his many friends.

       *       *       *       *       *

The action of the class in requiring its candidates for Valedictorian
to enter a speaking contest to determine their fitness, meets with the
general approval of all its members.

       *       *       *       *       *

MANVILLE admitted that he was Hazy. How about replacing that H with L.

       *       *       *       *       *

AN INSTRUCTIVE TRIP.

A very entertaining and instructive visit was made by a number of
students of the senior class, on Saturday, Jan. 12th, to the Mineral
Water Works of Dr. Carl H. Schultz.

The trip was arranged by the Pharmaceutical Club, of 37th East 19th
St., represented by Mr. T. B. Dean, its corresponding secretary, which
seems to be especially active as regards our interest and welfare and
extends to us the fostering care of a parental guardian. It is due to
this club’s hospitality and magnanimity that our Glee Club has thrived
so wonderfully.

Mr. Dean kindly introduced us to Mr. Louis Waefelaer, M. E., the
assistant chemist of the works (Dr. A. P. Hallock, Ph. D., the chief
chemist and Dr. Schultz being away at the time), and Mr. Paul Dimmer,
the foreman. These gentlemen, starting at the beginning of the works
where the croton water enters by five different mains, and followed the
course of the water through each step of the process, whereby the water
was filtered, then heated to destroy organic as well as to drive off
decomposing and volatile organic matter as well as other impurities and
the filtered water there distilled by the most practical and complete
apparatus conceivable; then the water was repeatedly subjected to
tests, for various impurities, in their admirably equipped chemical
laboratory, which is also supplied with a room specially devoted
to bacteriological work, and a dark room for spectrum analysis and
photographic investigation. Here also are prepared the solutions used
in making the various mineral waters and where the finished product
of the factory is brought before being sent out in order to be tested
and to make doubly certain that it agrees with the label bearing the
analysis of contents, which is placed on each siphon of water sent out.
Here also we quenched our thirst with the products of the stills of
this as well as with the products of the stills of other factories.

The carbonic acid gas used in charging the waters also passes after
generation through a set of coolers, mashers and purifiers, to
completely remove all impurities, and is stored till required for
charging.

The whole establishment, embracing nineteen different departments,
employs over 250 men and 100 horses; the fountain, bottle and siphon
filling department has a capacity of 50,000 siphons or 10,000 gallons
per day. The elaborate machinery of the works is mainly the invention
of the proprietor, his deceased son and staff; not the least important
among which is the invention of Mr. Paul Dimmer.

Mr. Louis Waefelaer, the assistant chemist, is a young mechanical
engineer of high standing and has sole charge of the mechanical
department. Every department is scrupulously clean and neat, and the
employees think Mr. Schultz is one of the best and most liberal men to
work for, for he spares no expense in investigations and experiments
calculated to improve the accuracy and purity of the products of his
works, and the safeguards against accident to employees are both
numerous and well devised. Several other parties will be formed, from
the senior class, during the course of the term and will visit and be
shown the workings of this “model establishment.”

CLASS REPORTERS.




Junior Notes.


IN MEMORIAM.

B. C. MEANEY, entered into rest, Sunday, January 6, 1895, in the 22d
year of his age. This brief announcement reminds us of the loss and
sorrow to so many near relatives and friends, that after the few weeks
that have elapsed since their hearts were wrung with grief. We venture
to say something of him whose earthly sojourn is ended.

Possessed of a genial happy temperament, a character so manly,
conservative and refined, that professors as well as students rendered
to him an involuntary tribute of respect. In the three months that the
junior class has been organized, few students have become better known
or more popular than Mr. Meaney.

Just before the college closed for the Christmas vacation, he said to a
friend, “I think this will be the happiest Christmas I have ever had,”
and now who that knew him can doubt that this strange prophecy has been
fulfilled.

J. Y. C.

       *       *       *       *       *

CLASS MEETING.

The meeting was called on Tuesday, January 8, 1895, by the death of our
classmate, Mr. B. C. Meaney. A motion was made that we send flowers to
his late home, which was amended so as to include the drawing up of
resolutions of condolence, and sending a copy of them to his parents.
Carried.

