1914™'}  Applied  Pharmacognosy.  119 
ance  and  burette.  Why  all  this  detail  anyhow  ?  The  U.  S1.  P.  contains 
many  tests  and  assays  for  determining  the  purity  of  the  official 
preparations,  but  these  men  seemed  to  think  that  since  the  majority 
of  samples  received  for  testing  were  all  right,  they  could  make  a 
guess  at  the  purity,  figure  the  results  backward  and  get  out  of  doing 
the  tedious  work  which  for  them  required  too  much  patience.  Quite 
naturally  their  methods  were  soon  detected  and  fortunately  no  harm 
came  of  it  outside  of  the  laboratory.  But  we  cannot  say  as  much  for 
them.  They  were  destroying  their  self-respect,  ambition  and  their 
opportunities  for  success. 
These  are  the  kind  of  men  you  are  most  likely  to  hear  saying 
in  after  years,  "  I  never  had  a  chance." 
Confidence  in  your  ability  is  essential  but  some  men  are  so  con- 
ceited about  it  that  they  become  blinded  to  their  errors.  It  might 
be  all  right  to  have  the  other  man  believe  you  thoroughly  capable 
but  you  should  not  let  that  feeling  prejudice  the  analysis  of  your 
own  mind  and  knowledge.  When  the  other  man  finds  you  out  his 
confidence  in  you  will  be  very  much  weakened. 
This  failing  may  be  attributed  to  several  reasons.  It  is  usually 
due  to  narrow-mindedness,  snobbishness,  false  pride,  all  of  which  are 
due  to  ignorance.  It  indicates  the  failure  to  have  grasped  the 
primary  objects  in  attending  college,  namely,  to  obtain  a  knowledge 
of  the  basic  principles  of  the  subject  and  the  failure  to  continue  the 
line  of  study  after  leaving  college.  Give  the  text-books  you  are 
using  here  the  most  prominent  place  in  your  future  undertakings 
and  add  to  them  from  time  to  time  when  some  good  book  useful, 
particularly  for  reference,  is  called  to  your  attention.  These  books 
with  the  Journals  mentioned  before  are  the  backbone  of  your 
success.  Speaking  of  mistakes,  I  recall  a  former  assistant  who  was 
very  confident  of  his  ability  and  would  have  you  believe  that  his 
knowledge  was  complete,  he  could  make  any  kind  of  an  analysis,  he 
could  not  be  in  error.  He  said  he  was  not  in  error  when  he  obtained 
a  result  much  too  low  in  assaying  a  sample  of  ipecac  but  the  method 
was  faulty.  He  tried  it  again  several  times,  always  obtaining  a 
different  result  which  was  much  too  low.  After  his  last  failure  I 
picked  up  a  beaker  which  he  had  used  for  evaporating  the  etherial 
solution  of  the  alkaloids  and  subsequent  titration  and  called  his 
attention  to  the  resinous  mass  of  alkaloids  coating  the  side  of  the 
beaker  which  he  had  failed  to  dissolve  in  the  volumetric  acid  solu- 
tion.  Another  man  required  over  one  day  to  find  out  that  a  sample 
