Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
April,  1920.) 
A  Bit  of  History. 
215 
Solution  of  Potassium  Arsenite,  Subnitrate  of  Bismuth,  Lead  Plaster, 
Iron  Acetate,  Iron  Carbonate,  Iron  Oxide,  Red  Oxide  of  Mercury, 
Subsulphate  of  Mercury,  Potassium  Acetate,  Rochelle  Salt,  Sodium 
Phosphate,  Ointment  of  Mercuric  Nitrate,  Zinc  Acetate  and  Zinc 
Oxide. 
Of  pharmaceutical  preparations  there  was  a  large  and  varied  list. 
It  included  Medicated  Waters,  Medicated  Wines,  Medicated  Honeys, 
Medicated  Vinegars,  Spirits,  Infusions,  Decoctions  (made  when 
required).  Tinctures  (made  by  maceration — 10  days)  Solid  Ex- 
tracts, Mixtures,  (some  of  which  were  Emulsions),  Liniments,  Oint- 
ments, Cerates,  Plasters,  Pills,  Powders,  and  Confections. 
It  is  indeed  strange  that  the  furniture  and  shelf -ware  and  equip- 
ment of  the  apothecary  should  have  become  in  a  hundred  years  so 
strikingly  antique,  while  the  materials  which  he  dispensed,  and  with 
which  he  worked,  should  to  so  large  a  degree  have  continued  in  use 
uninterruptedly  to  the  present  day.  How  many  drugs  in  the  old 
inventories  of  ship  cargoes  are  now  obsolete?  Very  few.  And  as 
to  preparations  note  how  many  have  passed  through  nine  pharma- 
copoeial  revisions,  experiencing  radical  alterations,  but  not  deletions. 
Nor  should  we  picture  the  apothecary  himself  as  an  aged  recluse, 
sitting  at  his  desk,  dressed  in  medieval  garb,  with  metal-rimmed 
spectacles  on  his  nose,  "dandruff  on  his  coat  collar  and  a  far-away 
look  in  his  eye,"  sitting  there  inactive,  surrounded  by  alembics  and 
other  gimcracks  of  the  alchemist's  stage  properties — a  man  with 
whom  we  have  nothing  in  common.  For  then,  as  at  present,  men 
were  old,  or  young,  or  middle-aged;  and  they  exhibited  many  varia- 
tions in  personality.  But  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  the  apothecaries 
of  1820,  living  at  a  period  of  great  activity,  when  stirring  events  were 
transpiring,  when  political  interest  was  keen,  when  Philadelphia 
was  conspicuously  progressive,  when  the  men  of  the  hour  were  men 
of  action — that  these  old-time  pill  rollers  lived  an  active  and  full 
life,  with  varied  interests — and  were  factors  in  this  community. 
But  they  indited  no  books.  They  published  but  little.  The 
histories  of  Old  Philadelphia  fail  to  chronicle  their  doings.  Their 
shops  and  stocks  have  disappeared.  The  very  buildings  in  which 
they  lived  and  worked  have,  in  many  cases,  made  room  for  larger 
structures  of  modern  architecture.  Yes,  the  old  apothecaries  of 
Philadelphia  have  vanished.  "Like  streaks  of  morning  clouds  they 
have  melted  into  the  infinite  azure  of  the  past." 
The  beginning  of  a  new  year  always  induces  a  retrospective  mood, 