The meeting then adjourned.

F. H. FINLEY, Sec.

       *       *       *       *       *

Before vacation it was rumored that our friend and professor, Dr.
Jelliffe, was about to become a benedict, and as the rumor has become
verified, we, the Class of ’96, send to him our hearty congratulations
and best wishes for a long and happy life.

       *       *       *       *       *

There is one thing the Juniors should pay more attention to, that is
class meetings. If each one who could would come, the difference would
quickly be seen. Try it.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Juniors in pharmacognosy commenced work with the compound
microscope at the beginning of the term.

       *       *       *       *       *

On exhibition every Tuesday afternoon, from 4.30 to 5, in Quiz, T.’s
hand.

       *       *       *       *       *

We are sorry to hear our friend and classmate, Mr. Quickburger, has
been hurt, and hope it is nothing serious. He was thrown from a cable
car against a post on Tuesday, and was picked up insensible. The car
was just making the turn, which it does in a rapid manner, and it is
supposed he had no hold.

       *       *       *       *       *

A great many cases of mustaches have broken out among the Juniors. In
most cases, however, it is only a light attack, and not at all serious.

       *       *       *       *       *

They say the back part of the Botany Quiz room was very warm the other
day; in fact, some of the boys were nearly roasted.

       *       *       *       *       *

Did I hand in that joke I heard in Quiz the other day? If not, why not?
It would have helped to make the page interesting this month. Two weeks
no college. Reporter with one week. He will do the best he can, but
every little helps.

Remember, this page is for the Class, not individuals, and every time
you help make the Junior page interesting you are doing the Class a
favor as well as the reporter.

All communications for Junior notes should be addressed to

J. Y. CANTWELL, 261 West 42d street.




MEDICINE AND PHARMACY.

BY N. H. MARTIN, F. L. S., K. R. M. S., President of the British
Pharmaceutical Conference.

(_Continued, from December issue_)


Doctor’s dispensing is stated by many to be one of the chief if not
the chief cause of the ills from which pharmacy is a sufferer, and
demands in more or less dignified terms are made that this iniquity
shall cease. I make no apology for the existence of this condition of
things. Theoretically it is undoubtedly better that dispensing shall
be done by the pharmacist, and prescribing by the medical man, but
when we pharmacists claim this as a right, and accuse medicine of
unjustly usurping our functions, it is well for us to remind ourselves
that medical men, although they may not now as frequently as of old
take the degree of L. S. A., are the direct and legitimate successors
of the old apothecary and that the dispensing of medicine was their
legitimate function. So much was this the case that there being a doubt
as to whether it was traversed by our own Act of 1868, the short Act
of 1869 was passed to preserve the right. Then again it is deep rooted
in the habits of the English people to expect the doctor to supply the
medicine he has prescribed, and any change can only come about by the
slow process of educating the patients and by the exhibition of good
will and feeling between medicine and pharmacy. Before it can happen
universally there is no doubt that pharmacy must have acquired such a
professional standing and education as will enable it to perform its
delicate and confidential function with the tact and reserve which is
the outcome of prolonged training. The mistake (a very common one)
which pharmacy is making, is that it wants the reward before it has
made the effort and suitably equipped itself for the service. I exhort
the pharmacist of the future to be unremitting in his efforts to raise
himself and his calling to a professional status, and then I predict
for him that in the natural course the dispensing of medicines will
come to him.

