Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Sept.  1919. 
Pharmacy  as  a  Hobby. 
603 
Morphine  brings  to  mind  Serturner  in  his  little  apothecary  shop 
in  Eimbeck,  Germany,  competing,  all  unawares,  with  the  French 
pharmacist  Derosne  for  the  honor  of  discovering  the  first  alkaloid 
morphine  (called  then  vegetable  alkali). 
When  we  come  to  the  drugs  of  vegetable  origin  we  find  the 
greatest  opportunity  for  memory  and  imagination  to  run  riot  as  our 
eyes  glance  over  the  list.  Opium  bringing  to  mind  early  morning  in 
dew-kissed  fields  of  snow-white  blooms  and  nodding  fruits  and  of 
the  care  that  must  be  taken  in  incising  the  outer  surface  of  the 
capule  so  as  not  to  lose  the  drop  or  two  of  milky  juice  that  subse- 
quently hardens  and  becomes  what  was  formerly  called  meconium, 
now  the  opium  of  medicine  and  pharmacy.  Conium,  with  its  mousy 
odor,  reminding  us  of  the  death  of  Socrates  and  through  that  asso- 
ciation of  ideas  of  Plato  and  the  other  Greek  philosophers  who  en- 
riched our  minds  and  thoughts  for  all  time  with  their  speculations 
and  maxims. 
Myrrh,  frankincense,  cinnamon,  cloves,  nutmegs  and  their  like, 
what  thoughts  of  caravans  plodding  across  sandy  wastes ;  of  odorous 
Eastern  isles ;  of  fleets  of  galleys  and  later  of  sailing  ships,  are 
brought  to  memory.  The  trade  in  spices  and  precious  gums  and 
balsams  has  been  responsible  for  the  establishment  of  kingdoms  and 
republics  of  olden  times  of  commercial  rivalries  more  fiercely  waged 
than  any  of  modern  times,  resulting  in  the  overthrow  of  dynasties 
and  in  repeated  changes  in  the  world's  map,  and  this  chapter  alone 
is  well  worth  perusal.  How  many  who  handle  and  use  nutmegs, 
with  their  white  powdery  coating  of  chalk,  know  that  this  is  now  a 
meaningless  custom  dating  from  the  days  when  the  Dutch,  who  con- 
trolled the  spice  islands,  dipped  the  nutmegs  in  milk  of  lime  to  pre- 
vent their  germination,  thus  assuring  a  monopoly  in  their  growth 
and  sale  for  centuries. 
It  is  to  the  new  world  that  we  must  turn,  however,  for  some  of 
our  most  interesting  drug  histories.  Cinchona,  a  drug  of  mys- 
terious origin  as  to  the  discovery  of  its  properties,  for  it  is  not  to-day, 
nor  has  it  ever  been,  used  as  a  medicine  by  the  natives  of  the  Andean 
slopes  where  it  is  indigenous. 
Ipecac,  used  as  a  secret  remedy  for  dysentery  by  a  celebrated 
European  physician,  whose  successes  were  so  great  that  a  French 
monarch  paid  him  a  handsome  sum  to  divulge  the  name  and  origin 
of  the  remedy. 
Sarsaparilla,  once  vaunted  to  the  skies  as  a  remedy  in  many 
