216         Pharmaeeatical  Colleges  and  Associations.  {'^^'i^nXm!'^' 
of  practice.  The  present  methods  in.  other  branches  of  learning  were  referred 
to,  as  in  medicine  and  engineering  studies.  Attention  was  directed  to  the  fa- 
cilities offered  by  this  College  in  its  various  laboratories  and  practical  classes, 
and  to  the  widened  field  opened  to  the  pharmacist  through  the  cultivation  of 
the  accessory  sciences. 
As  usual,  the  exercises  opened  and  were  interspersed  with  music,  and  closed 
with  the  distribution  of  the  floral  and  other  presents  sent  by  friends  for  a  num- 
ber of  the  graduates.  This  cus':om  of  the  public  distribution  of  friendly  pres- 
ents has  rapidly  declined  of  late  years,  and  what  little  was  left  of  it  at  the  last 
commencement,  might  without  harm  have  been  confined  to  the  green  room. 
While  during  the  past  wij;iter  such  improvements  were  made,  as  were  deemed 
necessary  or  desirable  in  the  procuring  of  additional  specimens,  apparatus  and 
other  means  of  illustration  and  instruction,  the  work  in  the  various  laboratories 
was  considerably  extended,  and  in  all  the  facilities  for  original  investigation 
were  increased,  In  the  chemical  laboratory  considerable  work  was  done  by  ad- 
vanced students  in  theanah'sis  of  urine,  the  determination  of  the  purity  of  ar- 
ticles of  food  and  medicine,  elementary  analysis,  proximate  analysis,  etc.  Be- 
sides the  class  instructions  which  have  been  conducted  for  a  number  of  years 
in  the  pharmaceutical  laboratory,  opportunities  were  offered  in  this  department 
daring  the  past  winter  for  individual  instruction  and  special  investigations, 
and  the  results  thus  far  attained  afford  ground  for  much  encouragement.  The 
field  cultivated  was  not  confined  merely  to  subjects  selected  for  theses,  but  ex- 
tended to  the  preparations  of  the  new  formulary,  to  researches  on  emulsifying 
agents,  pill  ex  dpients,  menstraums  for  fluid  extracts,  extracts,  etc.,  to  the  de- 
termination of  the  medicinil  value  of  commercial  varieties  of  drugs  and  to 
allied  topics  of  practical  applicability.  In  the  microscopical  laboratory  the  his- 
tological studv  of  plant-org  ms  was,  as  heretofore,  cultivated,  and  the  use  of  the 
microscope  in  various  practical  applic  itions  was  demonstrated,  as  in  urinary 
analysis,  the  identification  of  certain  articles,  the  detection  of  impurities  and 
adulterations,  etc  This  department  is  still  by  many  students  regarded  with 
indifference;  but  it  is  gratifying  to  note  the  increased  attendance  at  this  op- 
tional course  of  instruction,  and  the  greater  appreciation,  by  the  earnest  stu- 
dent, of  the  utility  and  importance  of  the  microscope  to  the  pharmacist. 
Of  the  work  done  during  the  past  session  by  the  Alumni  Association  in  fur- 
therance of  the  objects  of  the  College,  an  account  will  be  found  on  another 
page  of  this  journal.  The  transactions  of  the  College  at  its  pharmaceutical  meet- 
ings, which  are  held  monthly  during  eight  months  of  the  year,  have  been  re- 
ported in  the  Journal  regularly  every  month,  commencing  with  the  November 
issue.  These  meetings  have  been  attended  by  many  of  the  students,  and  a 
number  of  them  embraced  the  opportunity  afforded  them  of  reporting  on  sub- 
jfects  investigated  by  them,  or  such  as  had  come  under  their  observation. 
It  should  also  be  mentioned  here  that  on  December  1st  Dr.  H.  H.  Rusby  de- 
livered, before  the  students,  the  alumni  and  the  members  of  the  College,  a  lec- 
ture on  the  cinchonas,  coca  and  guarana,  embracing  his  observations  during  a 
sojourn  of  about  two  years  in  South  America.  Dr.  Eusby  had  gone  to  South 
America  primarily  with  the  view  of  ascertaining  for  Messrs.  Parke,  Davis  &  Co., 
the  sources  of  supply  of  the  many  important  drugs  from  that  continent,  which 
he  crossed  from  west  to  east.  The  expedition,  though  primarily  a  mercantile 
undertaking,  being  conducted  by  a  scientist,  it  was  natural  to  expect  from  it  also 