Chemist’s prescribing is quite as loudly complained of by the doctors,
and when I read some of the letters and comments which appear in the
medical journals I am almost tempted to fear that for once medicine
is thinking more of its share of the pecuniary reward, than caring
for suffering humanity. There is, however, I am sorry to say, a
great deal too much prescribing by chemists, and some of it is of a
most reprehensible kind. I know a case where a chemist treated a man
suffering from rodent ulcer of the face for two years, all the time
buoying the man up with the hope that it was getting better, and that
he would cure it, until the face was so bad, and the ulcer had spread
to such an extent that when it came under the notice of the surgeon
nothing could be done for the patient. If that chemist had met the
man upon the highway, and robbed him, he would have been liable to
imprisonment, but having got the man into his shop he not only robbed
him of his money, but he rendered it impossible for the man ever
again to be restored to health. For the dishonor which such men bring
upon pharmacy, and for the irreparable injury which they inflict upon
suffering humanity I should like to give them several years of penal
servitude. But there are innumerable small accidents, and little
ailments to which humanity is liable, which quite legitimately come
within the province of pharmacy to treat, and the pharmacist, if he
is wise, is a much safer man to treat these than the clergy and the
laity, who are ever ready to prescribe for each other upon any and all
occasions. The best and wisest exponents of medicine admit this right
on the part of pharmacy, and welcome the service which is rendered
by it to sufferers. Pharmacy may make some mistakes, but I know it
frequently sends patients to medicine long before they or their friends
would think seriously enough of the case to do so.

There should be no rivalries or jealousies between medicine and
pharmacy, and the better qualified each of these may be to exercise its
own share of the duties devolving upon both, the more will each of them
respect the rights and the work of the other.

Before I conclude, one word on the principle upon which remuneration
should be based. This is a question of the utmost importance to the
English public, as well as to the pharmacists. John Ruskin says, “You
do not pay judges large salaries because the same amount of work could
not be purchased for a smaller sum, but that you may give them enough
to render them superior to the temptation of selling justice.” We
cannot err in applying this principle to pharmacy, and deciding that
the dispensing chemist must be paid at a rate of remuneration which
will enable him to get his living honestly and openly, and render him
superior to the temptation to increase his profit and his income by
tampering, in ever so small a degree, with the quality of the drugs he
uses, and with the health, and may be the lives, of dear ones, and of
men important to the community. His remuneration should also enable him
to devote sufficient time and care to every detail of his responsible
work, and eliminate a very real source of danger which is unavoidable
if the haste and the bustle of trade methods are adopted by pharmacy.

The Conference has entered upon the fourth decade of its existence,
and, possibly, I should have made a better and wiser choice if I had
addressed you upon its past achievements, and its future prospects,
but the other matters upon which I have touched seemed to me of greater
importance. Let me say, however, briefly, that I think the record of
this Conference has been eminently an honorable one, and that it has
fulfilled, in a high degree, the functions for which it was called
into existence. The story is written in the Year Books, and another
phase of it is engraved in the hearts and memories of many of us who
have been members almost from the beginning, and who have attended a
large number of its meetings. It has added to our knowledge, enlarged
our experience, and broadened our intellectual grasp of pharmacy;
and last, but not least, it has been the means of bringing together,
introducing to each other, and cementing friendships between men who
practice a common avocation in districts as wide apart as Inverness and
Cornwall. In this latter function the excursion on the last day has
played no inconsiderable part. Amongst the critics of the Conference
there are some persons who affect to sneer at the excursion as if it
were sheer frivolity, and was at variance with the avowed scientific
objects of the Conference. I beg to differ, and to claim for the
excursion day a very high place in the work of the Conference. It
affords the opportunity, as no other arrangement could do so well, for
men to meet; and I am quite sure that my own experience is by no means
singular when I tell you that many, very many, of the best friends I
have in pharmacy were first known to me through the opportunity of one
of the Conference excursions; and further I could not exaggerate to
you the benefit which I have received from the numerous conversations
and informal discussions which always takes place on these days. But
it is with societies, as with individuals, they tend to decay, and
already, more than once we have the alarm: the Conference is on its
last legs! I do not believe it, as I feel sure it fulfils a purpose
in the realm of pharmacy which is too important for the Conference to
be left to decay, and if we neglect the trust which has been handed
down to us, our successors will revive it. I would ask every member of
the Conference to get, at least, one other member to join, and I do
not think he can use a stronger argument, than that, apart from the
opportunity of attending and taking part in this annual scientific
gathering of pharmacy, the Year Book, which he will receive, is worth
many times the subscription. The Year Book of Pharmacy should find a
place on the desk of every chemist and druggist in this land. In it he
will find abstracts of papers from a larger number of sources than he
can possibly consult for himself, and many of these papers may be of
great value to him.

