Ano'ctober.£l9^ai' \    American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  479 
recommended  that  the  Association  provide  membership  for  the 
Section  in  the  American  Historical  Association  and  the  American 
Geographical  Association,  whose  publications  are  extremely  valuable, 
and  this  was  approved. 
H.  M.  Whelpley  presented  on  behalf  of  the  Illinois  Pharmaceuti- 
cal Association,  an  historical  gavel,  which  had  been  presented  to 
that  association  by  President  Patterson. 
The  Secretary  presented  a  report  on  the  status  of  the  pharmacists 
in  the  Army  and  Navy  during  the  Civil  War,  and  said  that  he  was 
of  the  opinion  "  that  the  Association  had  erred  in  attempting  to 
raise  the  status  of  the  hospital  steward,  and  that  it  would  have  been 
better  to  have  proposed  the  organization  of  a  wholly  new  pharma- 
ceutical corps  composed  entirely  of  highly  skilled  parmacists  who 
should  all  be  commissioned  officers."  Mr.  Ebert  spoke  of  the  efforts 
which  had  been  made  to  raise  the  standard  of  army  steward,  and 
said  that  Dr.  Senn,  when  consulted  upon  this  question,  had  sug- 
gested the  revival  of  such  an  office  as  existed  during  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  and  that  President  McKinley  favored  the  creation  of 
the  office  of  apothecary-general. 
The  following  papers  were  presented  :  "  The  Recorded  History  of 
the  Pharmacy  of  the  Civil  War,"  by  M.  I.  Wilbert,  in  which  refer- 
ence was  made  to  some  six  or  seven  papers  extant  on  this  subject; 
two  papers  by  H.  M.  Pettit,  which  were  read  by  title,  one  of  them 
being  on  "  Reminiscences  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Service  in  the  Con- 
federacy;"  "  Confederate  Resources,"  by  C.  H.  Thibault,  which  was 
presented  by  E.  G.  Eberle. 
The  Historian  made  a  report  in  which  he  called  attention  to  the 
manner  in  which  the  archives  of  the  Section  are  being  cared  for. 
E.  H.  Gane  presented  to  the  Section  the  first  device  which  was 
used  in  this  country  for  the  gelatin-coating  of  pills,  which  was  used 
about  1869  or  1870. 
Other  papers  presented  to  the  Section  were  as  follows:  "The 
National  Retail  Druggists'  Association  "  and  the  "  Kings  County 
(N.  Y)  Pharmaceutical  Society,"  by  E.  A.  Sayre  ;  "  The  Drug  Trade 
in  Cleveland  Prior  to  1875,"  by  Joseph  Feil ;  "  Reminiscences  from 
Watertown,  Wis.,"  by  Dr.  E.  W.  Johnson;  "A  Directory  of  Balti- 
more Druggists  in  1833,"  and  "A  Biographical  Sketch  of  George 
Wansey  Andrews,  of  Baltimore,"  by  John  F.  Hancock;  "A  Bio- 
graphical Sketch  of  Chas.  Caspari,  Sr.,"  by  Chas.  E.  Caspari ;  "First 
