THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 



271 



Since a single line of representation is 

 about all that can be provided for in the 

 College-museum, there would appear to be 

 no question that this line should be Phar- 

 macognosy, assuming that the subject 

 should include all chemical and pharma- 

 ceutical products of the drugs. If such 

 a museum possesses any definate funct- 

 ion, it would seem tobe the settling of all 

 commercial questions that may arise con- 

 cerning strictly pharmaceutical articles. 

 All those articles which are included by 

 way of association merely might be bet- 

 ter left to the Garden-museum, as well 

 as all pharmaceutical curiosities and un- 

 applied novelties. A few illustrations 

 will suffice. Belladonna, being an im- 

 portant botanical exhibit, from general 

 considerations, would doubtless find a 

 place in the Garden-museum, the entire 

 plant being represented. But its repre- 

 sentation there would be upon a botani- 

 cal basis. It would represent the plant, 

 the [individual, the source from which 

 the product was to be derived, and per- 

 haps in a general way the product itself. 

 The office of the College-museum upon 

 other hand should be to represent the 

 commercial aspects of belladonna, the bo- 

 tanical features being secondary. That 

 museum should contain a full suite of 

 specimens representing the drug in its 

 trade aspects. A specimen of finst qual- 

 ity of root and leaves should be shown 

 beside others representing the drug as a 

 woody, wormy, fermented, badly pre- 

 served and sea-damaged article, all of 

 these samples to be drawn from lots ac- 

 tually observed in commerce. In the 

 same way all adulterants, substitutes and 

 related products should be shown, as well 

 as all the alkaloids and by-products ob- 

 tained in ^manufacturing, and which 

 form articles of trade. The Garden-mu- 

 seum again might contain a map show- 

 ing the natural distribution of the plant 



and any special apparatus employed in 

 the manufacture of its products. It is 

 quite true that the last-named exhibit is 

 of pharmaceutical interest, but provision 

 could not be made in our museum for 

 objects of this class. The Garden cata- 

 logue would include and number all these 

 exhibits of the Coilege-museum and 

 credit them thereto. Eventually the 

 College-museum also will have its writ- 

 ten, or perhaps printed catalogue, and 

 this, by a similar plan of cross-reference, 

 should include the related exhibits of the 

 Garden-museum. The value of these 

 cross-references in indicating to a student 

 working in one of the museums the possi- 

 bility of obtaining further information, 

 on related details, is apparent enough. 



At the same time that each institution 

 is thus indexing the exhibits of the other 

 they should be rendering mutual aid in 

 the accumulation of them. In the course 

 of its collecting operations each will be 

 continually obtaining material applica- 

 ble to the collections of the other, and a 

 regular system of transfer should be es- 

 tablished. 



The advantage of an early discussion 

 and settlement of these questions is ap- 

 parent, when we consider' that the pres- 

 ent facilities of the College-museum are 

 overtaxed. We have hundreds of speci- 

 mens in hand for which we have neither 

 containers nor case room. At the same 

 time there has already been placed upon 

 the shelves a considerable number 

 (though it is true a much smaller num- 

 ber than of the class last referred to) of 

 specimens which we can much better 

 spare and which may very profitably 

 give way to others. It would appear to 

 be a wise policy on the part of the Col- 

 lege to transfer this material to the 

 Garden-museum as soon as that institu- 

 tion is ready to receive it. 



