Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
January,  1904.  J 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
47 
Evan  T.  Ellis  remarked  that  Professor  Lloyd's  paper  was  exceed- 
ingly interesting  to  him  as  it  cleared  up  what  had  been  for  these 
many  years  a  misapprehension  involving  the  rectitude  of  reputable 
botanic  drug  houses  now  in  existence — that  the  admixture  of  car- 
bonate of  magnesia  was  not  a  wilful  adulteration  as  he  supposed — 
but  was  really  introduced  to  facilitate  the  drying  of  these  resinoids 
as  they  were  termed. 
Mr.  Wilbert  also  stated  that  in  1850  the  Legislature  of  Pennsyl- 
vania granted  a  charter  for  an  eclectic  medical  school  in  this  State, 
which  was  the  second  established  in  the  United  States.  This  school 
was  located  at  Sixth  and  Callowhill  Streets,  over  H.  N.  Rittenhouse's 
drug  store.  Mr.  Rittenhouse  was  a  publisher  at  that  time  of  the 
eclectic  publications.  There  seemed  to  be  a  little  misunderstanding 
as  to  who  this  Mr.  Rittenhouse  was,  and  Mr.  Mclntyre  was  pretty 
well  convinced  that  it  was  not  the  Mr.  H.  N.  Rittenhouse  who  is 
still  living  and  a  member  of  the  Publication  Committee  of  this 
Journal.  Since  the  meeting  the  latter  has  informed  the  Secretary 
that  the  Henry  Rittenhouse  referred  to  was  originally  a  comb-maker 
in  Kensington ;  then  an  eclectic  druggist  at  Sixth  and  Callowhill 
Streets,  and  from  there  he  removed  to  Seventeenth  Street  near  Ridge 
Avenue,  where  he  died  a  few  years  ago,  being  quite  an  old  man  at 
the  time  of  his  death. 
M.  I.  Wilbert  gave  an  address  on  "The  Early  History  of  Medicine 
in  America,"  which  was  illustrated  with  a  large  number  of  excellent 
lantern-slides,  among  these  being  photographs  of  distinguished 
medical  men  of  that  time  (see  this  Journal,  page  1).  Mr. 
Wilbert  also  exhibited  a  photograph  of  the  old  Friends'  Almshouse, 
the  grounds  of  which  were  used  for  the  cultivation  of  medicinal 
plants  up  until  1 840  or  1850. 
E.  T.  Ellis,  referring  to  the  old-time  Friends'  Almshouse,  on 
Walnut  Street  between  Third  and  Fourth  Streets,  Philadelphia, 
mentioned  by  Mr.  Wilbert,  and  the  cultivation  of  medicinal 
herbs  in  the  little  gardens,  said  that  although  the  main  structure 
and  all  the  cottages  were  torn  down  in  the  '3o's  or  early  '40's, 
one  old  Friend  was  permitted  to  retain  her  home  and  garden  until, 
her  death  in  the  '6o's,  viz.,  Nancy  Brewer,  who  had  quite  a  reputa- 
tion with  Friends  and  others  for  her  medicinal  herbs — supposed  to 
be  all  grown  in  her  garden.  But  Nancy,  he  said,  "  did  draw  on  us 
in  her  last  years  for  the  Shaker  products — as  we  had  the  agency  of 
