Am.  Jour.  Pharin. 
April,  1897. 
Hermann  Hager. 
i85 
in  Prussia  for  permission  to  pass  his  State  examination  as  apothecary 
without  the  customary  preceding  attendance  of  at  least  one  year 
of  university  lectures.  He  was  admitted  and  passed  this  ordeal 
with  credit. 
Hager  subsequently  served  two  more  years  as  assistant,  always 
applying  his  leisure  time  to  study  in  almost  every  branch  of  natural 
science.  He  also  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Philosophy  at  the  University  of  Jena,  and,  in  1843,  he  managed  to 
purchase  a  pharmacy  in  the  town  of  Fraustadt  in  the  Prussian  pro- 
vince of  Posen.  Here  he  attended  to  his  comparatively  small  busi- 
ness most  of  the  time  with  but  one  apprentice,  married,  raised  a 
family  and  passed  seventeen  of  the  most  studious  and  well-applied, 
and,  perhaps,  also  happiest  years  of  his  life. 
Besides  a  good  prescription  business,  Dr.  Hager  attended,  with 
his  apprentices,  to  the  preparation  of  all  galenicals  and  most  phar- 
maceutical chemicals,  including  all  metallic  salts  and  solutions,  even 
to  the  preparation  of  the  few  alkaloids  then  in  use.  With  his  sense 
of  practical  application  and  great  skill  he  attained  to  perfect  master- 
ship in  the  art  and  practice  of  pharmacy  in  every  direction,  as  also 
in  the  performance  Of  analytical  and  microscopical  work  and  exam- 
inations, and  accumulated  a  vast  amount  of  knowledge  and  expe- 
rience in  all  branches  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  pharmacy  and 
of  related  application. 
While,  during  the  years  of  assistanceship,  Dr.  Hager  had  occa- 
sionally contributed  miscellaneous  writings  and  some  poetical  efforts 
to  local  papers,  he  seems  to  have  abstained  from  any  contribution 
from  the  wealth  of  his  knowledge  and  experience  to  pharmaceutical 
periodicals  during  the  years  of  his  activity  as  apothecary  in  Frau- 
stadt. But  there  he  soon  entered  upon  his  successful  career  as  a 
writer  and  author.  His  first  publications  of  repute  seem  to  have 
been  an  essay  on  "  Weather  and  Its  Considerations,"  in  1845  >  his 
"  Handbook  of  the  Art  of  Dispensing,"  "  Cosmos  Diluvialis,"  or  the 
deluge,  an  historical  study  ;  "  Treatise  on  the  Manufacture  of  Min- 
eral Waters;"  "  Commentary  on  the  Pharmacopoeias  of  Northern 
Germany"  (1854);  "  Manuale  Pharmaceuticum  ;"  "Adjumenta 
Varia  ;"  "  Pharmacopoeia  Homceopatica." 
The  success  of  several  of  these  works,  and  the  want  of  incitement 
as  well  as  of  literary  and  scientific  resources  in  the  small  town,  in- 
duced Dr.  Hager  the  more  to  dispose  of  his  pharmacy,  as  he,  in 
