Vegetable Ivory was found in an original package of canary seed purchased by a wholesale drug firm in St. Louis, which presence, however, was accidental and the specimen soon found a demand as a curiosity.

The Metric System is brought face to face with the English pharmacists by the appearance of the new Pharmacopoeia. We trust our English cousins will take kindly to the convenient system of weights and measures.

Plant Circulation is said to go on at the rate of twenty-four inches per hour. This refers to the ascent of the sap and not cyclosis or the movement of the protoplasm in the cell.

Certificates of membership are desirable documents for retail druggists belonging to their State association and the A. Ph. A. We are surprised that so few members of these organizations are supplied with the certificates.

A Pipe given an infant in Scotland to play with caused its death from tobacco poison. We have known of good-sized infants in this country who wished they could die when sick after taking their first lesson in learning to handle the pipe.

Zinc is a metal which has been found in the liver of man, the muscle of the ox, the liver of cats, eggs of chickens, in wheat, barley, beets and a few other vegetables. The quantity, however, is too small for remunerative zinc-mine work.

Imperial Measure is designated by English formulas. Some of our exchanges copy from English journals without making reference to this fact. Considerable difference exists between imperial and wine measure, and it is no wonder that pharmacists in this country fail to find English formulas satisfactory when they use wine measure.

Bright Electric Lights in the drug stores of to-day dazzle the understanding of one who happens to run across the following paragraph in a drug journal, dated less than twenty years ago:

A problem, however, still remains for solution, viz: Can electricity be distributed from a central source to streets and dwellings with the same facility as gas, and can it be turned on and off with equal readiness and used with the same effect?

Selling Postage Stamps and licking them for the customer has trained the pharmacist in handling these goods so that he takes very naturally, if not kindly, to the process of attaching internal revenue stamps to packages of medicine.

The Lloyd Library.-Prof. J. U. Lloyd informs us that he is anxious to have pharmacists contributing books to the Lloyd Library write on the fly leaf, "donated to the Lloyd Library by- -" This will preserve in the library the autographs of the friends of the library.

The Yankee Trick of the wooden nutmeg is outdone in France, where it is said that coffee berries are made of clay, molded and colored to match the best genuine article, so says the Journal of the American Medical Association. The editor of the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST has a small quantity of artificial roasted coffee beans that look remarkably like the genuine article.

Paris has Voted $20,000,000 to the Exposition of 1900, or more than double the amount appropriated for its last exhibition. Two great palaces will be erected in the Champs Elysees, and the Seine; crossed by a monumental bridge, it is to be transformed into a Venetian canal, with terraced banks and ornamental pavilions. How many of our readers expect to see these palaces?

The Noise Nuisance so much in evidence in our large cities is the subject of a lengthy editorial in the Philadelphia Medical Journal. Judging from what the editor says the Quaker City must be a howling example of the worst kind. From the standpoint of a physician he sums up the subject in the statement that "the noise prepares tired nerve centers for breaking down and hurries the sick to death."

Not so Easy to become a registered pharmacist in the State of Illinois. Out of a class of 142 examined at a Chicago meeting of the Illinois Board, eight were granted certificates of registration. This is quite different from entering the profession in a State like Indiana, where no law exists. There it is only a question of financial advantages. In States like Illinois competency must be combined with business backing.

An Asetic Barber Shop, probably the first in America, has been established by Emile Caye, at the Carrolton Hotel, Baltimore, Md. Everything about the shop is sterilized. The shaving cups, combs, brushes and razor handles are made of aluminum, which is the metal that best stands sterilization. The hand and arms of the barber, as well as the head and face of the customer, are also made septic. The surgical clinics have long followed aseptic barber methods in preparing patients for operations.

The Alert Prescriber.-A man in the car was telling how good his doctor was. "Clever?" said he; "well I should say he was. The other day I called him in when I had swallowed 5 cents. He said if the coin was not counterfeit it would pass and made me cough up $2.00.-[Medical Record.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

Any book reviewed in this Department may be obtained upon receipt of price at the office of the Druggist.

The Funny Bone, by the late Dr. Louis Crusius. Ph. G., can be had, if ordered at once, for 25 cents.

Etidorpha is being translated into the Scandinavian language. The author, Prof. J. U. Lloyd, has been called upon for permission to translate the work in a number of different languages.

