134 



7 HE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



duct, are in that condition of little or no 

 consequence, as far as any deleterious 

 effects upon the healthy human organism 

 are concerned. Boards of health are 

 given almost unlimited power in the mat- 

 ter of determining what is permissible as 

 an addition to food products from a sani- 

 tary standpoint, and it must be admitted 

 that such power is essential to such a 

 body to protect the public against un- 

 scrupulous manufacturers. It is safe to 

 predict, however, that it will not be 

 many years before preservatives will be 

 tolerated to a limited extent under certain 

 conditions in articles of food of special 

 manufacture, although public safety de- 

 mands a prohibition of the indiscrimate 

 use of preservatives in food. — V. & C. 

 Gazette. 



THE VALUE OF A niCROSCOPE. 



BY L. A. WILSON, CLEVELAND, O. 



There is a popular fallacy that the 

 value of a microscope depends on the 

 amount of its magnification. The novice 

 at the microscope is often compelled to 

 gradually recover from this diseased no- 

 tion. After being entertained by a beau- 

 tiful microscopic exhibit, a neophyte will 

 proceed to a dealer and purchase the best 

 microscope and the highest lenses that 

 money will procure. Those that do so 

 soon consign the instrument to the gar- 

 ret and abandon the pursuit in disgust. 

 We must creep before we can walk. We 

 must begin at the lowest rung of the 

 ladder and ascend. Besides, the greater 

 number of the most beautiful and in- 

 structive objects are to be seen with ob- 

 jectives no higher than an inch and a 

 quarter inch objective. 



Never use a higher power than will 

 clearly show the specimen under exami- 

 nation. 



For seeing nine-tenths of the objects 

 for which the microscope is used by an 

 amateur, high powers are absolutely use- 

 less. — The Microscope. 



THE HISTORY OF PHARriACY, 



By Dr. Ninian Falkiner. 

 {Continued.^ 



When a Chinese physician is unable to 

 procure the medicine that he requires he 

 writes the names of the drugs he desires 

 to employ on a piece of paper, and makes 

 the patient swallow it — Grecian medicine 

 anti-Hippocrates. Turning now towards 

 the history of the great empires that re- 

 placed the power of Egypt and Persia in 

 the south of Europe, Greece and Rome, 

 we find in Grecian mythology that a 

 prominent place is given to the deity that 

 presides over the branches of the healing 

 art. Appolo was the father of ^scula- 

 pius the god, and instructed by the kind 

 centaur Cheiron, and brought up with 

 Jason and many other demi-gods. Melam- 

 pus is believed by the Greeks to have 

 been the first mortal who practiced medi- 

 cine; he was the first physician who pre- 

 scribed iron in the form of rust and wine 

 identical with the vinum ferri of the 

 Dublin Pharmacopoeia; he also practiced 

 with hellebore, whence its name melam- 

 podium. In Homer there are numerous 

 instances of medicine, surgery, and phar- 

 macy, perhaps the most interesting is the 

 account of disinfection by sulphur. — 

 'Odyssy,' Book xxii., 481 : — 



" Bring sulphur straight, and fire, the monarch 



cries ; 

 She hears, and at the word obedient flies, 

 With fire and sulphur, cures of noxious fumes. 

 He purged the walls and blood-polluted rooms." 



Hippocrates (b. c. 460), the father of 

 medicine, was the first teacher who 

 endeavored to eliminate the superstitious 

 element from its practice; he first recog- 

 nized nature in the treatment of disease, 

 and that physicians and pharmacists are 

 her servants. He prescribed vegetable 

 mercury, elaterium, scammony, poppy 

 juice; he used blue stone, white vitrol in 

 in the treatment of ulcers, and tar water 

 in the treatment of wounds. With regret 