There is no occasion to disguise the fact that we do not get as many or
possibly as good papers sent to the Conference as we should like, but
when we consider the needs of a weekly press and the number of small
societies which absorb in the aggregate a large number of papers, our
experience need cause us neither surprise nor alarm. I should like,
however, to ask many of those who are doing original work and writing
papers in connection with pharmacy to consider whether there is any
place so suitable for them to be read as at these meetings.

The authors may feel certain of a larger audience to listen to their
papers and a far more capable set of men to discuss them than can
be found at any other time or place. In provincial towns the papers
are read to a few local men, and the discussion is taken part in by
fewer still, and even at the monthly meetings at Bloomsbury Square the
discussions have a great tendency to fall into the hands of very few
men. However capable these men may be, they cannot possibly have the
wide and varied experience of the aggregate of the men who attend this
Conference. I would, therefore, venture to urge thoughtful pharmacists
to contribute papers to this Conference, and I should like them to come
in such numbers that we may be compelled to add another day or two to
our meeting.

I mentioned just now the friends whom we have met at these Conference
meetings, and before I close I must briefly allude to those we have
lost. The first name that will occur to you, I am sure, is that of
our genial botanist, the late Professor Bentley, who was president
at Nottingham in 1866 and Dundee in 1867. Many of us knew him first
and best at Bloomsbury Square as our dear and honored teacher, but to
many others the Conference must have been the means of their meeting
him, and by all was he respected and beloved. He reached a good ripe
age, and of him it might be said--as of many other men who have lived
and been true to themselves and their calling--“He has done his work
well and earned his rest.” The next, an even greater loss to us as a
Conference, because of his younger age and the promise there was in
him of greater achievements for pharmacy, is our late treasurer, Mr.
R. H. Davies, I, with many others, made his acquaintance through this
Conference, and I feel, as I am sure many of you do, that I have lost a
personal friend with whom intimacy would have ripened year by year into
stronger bonds.




OFFICINAL OR OFFICIAL.


In the _Pharmacentische Rundschau_ for January, 1895, is found an
interesting discussion on the use of the words officinal and official
by Theodore Husemann, of Göttingen, and Charles Rice, of New York. It
would be interesting to our readers to give the views of both of these
well-known writers in full. At present, however, we reprint in full the
views of Dr. Rice:

“In compliance with a request by the editor of this journal, the writer
presents a few facts, as well as his personal views, regarding the use
of the words “official” and “officinal” when applied to drugs and
medicinal preparations.”

It should be stated at the outset that the writer accepts the ordinary
derivation of the two words, and the meanings assigned to them in
accordance with their origin. Nor does he deny that it has been
customary, up to within a few decades, to apply the English word
“officinal” quite generally in the sense of “pharmacopœial.” Yet,
within the memory of most readers of the _Rundschau_, voices arose
in favor of a change, the word “official” being proposed to replace
“officinal” in the special sense of “pharmacopœial.” It is evident that
some cause arose which produced the feeling that such a change was
necessary and the cause is not far to seek. In those countries in which
the exercise of pharmacy is under the control of the government, and
where the stock of a pharmacist, so far as it is used in physicians’
prescriptions, contains comparatively few remedies besides those
directed by the Pharmacopœia, the two meanings of the word “officinal,”
viz: 1, the original one “pertaining to an ‘officina;’ pertaining to
or kept in a drug store,” and, 2, the more modern one, “pharmacopœial;
authoritative,” practically cover each other. This is particularly the
case in Germany, where the word “officinell,” and in France, where
“officinal” is in general use in the second sense mentioned above. It
is different in this country, where the pharmacist is compelled to
carry a large stock of non-pharmacopœial preparations, many of which
are prescribed by physicians.

