66     The  Apothecary's  Apprentice  Fifty  Tears  Ago.  {""Verxs^so""- 
patronize  (with  this  one  article)  a  worthy  old  character  named  John 
Price,  who,  in  a  frame  shanty  on  Callowhill  street,  had,  what  he  called, 
a  drug  mill.  In  this  building  old  friend  Price  had  erected  some  rude 
machinery,  which  was  set  in  motion  by  a  mule.  The  sole  attendant, 
the  proprietor,  received  such  easily  powdered  drugs  as  were  confided  to 
his  care  through  an  8  by  lo  aparture  from  an  outside  vestibule.  None 
were  allowed  a  nearer  approach  than  this  to  the  wonderfully  con- 
structed powdering  apparatus  within.  Of  rhubarb  we  would  have 
returned,  in  due  t'lme^  about  two-thirds  in  powder — the  remaining  one- 
third  in  a  separate  package  labelled  crumbs." 
In  that  well  remembered  old  iron  mortar,  so  firmly  seated  on  a  stout 
post  descending  throug  the  cellar  to  the  earth,  all  else  was  powdered. 
Ipecac,  gamboge,  sanguinaria  and  cantharides  (this  last  moistened  with 
alcohol)  arise  to  my  mind  (and  nostrils  too)  as  among  the  particularly 
obnoxious  articles  I  was  obliged  to  reduce  to  a  fine  powder.  Those 
old  boxed  silk  sieves  were  provokingly  fine.  I  often  thought  a  coarse 
material  might  have  answered  the  purpose,  but  "  Needles  "  had  his 
orders. 
My  dear  old  preceptor,  one  of  the  best  of  men,  was  a  firm  believer 
in  those  lines  of  Watts  : 
Satan  finds  some  mischief  still 
For  idle  hands  to  do." 
Consequently  the  "  embryos  "  were  kept  ever  at  work.  Once  in  a 
fortnight  all  the  bottles  in  the  "  shop,"  together  with  the  windows 
were  to  be  washed.  But,  lest  Satan  might  steal  a  chance  to  reveal  that 
mischief,"  a  large  marble  mortar,  of  2  or  3  gallons  capacity,  was 
stationed  in  one  corner,  firmly  fixed  in  the  open  top  of  a  keg  with  a 
pestle  of  wood,  having  a  long  handle,  passing  through  a  support  at  the 
top,  and  in  said  mortar  were  always  the  ingredients  for  either  mercurial 
ointment  or  blue  mass — and  that  old  seat  by  the  side  of  that  mortar 
was  never  empty,  except  when  more  important  duties  claimed  our 
attention.  What  does  the  modern  student  in  pharmacy  know  about 
the  luxury  of  killing  mercury  ? 
Talk  of  a  cat  having  40  lives,  why  40  times  40  will  not  suffice  for 
the  extinguishment  of  mercury  ;  rub  !  rub  !  !  rub  !  !  !  day  after  day  and 
yet  the  labor  continues.  Thankful  may  the  modern  apprentice  be  that 
ihis  work  is  now  done  by  machinery. 
But  you  will  ask,     what  time  for  study  ?"    I  will  tell  you.  After 
