THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



51 



Chemist and Druggist. He not only in- 

 troduced me to those drug brokers who 

 had been most long and intimately con- 

 nected with the trade in this important 

 article, but he furnished me with statis- 

 tics which he had compiled with much 

 labor, bearing upon this important ques- 

 tion. L,ast, but not least, he secured for 

 me the privilege of making a careful ex- 

 amination of the principal stocks of old 

 barks which are held in London, thus 

 about completing ray grasp upon a sub- 

 ject to which I have devoted special at- 

 tention for a number of years. I cannot 

 forbear at this point to note my surprise 

 at the ignorance displayed by the majority 

 of the Ivoudou drug brokers concerning 

 the relations existing between the dif- 

 ferent commercial Cinchona barks. 



Coming, finally, to speak of my general 

 studies and collection of drugs in London, 

 I would take occasion at the outset to ac- 

 knowledge my gratitude to the brokers 

 and dealers who, almost without excep- 

 tion, were liberal in the donation of speci- 

 mens for our College Museum, and who, 

 moreover, were unsparing in their at- 

 tempts to give me such information as 

 they possessed, and to assist me in 

 solving questions which they were unable 

 to answer. 



Previous to my visit to England I had 

 been fully assured by friends in this city 

 and elsewhere, that my attempts to ob- 

 tain specimens for our Museum from the 

 London dealers and brokers would not 

 meet success, partly because they lacked 

 the inclination to confer favors, and 

 partly because the conditions of the 

 trade were such as to present natural dif- 

 ficulties. I am now happy to bear tes- 

 timony to the contrary. Doubdess some 

 of the donors were not slow to appreciate 

 the great advantage of having their la- 

 bels displayed in a museum which was 

 likely to be largely consulted by New 

 York druggists; but I believe that for 



the most part this was not the considera- 

 tion which induced their liberality, but 

 rather a genuine courtesy and sincere de- 

 sire to be of service in the furthering of 

 a public enterprise of this kind. 



It seems almost invidious to mention 

 any names among so large a number of 

 helpful friends, but I feel that I must 

 specially acknowledge the kindness and 

 liberality of Messrs. Clark & Smithe, of 

 No. 40 Eastcheap; Messrs. Souratty & 

 Co., and their Mr. Charles Christy; 

 Messrs. Jenkins & Phillips, Messrs. 

 Lewis & Peat. Messrs- Figgis & Co., 

 and Messrs. Hale & Son. The Pharma- 

 ceutical Society, through its President, 

 Mr. Cirteighie; its Editor, Dr. Paul; its 

 Curator, Mr. Holmes; its Chemist, Pro- 

 fessor Attfield; and its Lecturer on ma- 

 teria medica, Professor Greenish, afford- 

 ed me cons:ant aid and advice. Through 

 the kind intermediation of Mr. Holmes, 

 our museum has been placed on a regular 

 exchange list, both of the Pharmaceuti- 

 cal Society Museum and the Economic 

 Museum in the Kew Garden. In ad- 

 dition to this, various friends in London 

 have promised to render us special assist- 

 ance by obtaining such interesting things 

 as may, from time to time, fall in their 

 way, and our museum is placed in corre- 

 spondence with the Department of Works 

 of British India and that of Australia, 

 from whom I am hoping that we may in 

 time receive large accessions. Any at- 

 tempt to describe the establishment at 

 Bloomsbury Square would be out of 

 place here, because it would require 

 special treatment. The same thing I 

 may say of the enormous collection of 

 drugs and economic vegetable produc- 

 tions in the three museums at the Kew 

 Garden. I must not, however, let the 

 occasion pass without endeavoring to con- 

 vey to you some measure of my own sense 

 of the importance of building up in this 

 city some similar collection. Neither the 