The two meanings of the word “officinal” have two widely differing
boundaries. They may be likened to two concentric circles. In the
first mentioned sense (“kept in a drug store”) the word occupies the
area of the larger circle; in the second sense (“pharmacopœial”)
usually that of the inner, smaller circle. In some parts of this
country the inner circle--to continue the simile--is much smaller in
proportion to the outer than in others. In some it may attain an area
of perhaps three-fourths or four-fifths of the larger; in others it
may even outgrow the former outer circle. Only in rare cases will the
peripheries of the two circles coincide. Since the two meanings long
ago ceased to cover each other, the necessity arose to use different
words to express the two different meanings, and it was therefore,
proposed to employ the closely related word “official” in the sense
of “pharmacopœial,” and to use the word “officinal” only in the
general sense “kept in a drug store,” which is, indeed, in accordance
with its original meaning and origin. Those who object to the use of
“official” in the sense of “pharmacopœial” say that _officialis_ means
“governmental; pertaining to an office or official, etc.” That it is,
therefore, correct to say, for instance: “The official preparations for
the reception of the President are completed,” but incorrect to say:
“He made all the official preparations in his own laboratory.” There
is, however, no danger of any misunderstanding in these two sentences,
indeed, much less danger than would be “officinal.”

Professor Husemann, in his letter, brings within the space of
his discussion the terms “medicamenta magistralia,” and “formulæ
magistrates.” He shows, himself, that while the word _officinalis_[1]
was, in more recent times, applied to drugs and preparations of an
authoritative character or origin, it was formerly used in its broader
sense “what is at any time to be had in a drug store,” in which sense
it was the opposite of _magistralis_ (magistral, or magisterial), or
that which is not kept ready made, but has to be prepared or compounded
extemporaneously. It will be noticed that there is a much better
logical correspondence between the terms

    _Medicamenta magistralia_ = medicines whose composition is
    fixed or prescribed by the _magister_ (a person), that is the
    attending physician, and

    _Medicamenta officialia_ = medicines whose composition is
    fixed or prescribed by an _official_ (a person), that is the
    Committee of Revision as a body--

than there would be between the former and _medicamenta officinalia_,
which term refers to the _shop_ and not to the _person_ of authority.

As to the word “unofficinal,” this means properly “not pertaining to,
not kept by or dealt in by a pharmacist.” If used in this strictly
literal sense, however, its scope or applicability will become more
and more contracted in the course of time, as it may eventually become
difficult to mention articles to which the word may justly apply. It
should be abandoned altogether. “Unofficial” much better expresses the
idea sought to be conveyed by it. A few examples will show the use and
meaning of the several words: Fleming’s tincture of Aconite is not
official (or “Unofficial;” not “unofficinal,”) but it is officinal.
Tinctura Opii Deodorati is official, and ought to be everywhere
officinal.

Concerning the right of any person, or body of men, to coin a new word,
or to use one already in existence, for the purpose of expressing a new
idea, or removing an ambiguity, there can be no question, provided only
that the selected word be appropriate and in harmony with the genius
of the language. Of course, its acceptance by the public at large,
or by the profession, for the use or benefit of which it was coined
or selected, cannot be enforced. Yet, if it is found to answer its
purpose, and if its superiority over the term formerly used in place of
it is recognized, it will gradually and surely come into general use.

The judgment of the writer is that the employment of the word
“official” in the sense of “pharmacopœial” is justifiable on linguistic
grounds, and that it is, moreover, fully justified by the condition
of pharmacy in this country, where a clear distinction between
“all sorts of medicines,” and “pharmacopœial medicines” has become
necessary. Of course, the Committee of Revision,” which hoped to
settle the controversy by an “official” vote, according to which the
word “official” was hereafter to be used in place of “officinal,” when
applied to pharmacopœial preparations or directions (see U. S. Pharm.,
1890, p. xxxvi.), did not mean thereby to encroach upon the ordinary
meaning of the word, which appears, for instance, on the title page of
the Pharmacopœia in the sentence: “Official from January 1, 1890.”

    [1] Professor Husemann did not find this word in _Du Cange’s
    Glossarium Mediæ et Infinæ Latinitatis_. It is, however, contained
    in the latest edition (by Favre; Niort 1883-87), Vol. VI. p. 37.





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Alumni Journal of the College of
Pharmacy of the City of New York, Vo, by Various

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