212 
A  Bit  of  History. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1920. 
were  engaged  in  extending  the  frontier  of  human  knowledge,  many 
of  our  most  resourceful  Americans  were  engaged  in  pushing  the  fron- 
tier of  the  white  man's  civilization  westward.  In  1820  the  great 
migration  over  the  Indian  trails,  which  had  been  transformed  into 
roads,  was  in  full  swing.  On  the  Conestoga  Road,  the  covered 
wagons  of  the  travelers,  headed  for  the  land  of  mystery,  adventure, 
opportunity — -the  West — were  as  numerous  as  the  stannic  "Lizzies" 
on  our  mountain  roads  during  the  summer  months  of  more  recent 
years.  These  men,  who  with  their  families,  their  lares  and  penates, 
were  moving  toward  the  setting  sun,  were  principally  farmers. 
But  with  them  traveled  the  carpenter,  the  mason,  the  blacksmith, 
the  miller  and  the  millwright,  the  merchant,  the  doctor,  and  the 
apothecary.  When  a  town  of  some  size  had  developed,  in  due 
course,  there  appeared  the  apothecary  shop,  and  the  ring  of  the 
pestle  proclaimed  that  medicines  were  being  prepared  secundem 
artem.  And  who  will  say  that  the  inventive  genius  displayed  by 
our  pioneer  doctors  and  apothecaries,  in  adapting  limited  resources 
to  many  and  diverse  needs,  was  not — in  certain  instances  at  least — 
as  great  as  that  of  many  a  European  research  worker  who  by  virtue 
of  his  better  facilities  succeeded  in  getting  results  which  warranted 
their  being  recorded  in  the  annals  of  science? 
This  was  a  truly  heroic  period  in  our  country's  history;  it  was 
the  period  of  nation  building,  the  various  phases  of  which  absorbed 
a  large  share  of  the  energies  of  energetic  men — the  men  with  initia- 
tive. "In  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe,  who  reads  an  American 
book?  Or  goes  to  an  American  play?  Or  looks  at  an  American  pic- 
ture? What  does  the  world  yet  owe  to  American  physicians  and 
surgeons?  What  new  substances  have  their  chemists  discovered, 
or  what  old  ones  have  they  analyzed?"  Thus  wrote  Sydney  Smith 
in  the  January  number  of  the  Edinhurg  Review  in  the  year  1820. 
We  need  not  take  issue  with  him,  although  he  was  seemingly  quite 
ignorant  of  American  progress.  Indeed,  we  may  admit  frankly 
that  books  of  the  first  rank  were  not  yet  numerous.  Odysseus  was 
too  busy  to  devote  time  to  the  composing  of  Odysseys.  But  some 
promising  youngsters  were  playing  marbles  in  American  school 
yards — Whittier,  Longfellow,  Emerson,  Hawthorne,  Holmes — to 
mention  a  few;  and  in  this  year  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  1820, 
the  author  of  the  Gettysburg  address  was  doing  his  chores  on  a 
primitive  Indiana  farm. 
