February 8, 1873.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
G2 r 
and we are not one wliit the worse off for their loss, 
but then the fault usually lay with the patients 
themselves, for we are reminded that “ nasty 
draughts” were preferred hy the sufferers before 
“ such mild and dulcet applications as the refine¬ 
ment of modern science has introduced.” 
As in other branches of science so in pharmacy, 
everything now works as by steam power compared 
with preceding generations. It does not now, as a 
rule, take us years to discover the true value of a 
new remedy; witness the rapid fall of cundurango, 
the efficacy of which from the very outset was 
doubted; Eucalyptus, again, seems to be now upon 
its trial, and by the end of the present year the 
verdict will in all probability be pronounced. 
Setting aside the consideration of articles which, 
one hundred or two hundred years ago, were of 
medicinal value, but which are now obsolete, it is 
interesting to note the growth and development from 
those times of some pharmaceutical products which 
are now of known value ; or again the accuracy with 
Which many of them were often described, and to 
the knowledge of which we in modern da} r s have 
been able to add little or nothing. These thoughts 
have been brought out after looking through an un¬ 
pretending little book, published in London in 1(590, 
■entitled ‘ The Treasury of Drugs Unlock’d.’ It 
was published at one shilling, and as the title-page 
tells us, it treats of “ all sorts of drugs, and chymical 
preparations sold by drugists.” Cowitcli we find 
described as the “ down of a large cod, like a pease- 
cod, of a brown colour, like dark cinnamon, the said 
cowitch being nothing else but a down covering the 
said cods, called cowitch, because of its provoking 
itching and scratching, is of no other use but to play 
tricks and waggery with; it cometh from Jamaica.” 
Here then is a brief, popular and tolerably accurate 
description of the pods of Mucuna pruriens which 
could readily be “ uuderstanded of the people.” 
The //tide itself which, as every one knows, is com¬ 
posed of the short stinging hairs from the outside of 
the pods, and wliich is well known as a vermifuge, 
though not official, seem to have been of no medi¬ 
cinal value in those days. Perhaps before another 
two hundred years have passed the Mucuna will be 
entirely forgotten in the praise bestowed upon 
another remedy; who knows but that the short rigid 
hairs from the involucres of Corylus rostrata, Ait., 
wliich have been used as a substitute for Mucuna in 
North America, may not be sent over to us as an 
article of trade ? 
As an example of accuracy, we will quote a para¬ 
graph referring to white pepper, which we are cor¬ 
rectly told “ is made from the largest black pepper, 
by art, being very full, round, large and white; ” we 
also learn that “ some has been made here in England, 
but not so good.’’ Tliis knowledge contrasts favour¬ 
ably with that possessed by the directors of a Ben- 
coolen pepper plantation, who, on account of the 
higher price of white pepper, gave orders to the 
superintendent of their plantation to cultivate the 
white pepper plants in preference to the black. 
With regard to the adulteration of drugs and other 
articles of trade, perhaps there is some consolation 
to be derived from the fact that our forefathers 
practised a system of cheating certainly equal to 
any s}^stem practised now, for we are told that 
musk is frequently adulterated, and are consequently 
warned that “those musk cods which have been 
opened and sowed again, are very suspicious of 
adulteration; for there is often found lead, stones, 
leather, etc., stuffed in the cods amongst the musk, 
and that so cunningly, that it can hardly be per¬ 
ceived.” We hope now that we hear so much of 
public analysts, the dawn of a better time has 
arrived, a time when we shall get pure food and 
pure medicine, articles of approved value and ac¬ 
knowledged purity. 
AMERICAN NOTES. 
In New York a new monthly publication, to be 
called The Druggist, is announced, the earlier num¬ 
bers of wliich are to be illustrated by coloured 
plates of poisonous plants. 
It is satisfactory to find that the colleges of phar¬ 
macy in the United States are reported to have 
larger classes during the present session than ever 
before ; that Pliiladelphia has within the last seven 
3 r ears doubled the number of its students, and lias 
just issued a catalogue of the class for the fifty-first 
session (1872-73) numbering 293 names. At Cin- 
cinati the class numbers 50 students ; at Louisville, 
in its second session, the class numbers 15, and an 
effort is being made to endow the college. At Chi¬ 
cago the college has 75 students, and the gift of 
books, etc., from English pharmacists is at last 
safely housed and being utilized. We regret, how¬ 
ever, to hear that Professor Ebert has been seriously 
ill since the beginning of October. In explanation 
of the above figures, it may be mentioned that in some 
of the States the certificate of a legal incorporated 
college of pharmacy is allowed in lieu of an exami¬ 
nation. In New York there appear to be several 
persons who have failed to comply with the new law 
regulating pharmacy in that city, against whom pro¬ 
ceedings are to be at once commenced. 
We learn from a ^letter placed at our disposal 
by Professor Attfjeld that one of the buildings 
which escaped destruction in the recent great con¬ 
flagration at Boston was the College of Pharmacy. 
Among those destroyed was the office of the ‘ Boston 
Journal of Chemistry,’ together with a drug ware¬ 
house, and two laboratories, which were in con¬ 
nection. 
We are sorry to learn that, owing to the death of 
a relative, Mr. Daniel Frazer was prevented from 
attending the meeting of the Council on W ednes- 
day last. 