The Partnership hitherto existing between Presley Blakiston and Kenneth M. Blakiston, under the firm name of P. Blakiston, Son & Co., expired June 30, 1898, on account of the death of the senior member. The business of publishing, importing and dealing in medical and scientific books, as established in 1843, will be continued by Kenneth M. Blakiston, trading as P. Blakiston's Son & Co.

Daydreams of a Doctor, by C. Barlow, M. D. The Peter Paul Book Co., Buffalo, N. Y., 1898. Price not stated.

The number of books intended to please and amuse the physician, while they entertain and instruct the general reader, is increasing. The book before us belongs to this class and the author says:

As a title for this work I have chosen "Daydreams of a Doctor." While it may not seem, on first thought, to be the most appropriate, yet the subjects treated of are those which have occupied my mind during idle hours when there was little to do but to think over the many important questions connected with my peculiar profession. Much of the material presented I tust will be found of interest to the well-informed layman. Many lessons of value in the management of the sick, and especially of the contagious and infectious diseases, have been presented in such a manner as was thought would be the most instructive to the lay reader.

It has seemed to the writer that the medical profession, as a useful and even an indispensable factor to mankind, has never been fully appreciated. It has, therefore, been one of the objects in presenting this work to the public to show in a comprehensive way the responsibilities of the physician, not only as a specialist, but as a general practitioner. The half has not been told of the peculiar life and work of the physician, his responsibilities, the invaluable services he renders to society and the dangers to which he is often exposed. These are all features of his everyday life which the writer has tried to illustrate.

Doctor S. Weir Mitchell, in his "Doctor and Patient," says: "I think there remains to be written the simple, honest, dutiful story of an intelligent, thoughtful, every-day doctor, such as will pleasantly and fitly open to laymen some true conception of the life he leads-its cares, its trials, its influence on himself and others and its varied rewards." This, in part, has been attempted in these pages. The story is not complete-it never will be, perhaps-but enough has been presented to give a fair conception of the real life of the plain, hardworking every-day

doctor.

Woman has been recognized in these pages as the equal of man, not only in the practice of medicine, but in other walks of life as well. Incidents from actual practice are interposed. The vein of romance running through the work, the writer ventures to hope, may not be uninteresting.

"Yes, You Have Cured my rheumatic foot, doctor, but I think you ought to throw off about $4.00 from this bill." "What for, sir?" "Because you have robbed me of my best barometer."-[Chicago Tribune.

PUBLIC EXPRESSIONS.

More Fishing.-C. E. Corcoran, of Kansas City, Mo., adds the following to his letter published on page 258 of MEYER BROTHERS Druggist for August:

Hardesty sent word, beforehand, to the manager of the lake to tell the whippowil to not sing (?) while we were there; he says he did that for my sake.

When I fell into the lake the "boys" stood on the bank and made fun of me until I was nearly drowned and then pulled me out. They all want to go again, but insist that we must send word ahead to have plenty of "bromo on hand.

August Bruenert says he is sorry that he could not be along, as he would have liked to play the same trick on me that he did at Excelsior Springs.

Why Physicians Dispense. - Please kindly grant me a communication with the many readers of your valuable journal. I wish to tell them that we physicians are not dispensing our own remedies from choice, but in obedience to nature's first law (selfpreservation). Our pharmacist fills the local papers with advertisements and recommendations of all sorts of patent nostrums and use their own personal influence to induce people to buy not only patent but even their own cough, kidney and colic cures instead of allowing them to get a prescription from the physician.

This and This Only is responsible for the present lack of good-fellowship between the pharmacist and physician. The physician would gladly quit dispensing were not the druggist so greedy. If the druggist would keep and sell patent nostrums only because the people demand them, and not try to create the demand for them, the patent medicine business would rapidly decline, and the prescription work would much more rapidly increase, because the people would not only bring prescriptions to be filled instead of getting the patent remedy; but those physicians who now dispense would send all their work to the pharmacist. The result would be of great mutual benefit to all concerned.

us.

The Physician is Longing for emancipation, but our pharmacist is blindly forcing the necessity upon We hope some of the clear-minded pharmacists will bring the matter up in the various association meetings of the country. Let them send representatives to the meetings of the medical societies.

We Will Gladly Meet Them Half Way when they conclude to work as faithfully to educate the people to patronize the reputable physician instead of the nostrum vendor. We will gladly welcome the prodigal's return and recognize him henceforth as a brother and co-worker in a good cause.

We Cannot Choose a King to rule over us, but if he will give us the opportunity we will gladly divide the work, profits and honor with him.-[A SUBSCRIBER, Maunie, Ill.

Mix Your Business with a little printer's ink.

