AFebr0uaryPS3m-}        The  Story  of  a  Drug  Store.  67 
deal  more,  including  steam  power  to  stir  the  extracts,  also  to  grind 
and  powder  drugs ;  and  there  the  manufacture  of  pharmaceutical 
preparations  was  carried  on  on  a  large  scale.  The  writer  gave 
much  of  his  personal  attention  to  this  department ;  and  we  had  also, 
from  time  to  time,  experienced  pharmaceutical  chemists  as  superin- 
tendents, Dr.  Henry  C.  Archibald,  Ph.G.  (1867)  holding  this  posi- 
tion from  1866  to  1873. 
The  laboratory  continued  in  this  location  until  1868.  A  number 
of  articles  were  added  to  the  list,  such  as  blue  mass,  which  I  found 
could  be  made  so  as  to  keep  its  consistence  in  all  climates,  and  that 
gave  us  quite  a  run  in  the  South,  the  then  great  consumer  of  mer- 
curials. Citrate  of  magnesia  was  mostly  made  at  the  store,  and  it 
was  incomprehensible  to  me  that  we  had  such  a  demand  for  it,  as 
there  was  no  mystery  about  its  preparation ;  some  years  as  high  as 
1,500  gross  were  turned  out.  In  the  40's  and  50's  there  was  a 
branch  of  trade  carried  on  in  Philadelphia  that  has  entirely  disap- 
peared ;  it  was  the  dry-goods  commission,  a  go-between  from  manu- 
facturer to  the  jobber,  and  it  was  a  profitable  business. 
These  houses  had  mostly  been  located  on  Front  Street,  but  all  at 
once  they  took  a  notion  to  come  into  Chestnut  Street,  and  values  of 
property  enhanced  so  much  on  Chestnut  Street  that  we  moved  into 
Market  Street,  No.  724.  The  whole  lot,  including  the  old  build- 
ings on  Vidall  Court,  was  then  covered  with  a  five-story  structure 
as  it  is  to-day ;  and  has  been  occupied  by  dry-goods  people  ever 
since,  to  this  time,  1903. 
We  continued  at  724  Market  until  1 863,  when  we  made  a  division 
in  our  firm.  My  father,  a  brother-in-law,  William  M.  Eilicott,  Jr., 
who  had  come  to  us  from  Baltimore  in  1 86 1,  and  myself,  constituted 
the  firm  of  Charles  Ellis,  Son  &  Co.,  and  took  the  store  at  the  north- 
east corner  of  Market  and  Seventh  Streets,  retaining  the  laboratory 
at  Sixth  and  Morris,  while  the  other  member  of  the  old  firm, 
William  Ellis,  remained  at  724  Market  Street,  retiring  some  years 
after. 
This  was  war-time,  and  trade  was  very  active ;  every  old  thing 
was  salable  in  the  way  of  drugs.  As  members  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  we  could  not  accept  contracts  for  army  supplies  that  were 
often  offered  us,  much  to  the  amazement  of  the  army  people,  who 
could  not  understand  ^Friends'  principles;  but  after  war  had  done 
its  terrible  work,  we  could  give  to  the  relief  association  for  the 
