THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
DECEMBER,  1887. 
CHINESE  DRUG  STOEES  IN  AMERICA. 
By  Stewart  Culin. 
Read  before  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  No- 
vember 15, 1887. 
Not  the  least  interesting  feature  of  the  Chinese  quarter  in  our 
American  cities  are  the  drug  shops  which  these  conservative  people 
have  established  for  the  sale  of  their  native  drugs  in  connection  with 
their  general  stores. 
These  shops  reduplicate  the  herbalists'  shops  of  Hong  Kong,  and 
their  native  villages.  They  are  usually  conducted  by  a  separate  com- 
pany from  that  of  the  store  with  which  they  are  associated,  and  their 
supply  of  drugs  arranged  on  one  side  of  the  shop,  apart  from  the 
other  wares.  The  sign  of  the  company,  a  green  or  black  tablet  with 
the  felicitous  name  invariably  selected  for  such  enterprises,  inscribed 
in  gilded  letters,  is  suspended  within  the  shop. 
The  drugs,  such  as  are  frequently  called  for,  are  contained  in  boxes 
or  drawers  ranged  in  tiers  behind  the  counter.  These  boxes  are 
usually  divided  into  four  compartments,  and  their  contents  indicated 
by  neatly  written  labels  of  red  paper,  or  sometimes,  in  lieu  of  labels,  a 
tablet  is  suspended  in  front  of  the  shelves,  upon  which  appears  a  plan 
of  their  multitudinous  contents.  Powders  are  kept  in  tin  or  brass 
boxes  in  a  drawer  beneath  the  counter ;  a  series  of  bottles  contain  nuts 
and  mineral  substances ;  while  poisons,  and  some  of  the  more  rare  and 
valuable  drugs,  are  dispensed  from  a  locked  case  with  glass  doors. 
Piled  high  above  the  cases  are  innumerable  packages,  each  with  the 
name  of  its  contents  written  on  the  projecting  end,  which  constitute 
the  reserve  supply  of  drugs,  or  contain  barks  and  herbs  seldom  called 
for  by  the  practitioners  here.  Space  will  not  permit  any  extended 
reference  to  the  materia  medica  of  China,  of  which  almost  a  complete 
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