A Rather Remarkable Application of this maxim of the advertiser, which is worth telling to pharmacists, came to the notice of the writer.

On the Shore of Lake Michigan, where can be obtained the delightfully cool breezes of the lake, the writer has secured a camp cottage in which to spend a short vacation. About a mile inland there is the little village of where there is one drug store and two physicians. Curiosity mingled with a fraternal feeling naturally impelled this sojourner to study the "outfit." What is the relation of the physician and pharmacist here?

Pharmacist. The pharmacist complains of the injustice of the pharmacy law, which allows the country doctor or country merchant to sell medicines without a pharmacy license, while he, in order to do this, must prepare himself by education for its responsible obligations. The physicians, being permitted to do as they please, prepare and dispense most of their medicinal preparations. These, however, they obtain mostly in pills, capsules, triturates and fluid extracts from agents of physician supplies, who wait upon their trade about as the agents for barbers' supplies wait upon barbers. The pharmacist to make a living is compelled to sell ice cream, bread, cakes, confectionery, etc., and to carry drugs and medicines as a "side line." All this, says the pharmacist, is the result of a lack of unanimity and united action among the members of the profession in upholding and protecting the interests of professional pharmacy. I should add that this pharmacist is regarded in the community as one of the most intelligent and influential men. To note this and to note his surroundings -with such odds against him-to the writer's view is somewhat pathetic. It is a pity that such intelligence should be wasted in making a living out of the drug business, but this the pharmacist does in spite of the drawbacks.

Physicians. Good practice and making money. The libraries of the doctors consist of one good recent work on therapeutics, one Quiz Compend in materia medica published in '88, a few very old rusty sheepbound volumes, which were probably old when the doctors who now own them were born. No Dispensatory nor a single Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary. It was here in the physician's office where the printer's ink was so freely used. Not in advertising, but in wrapping packages. It is said that "you can tell a pharmacist by the way he handles paper and string." Here there was no string used, but plenty of newspaper. I can stand a certain amount of inelegant pharmacy, but the way printer's ink was used in the form of newspaper wrappings in this office was to such a degree that an elegant pharmacist would call ad nauseum. Think of using bits of old newspaper to wrap powders of bromide of potassium, pepsin, etc., but such was the case. The ethics of the profession of medicine forbids a resort to printer's ink for advertising purposes. At the next meeting of the A. M. A. let us ask that this other application of it be also forbidden.-[S.

To the Retail Druggists of the United States.Owing to the stamp internal revenue for war purposes and the claim of advance in prices of crude drugs, manufacturers of many proprietary medicines have so advanced their wholesale prices that the burden of the whole war tax falls upon the retailer. As an Illustration, dollar packages which we have been buying at such a discount to the trade as to be able to make a living profit between the wholesaler and the consumer have been advanced so that it is merely swapping dollars with us. The dollar package price cannot be raised. It is generally printed on the bottle wrapper and the public has become so accustomed to paying that price that the article can only be sold for that amount. When the goods are advanced to us and we have to sell for the manufacturer's price on the package, it is clear that the tax falls on the retailer.

No cry of Patriotism can warrant the movement which makes the retailer reimburse the wholesaler his outlay for internal revenue war stamps. We feel pressed to the wall by the greedy hand of oppression in this matter—and by the constant and steady rise in wholesale prices. The margin of profit is becoming too small for us to continue to purchase as formerly. The effort to earn a living for those dependent upon us, the expenses of clerk hire, rent and insurance, with such losses as are incident to all business, demand that we make a united effort to overcome this oppression.

This can be Done by united action of all retail druggists, and a refusal to handle any 25c, 50c and $1.00 preparations that cost more than $2.00, $4.00 and $8.00 per dozen, and that we will at all times and under all circumstances push the sale of the goods of those manufacturers who will sell us goods of like kind and equally meritorious for less money. There is strength in unity; and self-preservation is the first law of nature-and if in obedience to that law of self-protection the retail drug dealers of the United States will combine, we can break loose from this combination and set the oppressor at defiance. We are willing that the millionaire manufacturer should dance, but we do not want to pay the fiddler.

If the Retail Druggist who reads this will write to those engaged in the same line of business of his acquaintance, inviting his co-operation-interchange ideas and opinions. If we do not accomplish anything else, we can unite in refusing to buy from these extortioners or handle their goods. And I appeal to you that if we do not act promptly and vigorously and unitedly, we will have to see our profits decline below the cost of a very common domestic living.

