March, 1918 C. U. C. P. ALUMNI JOURNAL 37 



p F^ROTVt THE LIBRT^RV 



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ADELAIDE RUDOLPH. 

 Assistant Librarian 



The small exhibit, that is now found in the showcase, seems to have antici- 

 pated the article on the "family medicine chest" that is going- the rounds, copied 

 from the Australasian Journal of Pharmacy. Says the writer: "The time-hon- 

 ored family medicine chest, good in its way, has been responsible for many mis- 

 haps," proceeding to give for a reason : "Old prescriptions are treasured like 

 family heirlooms. Medicine is obtained, the patient feels better after a few doses. 

 The bottle goes into the chest, and some months later another member of the 

 family imagines he has the same symptoms, and he doses himself with the stale, 

 and probably deteriorated remnants remaining in the bottle." This, all by the 

 way, is intended to point a moral to druggists, since they are in a position to do so, 

 to see that people do not refill prescriptions or keep stale medicines in their medi- 

 cine cases. The moral is a good one, probably, but from our standpoint does 

 not vie in interest with the sentence, "Old prescriptions are treasured like family 

 heirlooms ;" for this seems aptly to describe the material on exhibition in our 

 showcase. And so, returning to this, we see that one article is an old, consider- 

 ably-mutilated-at-the-top, homemade book of instructions, which evidently came 

 from one of these old medicine chests ; because its title reads : "A Companion to 

 the Medicine Chest ; or. Plain Directions for the Employment of the Various Medi- 

 cines and Utensils Contained in It; and the Treatment of Diseases." This book 

 is in semi-manuscript form, made on foolscap paper from the small printed book, 

 which bears the title before mentioned, by pasting the printed leaves, as far as 

 they will go, on the foolscap pages, and then attaching in hand-writing whatever 

 appeared on the reverse of the printed leaves with whatever else appeared to the 

 copyist worthy of note. The medicine chest, for which this was made, according 

 to the list of contents, contained fifty-one medicines, also lint, four kinds of plas- 

 ters, and six "utensils" for the preparation of the medicines. The manuscript is 

 dated. New York, 1837, and is evidently one of the contributions to the Library 

 treasures made by Dr. Charles Rice ; for we find a note to the recipe for liquid 

 opodeldoc and the classification number of the manuscript pencilled in Dr. Rice's 

 hand-writing. 



The rest of the exhibit in the showcase consists of two manuscri])t sheets of 

 prescriptions, that were found in a handsomely carved wooden medicine chest, 

 as the story goes, that was bought in France, though originally from England, 

 and placed in a noted antiquarian shop in Copenhagen, Denmark. As these loose 

 papers in the bottom of the chest did not appear to enhance its value to any extent, 

 they were given to a Danish artist, Miss L. Knudsen, who was connected with the 



