64 
The  Story  of  a  Drug  Store. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharrn. 
X   February,  1903. 
knowledge  of  their  profession.  The  firm  furnished  the  tickets  and 
all  the  young  men  were  required  to  attend  the  lectures  of  the  College 
of  Pharmacy." 
In  1844,  the  writer,  having  graduated  at  Haverford  College, 
entered  on  his  apprenticeship,  and  also  having  graduated  in  the 
College  of  Pharmacy  in  1847,  was,  in  1850,  given  an  interest  in 
the  business.  The  story  of  our  house,  as  of  any  contemporary  from 
now  on,  is  more  or  less  one  of  the  drug  business  as  it  was  then.  We 
were  emerging  from  the  retail  to  the  wholesale,  though  for  years 
there  was  more  or  less  of  the  former  done,  as  there  were  old  inhab- 
itants left,  who  could  not '  believe  that  things  were  quite  as  good 
elsewhere  as  those  found  at  Marshall's. 
About  this  time  there  came  a  man  to  us,  who  had  a  store  in 
Kensington,  but  was  'not  satisfied  with  the  small  exactions  of  the 
counter  trade  in  his  vicinity.  What  Zeitler's  antecedents  were  I 
never  knew.  It  was  reported  that  he  had  at  one  time  been  associ- 
ated with  a  founder  of  one  of  the  two  large  manufacturing  chemists 
in  Philadelphia,  but  he  never  would  speak  of  it  in  any  way,  and 
it  was  inferred  that  there  had  been  some  difference  between  them ; 
but  he  came  to  us  unsolicited,  and  wanted  a  very  modest  salary. 
We  had,  up  to  that  time,  made  all  the  pharmaceutical  preparations 
used  in  the  business,  and  a  tew,  as  fluid  extract  of  sarsaparilla 
compound  and  buchu  compound  on  a  small  manufacturer's  scale. 
But  Zeitler  was  a  born  chemist,  and  could  turn  out  the  most  perfect 
salts,  somehow,  by  an  intuitive  faculty,  for  he  had  a  contempt  for 
books.  "  The  books,"  he  used  to  say,  "  they  know  nothing,"  and 
some  old  fellow  apprentice,  who  may  see  this,  will  smile  at  what  we 
used  to  term  the  Q.S.,  or  Zeitler's  system;  but  he  certainly  was 
well  informed  in  chemical  reactions.  The  tinctures,  syrups,  oint- 
ments, etc.,  were  always  made  in  the  store ;  but  those  apprentices 
who  desired  it  were  given  a  term  with  Zeitler  in  the  laboratory. 
Now,  about  this  laboratory  building  :  It  was  a  detached  building 
on  Vidalls  Court,  to  the  east  of  the  main  store,  with  a  history;  for 
it  had  been  in  its  day  a  hall  where  entertainments  were  held  and 
lectures  delivered.  According  to  Souder  (history  of  Chestnut  Street), 
a  Dr.  Chouet  had,  in  1774,  an  anatomical  museum  in  this  building, 
which  must  have  been  something  remarkable  at  that  time,  for  he 
says  that  "  Richard  Penn,  the  proprietary  Governor,  with  Dr.  Rush, 
Messrs.  Rittenhouse,  Dickinson,  Mifflin,  and  other  prominent  men 
