528 
Reviews,  etc. — Obituary. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\  Nov.,i376. 
service  in  the  business,  and  points  out  the  fact  that  many  of  the  best  and  learned 
(German)  pharmacists  had  attended  but  two  semestres'  university  instruction  after 
their  apprenticeship,  and  a  service  as  assistants  in  different  places  of  from  5  to  10 
years  ;  and  he  closes  his  letter  with  the  following  proposition,  which  is  well  worthy 
of  consideration  :    Experientia  est  optima  rerum  magistra  ! 
Medicinal  Plants,  being  descriptions  with  original  figures  of  the  principal  plants 
employed  in  medicine,  and  an  account  of  their  properties  and  uses.  By  Robert 
Bentley,  F.L.S.  and  Henry  Trimen,  F.L.S.  Philadelphia:  Lindsay  &  Blakiston. 
Price,  $2.00  per  part. 
Parts  IV  and  V  of  this  instructive  and  useful  work  contain  the  handsomely-ex- 
ecuted colored  plates,  together  with  the  descriptive  text  of  the  following  medicinal 
plants  :  Brassica  nigra  and  alba,  Linum  usitatissimum,  Ruta  graveolens,  Citrus 
limonum,  Paullinia  sorbilis,  Dorema  Aucheri,  Boissier  (a  plant  not  previously 
figured,  which  affords  very  good  ammoniacum),  Helleborus  niger,  Chondodendron 
tomentosum,  Haematoxylon  campechianum,  Brayera  anthelmintica,  Datura  stra- 
monium, Atropa  belladonna  and  Ficus  carica. 
The  descriptions  of  the  botanical  characters,  habitat,  properties  and  uses  are,  as 
in  the  preceding  numbers,  full  and  accurate. 
OBITUARY. 
Alexander  King  and  Samuel  B.  Spence,  both  promising  young  men  and 
members  of  the  graduating  class  of  1874  °f  tne  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy, 
died  recently,  the  former  at  Canandaigua,  N.  Y.,  on  September  10,  the  latter  at 
Fond  du  Lac,  Wis.,  on  October  8,  both  being  in  their  twenty-sixth  year,  and  falling 
victims  to  that  scourge,  pulmonary  phthisis. 
Mr.  King  was  born  at  Jersey  City,  and  lost  his  father,  Rev.  David  King  of  the 
Old  Wall  street  church,  New  York,  at  the  age  of  three  years,  and  soon  afterwards 
also  his  mother.  He  was  reared  by  his  father's  parents,  and  educated  at  the  Canan- 
daigua Academy.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  entered  the  store  of  his  uncle,  Wm. 
King,  Jr.,  at  Buffalo,  and  in  1872  came  to  Philadelphia  to  attend  the  College  of 
Pharmacy.  After  graduation,  he  returned  to  his  unele,  and  remained  with  him 
until  a  few  months  ago,  when  hi<  health  began  to  fail  rapidly,  admonishing  him  to 
seek  rest  and  change  at  his  former  home,  where  he  succumbed. 
Mr.  Spence  learned  the  drug  business  with  Kalk  &  Kent,  of  his  native  city,  and 
after  spending  two  winters  at  Philadelphia,  and  graduating,  returned  to  Fond  du 
Lac,  where  soon  after  symptoms  made  their  appearance  inducing  him  to  seek  for  a 
change  of  climate  in  California,  hoping  that  the  mountain  air  might  stay  the  advan- 
ces of  the  disease  Not  attaining  the  desired  relief,  he  returned  home  last  summer 
to  die  among  his  kindred. 
Both  deceased  were  of  retiring  disposition,  quiet  and  unobtrusive  in  their 
demeanor,  and  left  records  of  uprightedness  behind  them.  Both  wrote,  on  gradua- 
tion, creditable  theses,  the  one  by  Mr.  King,  announcing  the  discovery  of  morin 
and  mori-tannic  acid  in  Maclura  aurantiaca,  having  been  published  in  this  journal 
in  June,  1874. 
John  B.  Cresson,  aged  59  years,  a  member  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy,  died  October  23d,  1876.  His  entire  life  was  spent  in  this  his  native  city. 
He  was  much  respected  for  his  moral  worth  and  uniform  gentlemanly  bearing. 
Marshall  S.  Cowperthwaite  died  July  29  of  pneumonia  at  Burlington,  N.J., 
and  was  buried  near  Medford,  his  native  place.  He  was  opprenticed  to  John  A. 
Vandegrift,  Burlington,  and  last  winter  attended  the  lectures  at  the  Philadelphia 
College  of  Pharmacy,  giving  promise  of  future  usefulness. 
