As"ptJe°mbe^h.a4ra-}  A  Retrospect  of  Pharmacy.  423 
The  Committee  of  Organization  and  the  various  local  committees 
are  to  be  congratulated  on  the  success  of  their  arrangements.  These 
quinquennial  international  congresses  may  now  be  considered  a  fixed 
feature  of  the  botanical  world.  C.  R.  B. 
A  RETROSPECT  OF  PHARMACY  WITH  A  HISTORY  OF 
AN  OLD  PHILADELPHIA  DRUG  HOUSE. 
By  Samuel  Troth. 
We  are  living  in  an  age  of  rapidity  of  thought  and  action ;  dis- 
covery is  no  longer  localized  nor  limited  by  national  dialect,  but  is 
heralded  with  lightning  speed  over  the  globe,  translated  into  all 
languages  and  publicly  displayed  among  all  peoples. 
Thought-interchange  through  the  medium  of  printed  literature, 
so  scarce  and  highly  prized  by  our  grandfathers,  has  become  plenty 
and  commonplace,  and  our  boys  and  girls  are  thinking  out  problems 
which  would  have  puzzled  men  of  olden  time. 
Higher  education  is  the  plea  of  the  students,  and  old  systems  of 
philosophy  are  studied  with  respect  to  truth  rather  than  revered  by 
reason  of  antiquity. 
New  things  attract,  but  only  as  they  lead  up  to  practical  advance- 
ment, and  the  community  is  coming  into  a  keener  knowledge  of  the 
secrets  of  nature  by  applying  such  new  light  to  the  promotion  of 
bodily  comfort  arid  mental  improvement.  Modern  civilization  is 
moved  by  a  desire  for  financial  profit,  and  individual  selfishness  is 
alive  to  such  discoveries  and  improvements  as  may  have  a  commercial 
value. 
In  no  country  is  this  more  evident  than  in  ours,  where  wealth  has 
increased  to  such  a  degree  that  property  has  accumulated  faster  than 
population.  Institutions  of  learning  have  been  supported  from  this 
surplus,  and  opportunity  is  offered  of  free  scholarships  and  liberal 
terms  for  education  in  the  Arts  and  Sciences  to  those  who  wish  to 
learn. 
Pharmaceutical  knowledge  by  technical  instruction  has  become  a 
positive  science,  and  old-time  charlatanism  is  shorn  of  its  influence. 
Newspaper  advertisements  like  this  from  the  London  Gazette  of 
1673  were  common  to  those  days  : 
"These  are  to  give  notice  that  the  eminently  successful  medicine, 
commonly  known  by  the  name  of  Dr.  Goddard's  Drops,  are  now 
