52 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



American Museum of Natural History, 

 nor the Botanical Museum of Columbia 

 College, nor even the Economic Museum 

 to be established in our new botanical 

 garden, is the proper place for such a 

 collection as I have in mind. Indeed, 

 there is but one body in the city under 

 whose management and control it seems 

 to me possible to achieve a high success 

 in this direction, and that is a commis- 

 sion appointed jointly by the College of 

 Pharmacy and the drug section of the 

 New York Board of Trade. 



My idea of such a collection is that it 

 should combine in the highest degree 

 practical and commercial, with scientific 

 features. An economic museum should 

 be economical in the highest sense. For 

 this purpose I would have represented 

 not only rarities, curiosities, and typical 

 samples, but I would aim to present each 

 article in every phase which it can as- 

 sume in commerce. An excellent illus- 

 tration of this idea of this is to be found 

 in the case of some of the samples ex- 

 hibited here this evening. You will 

 notice that we have in the case of 

 Catechu a series of man}^ samples, repre- 

 senting almost every important commer- 

 cial grade, genuine and spurious, with 

 the prices of each attached. Although 

 these prices will vary from time to time, 

 the relations between the different prices, 

 that is the relative qualities of the differ- 

 ent samples, will always be indicated by 

 these figures. In the case of Tragacanth 

 also we have nearly a complete represen- 

 tation of all commercial grades, and our 

 collection of isinglass is equally complete. 

 An ideal museum, such as this college 

 should maintain, should carry out this 

 idea in the case of each commercial drug. 

 Every variety and grade, every substi- 

 tute and form of sophistication and 

 adulteration should be fully represented, 

 so that either the student of science or 

 the man of business could be able to con- 



sult it with the greatest degree of profit. 

 This object can be accomplished in only 

 one way, and that is by contributions 

 from special dealers of everything re- 

 lating to their particular lines of goods. 

 Thus a dealer in sponges could supply 

 us with a complete series of samples in 

 that line; a dealer in varnish gums or 

 resins could supply typical sets of such 

 goods, and as has been promised by a 

 large dealer in Pearl street, another may 

 furnish a complete representation of com- 

 mercial rubbers. The degree of sacrifice 

 entailed upon such contributors would 

 be slight as compared with the immense 

 advantages that they would confer upon 

 the city by building up a complete col- 

 lection of this kind. Moreover, such 

 dealers might feel themselves well repaid 

 by having their collection, labelled with 

 their names as donors, prominently and 

 permanently displayed in such a place of 

 public resort by the very classes whose 

 custom they wish to secure. A full con- 

 sideration of this subject, however, re- 

 quires treatment upon a separate occa- 

 sion . 



Many of those present have doubtless 

 visited the London drug sales, and many 

 others are probably also familiar with 

 the methods of their conduct, but for the 

 benefit of the majority I feel that I should 

 say a few words upon this subject. Scat- 

 tered throughout London, but more espe- 

 cially in the vicinity of Mincing Lane, 

 are a large number of brokers who sell 

 imported goods in original lots. These 

 men carry no stock, invest no capital, 

 and are generally not the importers or 

 consignees ; they act simply as the agents 

 of those classes, and it is their duty mere- 

 ly to expose in their offices samples of 

 the goods to be sold, accompanying these 

 by printed lists, giving specifications of 

 the merchandise, and copies of the same 

 being furnished to all intending pur- 

 chasers. I hand you for examination a 