Hoping that you will write at once concerning this matter to all druggists in your acquaintance, as well as to myself, I am as ever yours for the progress and upbuilding of our business.-[HUGH MONCRIEF, Prescott, Ark.

In the Dental Schools of the United States the attendance of women is only 2 per cent of the entire number of students.

QUIZ DEPARTMENT.

Quart is the quarter or fourth part of a gallon. Oil of Mullein (102).—See Meyer Brothers DrugGIST for 1888, page 179; 1889, page 133.

Antipyrin or Phenazone (103).-We say phenazone as the patent on the former name has expired. Peru-Balsam Collodion (104).—This is a mixture of I part of Peru balsam and 9 parts of collodion, and is recommended as an excellent protection for minor lesions. [Western Druggist.

Tincture Curcuma (105) or Turmeric.-Turmeric in fine powder, four ounces, alcohol sufficient to make a pint: Macerate and percolate.

This is used for coloring alcoholic solutions yellow. Murexid Test for Uric Acid (106).—Ladd's Chemical Analysis says: "On evaporating to dryness, with a few drops of HNO3 (Nitric acid), urine supposed to contain urates, and then adding to the residue a few drops of ammonia water, there will be formed a beautiful purple or violet-red color."

The Examination of Urine (107) requires considerable practice and skill. Either Long's or Purdy's work will answer the purpose very well for such work as a pharmacist is likely to have. It is well to procure authenticated specimens mounted for the microscope to use for comparison when examining sedi

Eucalyptol (110).-A colorless, very mobile fluid, of an agreeable, peculiar aromatic and refreshing odor and pungent, spicy flavor. Very sparingly soluble in water (1 to 13,800). Easily soluble in alcohol. Valuable as an antiseptic, and said to be three times as powerful as carbolic acid in destroying bacteria. It is used like turpentine for inhalation, etc., and is much esteemed as an antipyretic in intermittent fever.

Artificial Human Milk (111).-Professor Rotch says that a safe formula for the average baby is two ounces milk, three ounces cream, ten ounces water, six and three-four drams milk-sugar; steam twenty minutes, then add one ounce lime water. These proportions should be changed to conform to the age and needs of

the child. Lime water is not always needed, but cow's milk is acid and it must be made neutral or alkaline similar to mother's milk. The bicarbonate of soda can be used instead of lime water. Cow's milk does not always give satisfaction, the milk as cow's milk is condemned. We change to some artificial food which is totally dissimilar to nature's food, a food probably made from cereals, dried milk or what not, made to keep, not to nourish. The fault may not have been in the milk as milk, but in the management of the cows, the care of the milk before reaching the consumer, or in the modification and preparation of the milk.

Horseradish Salad (112).-A fine salad may be grown from horseradish in almost the same manner as barbe de capucin is grown from chicory roots. The horseradish roots are dug in late autumn and the crowns left intact. They are then buried standing upright in moist (not wet) earth, in a dark, warm celler or underneath a greenhouse bench and the leaves forced as rapidly as possible. When these are about three or four inches long they may be cut and used either singly or mixed with other plant salads. If darkness prevails during their growth the leaves will be white and tender and will have a sweetish pungency, but if allowed to have light they will be green and tough aud too strong for use as a salad. The above is on the authority of the Department of Agriculture.

Mosquitos and Potassium Permanganate (113).— Health says:

Two and one-half hours are required for a mosquito to develop from its first stage, a speck resembling cholera bacteria, to its active and venomous maturity. The insect in all its phases may be instantly killed by contact with minute quantities of potassium permanganate. It is claimed that one part of this substance in 1,500 of solution distributed in mosquito marshes will render the development of larvæ impossible; that a handful of permanganate will oxidize a ten-acre swamp, kill its embryo insects and keep it free from organic matter for thirty days at a cost of 25 cents; that with care a whole State may be kept free of insect pests at a small 'cost. An efficacious method is to scatter a few crystals widely apart. A single pinch of permanganate has killed all the germs in a thousand-gallon tank.

This is a subject of practical consequence to a large part of New Jersey, for if the mosquito can be suppressed it would add to the value of all property there. The belief has been generally held that the filling in of the meadows with the ashes from nearby cities would prevent the development of these pests, and the providing of a place for the ashes would be another good. It is doubtless true that the potash, which would leach from ashes, will-like a solution of the potassium permanganate-render the development of insect life impossible.

Zachary Taylor died from cholera morbus, induced by improper diet; buried on his estate near Louisville, Ky.