Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
February,  1903.  J 
The  Story  of  a  Drug  Store. 
65 
of  the  day,  walked  up  that  (now  narrow)  alley  to  hear  the  introduc- 
tory lecture.  The  collection  remained  there  until  1777,  and  now 
{1858)  comprises  a  valuable  part  of  the  museum  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Hospital."  I  have  heard,  in  my  time,  from  those  who  were  there, 
of  a  popular  course  delivered  by  the  first  Dr.  Parrish  at  a  time  when 
our  citizens  could  enjoy  a  discourse  on  dry  bones.  It  was  the 
schoolroom  in  Dr.  Mitchell's  book,  where  Hugh  Wynne  received 
such  a  flogging  at  the  hands  of  his  master,  David  Dove,  and  the 
master  in  return  such  a  scoring  from  Hugh  Wynne's  father.  We 
fitted  it  up  with  a  steam  boiler  in  the  cellar,  jacketted  copper  pans, 
stills,  a  press,  and  in  fact  all  the  equipment  of  a  pharmaceutical 
laboratory  as  known  at  that  time.  Numbers  of  open  furnaces  for 
divers  operations  were  around,  and  there  were  drying-rooms  on  the 
second  floor. 
And  this  was  the  entry  of  Charles  Ellis  &  Co  on  the  market  as 
regular  pharmaceutical  manufacturing  chemists,  and  our  prepara- 
tions in  after  years  obtained  a  wide  reputation  and  sales  all  over 
the  United  States.  Large  quantities  of  medicinal  solid  extracts 
then  much  in  use  were  turned  out.  I  call  to  mind  particularly, 
"Ext.  Sarap.  Comp.,"  and  "  Ext.  Coloc.  Comp."  The  list  soon  rilled 
a  letter-sheet  double  column. 
Several  things  were  attempted  at  Zeitler's  suggestion,  as  morphia 
and  even  quinia,  but  the  limited  space  did  not  seem  to  warrant  our 
going  into  them.  Spread  adhesive  plaster  had  always  been  a 
specialty  with  my  father.  I  suppose  it  came  down  from  the  Mar- 
snails,  for  Samuel  P.  Griffiths  had  another  machine  at  Eighth 
and  Chestnut  Streets,  and  that  machine,  after  it  had  been  in  the 
possession  of  Samuel  C.  Sheppard  and  Rushton  of  New  York,  fell 
into  the  hands  of  Charles  Shivers,  who  so  perfected  its  work  that 
the  beautiful  unrivaled  spread  plaster  of  Shivers  is  made  to-day  by 
his  son.  The  original  machine  was  a  very  primitive  affair  as  I  call 
it  to  mind  in  the  30's ;  but  after  Isaac  P.  Morris  was  established  at 
Richmond,  there  was  constructed  at  his  works  a  very  elaborate  one. 
No  doubt  Isaac  gave  some  of  his  drug  experience  of  the  trials  and 
difficulties  of  the  original.  I  remember  in  my  childhood  the 
spreading  as  conducted  in  the  open  air,  the  cloth  being  pulled  by 
hand  clear  down  Vidalls  Court  to  Second  Street,  all  hands  support- 
ing it  with  broom-handles,  etc.,  and  then  it  was  cut  into  lengths  of 
5  yards  and  taken  into  the  store ;  the  whole  spreading  was  not  more 
