Amjl™%Tm-}       The  History  of  Dover  s  Powder.  337 
dish,  hard,  resinous  and  very  durable.  It  is  also  the  source  of  a 
very  considerable  proportion  of  the  tar  and  turpentine  used  in 
Europe. 
A  food  is  prepared  in  Norway  from  the  innner  bark,  and  from  the 
leaves  are  manufactured  a  substance  called  fir-wool  or  pine-wool, 
which  is  employed  for  filling  mattresses,  as  a  surgical  dressing,  and 
even  to  some  extent  for  the  manufacture  of  woven  fabrics. 
{To  be  continued.} 
FACTS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  DOVER'S  POWDER. 
By  Wiu^iam  B.  Thompson. 
It  would,  indeed,  seem  to  be  very  appropriate,  as  the  century 
closes,  to  adopt  into  the  archives  of  this  College,  some,  at  least,  of 
the  interesting  treasures  of  history ;  not  only  those  which  may 
belong  to  that  era  of  time  through  which  this  honored  Institution 
has  passed,  and  to  those  local  events  which  have  naturally  become 
identified  with  it,  but  to  that  broader  scope  which  has  marked  the 
progress  of  pharmacy  throughout  the  world,  and  the  epochs  of  its 
advancement  as  a  science. 
We  are  apt  to  forget  that  memory  has  a  limit,  and  recollection 
becomes  extinct,  but  that  which  is  recorded  on  the  page  of  history 
is,  by  transmission,  imperishable.  Therefore,  while  we  may  yet 
gather  the  instruction,  let  us  not  lose  sight  of  the  value  it  may  yield 
to  the  votary  and  student  of  the  future.  The  origin,  lives,  and 
personal  history  of  eminent  pharmacists  are  so  replete  with  interest, 
so  suggestive  of  patient  labors,  so  full  of  the  fruition  of  valuable 
and  important  discovery,  as  to  become  an  inspiriting  stimulus  to 
effort,  fostering  at  the  same  time  that  higher  motive — the  humane 
instinct  of  our  nature.  It  has  been  almost  wholly  through  the  ave- 
nues of  pharmacy  that  research  and  invention  have  given  to  the 
world  those  agencies  of  cure  which  have  promoted  and  preserved 
human  life.  At  the  earliest  dawn  of  civilization,  pharmacy,  with 
her  crudities  and  simples,  led  the  van  of  a  crusade  against  disease  and 
death.  Medicine  followed  at  her  beckoning,  and  chemistry,  born  of 
alchemy,  lent  her  aid  to  the  work  of  disclosing  the  mysterious  compo- 
sitions of  organic  and  inorganic  matter.  Thus  pharmacy,  the  foster 
mother,  found  willing  handmaids  in  the  allied  sciences.  All  then  that 
pertains  to  this  history,  all  that  is  interwoven  with  it,  even  fact,  fiction 
