148 THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 



After a long search through the pages of this journal I found to 

 my astonishment that pharmacists were described as a peculiar body 

 of men who had existed in olden times, human beings who had studied 

 chemistry, pharmacognosy, microscopy, pharmacy, toxicology, noso- 

 logy and botany and several other sciences, and passed an examination 

 that entitled them to put different colored bottles of water in front 

 of gas jets in their windows; according to the Encyclopedia, they 

 shut themselves up in their stores sixteen hours a day, and lived 

 chiefly by selling inventions patented and produced by companies. 



In the course of time, owing to the discovery of the electric microbe 

 destroyer, now furnished free by the city, their occupation was gone, 

 and their trade became extinct. The last pharmacist known endeav- 

 ored to get a living by putting free telephones in his customers' houses, 

 paying the rent and boarding them, but as he could not supply them 

 with champagne he had to quit. 



Shortly after this, the Government of the world began to carry 

 all letters free and postage stamps were done away with, directories 

 were abolished, people became intelligent enough to do without them, 

 and the pharmacist became a thing of the past; his lights shone no 

 more. His virtues were great, his patience and humility touching, 

 but he passed with the old order of things and is known no more. 



On reading this brief description under Pharmacist I knew the 

 world had no further use for me ; bells seemed to be ringing out peals 

 of joy, and I awoke at 3 A. M. to find a man at the door who said 

 he had been ringing two minutes. What kind of a druggist was I, 

 anyway ? He handed me this prescription to fill : 



Pil. Cathartic 5 grains 



Sig. Take immediately. 



PEROXIDE PRODUCTION, PAST AND PRESENT.* 



I. S. BREWER, PHAR. D. 

 N. Y. C. F. '02. 



Since that time the popping of corks has gone merrily on more or 

 less in connection with each brand manufactured. 



For several years this first manufacturer was the only one to produce 

 medicinal peroxide and market it, and for several years more he had 

 only one competitor. This competitor's product gained rapidly in 

 popularity by reason of its more stable character as it contained a 

 preservative which through all the years has proven to be the most 

 satisfactory, namely, Acetanilid. 



*Read at the Summer Meeting of the Northwestern Branch of the A. Ph. A., at 

 Winona, Minn., June 19th, 1912. — Reprinted from Jour. A. Ph. A. 



