THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



63 



mand on the student's time and brain 

 should be eliminated. 



Before closing it would be well to con- 

 sider for a moment the scope of physical 

 and chemical instruction. Too much 

 stress cannot be ])laced upon the per- 

 sonal contact of the student with the ex- 

 periment. Every eflfort should be made 

 to carry out this idea. After the observa- 

 tions of the student comes the discussion 

 by the instructor and an application of 

 theory to facts. But here great care 

 must be exercised not to give too much 

 theory. Furthermore, it is unwise to 

 give students details that are not im- 

 mediately applicable to the work they 

 have in hand. They are usually un- 

 able to discriminate and try to swal 

 low: 



"Total grist, husks and all." 



Every effort should be made to classify 

 their work for them, so it may be readily 

 applied. 



The above rather brief and discon- 

 nected statements give some of our ideas 

 in regard to pharmaceutical education, 

 and are the result of considerable thought 

 after many years of contact with students 

 and pharmacists. If they lead others to 

 think upon the same topic, and cause a 

 change in the present methods of edu- 

 cating our students in pharmacy, we 

 shall feel only too glad that they have 

 been committed to these pages. 



OUR METRIC STANDARDS AND UNIT. 



Aiomalic Waters. — In experimenting 

 with the new official method for pre- 

 paring "Aromatic Waters," M. A. Miner 

 finds that in triturating 20 Gm. of cal- 

 cium phosphate with 2 C.c. of volatile 

 oil, a mobile powder is formed, which 

 mixes readily with water on trituration, 

 without evident separation of oily parti- 

 cles and furnishes a satisfactory product. 

 — Apothecary, Jan-, 1894. 



By WILLIAM HALLOCK, A. B., Ph.D., Phar. D., 

 Adjunct Professor of Physics at Columbia College. 



" To find the length of a rood in the 

 right and lawful way, and according to 

 scientific usage, you shall do as follows : 

 Stand at the door of a church on a 

 Sunday, and bid sixteen men to stop, tall 

 ones and small ones, as they happen to 

 pass out when the service is finished ; 

 make them put their left feet one behind 

 the other, and the length thus obtained 

 shall be a right and lawful rood to meas- 

 ure and survey the land with, and the 

 sixteenth part of it shall be a right and 

 lawful foot." — ^Jacob KoEBEivOn Survey- 

 ing ; Germany, 1550. Translated by E. 

 A.GiESELER in ih.e Journal 0/ the Fra?ik- 

 lin Institute, 126, 3d ser. 96, pp. 11 5-1 6. 



In Italy there existed, in 1832, no less 

 than 215 foot measures ; and in Germany, 

 at the beginning of the century, there 

 were certainly no less, probably more. — 

 GlESELER, 1. c. 



What is a "standard" and what a 

 "unit"? We have absolute standards 

 and concrete or type or practical stand- 

 ards. For example, the absolute stand- 

 ard of length is the distance from the 

 equator to the pole on the meridian of 

 Paris. The practical standard is the dis- 

 tance between two marks on a certain 

 bar preserved in Paris, and called ' ' the 

 meter of the archives." It was in- 

 tended to be one forty-millionth of the 

 absolute standard, it is not; but we know 

 its error, and hence it serves our purpose 

 very well. Some one may s^y we know 

 the relation of the yard to the earth's 

 quadrant and hence it would answer 

 Very true, but the yard stands alone and 

 the meter is the keystone of a whole 

 system. 



A fruitful source of misunderstanding 

 is the standard or unit of mass, or weight. 

 The old standard is a piece of brass — a 

 pound. Is it mass or weight ? It is a 



