362  National  Food  and  Drugs  Act.       jAm;  Jour-  ?nhJ*rm- 
0  ■  .  I     August,  L909. 
galenicals,  was  a  pharmacist  and  also  dispensed  drugs  in  Rome. 
The  genuine  progress  made  by  the  Arabians  in  pharmacy  is  un- 
doubtedly due  to  the  personal  interest  Mahomet  himself  took  in 
the  study,  for  which  he  had  a  special  liking. 
Charlemagne  was  a  royal  pharmacist,  who  found  time,  in  the 
scant  leisure  of  his  later  life,  to  establish  a  drug  farm  and  to  dabble 
in  some  of  the  attractive  experiments  of  the  apothecary's  art. 
An  interesting  and  curious  figure  in  the  history  of  pharmacy  is 
Philip  of  Hohenheim,  called  Paracelsus,  who  was  born,  if  my 
memory  serves  me  right,  about  1490.  He  had  practically  no  early 
education,  but  such  was  the  natural  force  of  the  man  that  he  left  an 
impression  on  pharmacy  and  medicine  that  is  distinct  to-day.  His 
was  an  uncontrollable  spirit  and  many  stories  are  told  of  his  in- 
tolerance of  the  opinions  of  contemporaries  and  predecessors,  of 
how,  for  instance,  he  publicly  burned  the  works  of  Galen,  in  the 
public  square  of  his  native  town. 
Candor  demands  that  we  call  attention  also  to  those  skilled  in 
the  knowledge  of  drugs  who  used  their  knowledge  for  harmful 
purposes.  During  the  Middle  Ages  pharmacy,  in  some  of  its 
branches,  was  used  as  a  tool  by  certain  famous,  or  perhaps  infamous, 
men  to  remove  their  powerful  adversaries.  Two  of  the  Borgias, 
the  celebrated  Italian  house,  Caesar  and  his  sister,  Lucretia,  had 
considerable  knowledge  of  poisons  and  of  the  antidotes  for  them, 
and  made  frequent  use  of  their  knowledge  to  dispose  of  their 
enemies.  Equally  illustrious,  celebrated  as  patrons  of  art  and 
literature,  men  of  uncommon  force  of  mind  and  character,  were 
two,  members  of  another  prominent  Florentine  house,  the  Medicis, 
Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  and  Cosmo  the  Great,  Dukes  of  Florence. 
Like  the  Borgias,  they  used  the  apothecary's  art  simply  as  a 
political  weapon  and  to  make  themselves  immune  to  poison  by 
antidotes. 
You  will  be  interested  no  doubt  to  know  what  steps  the  Secre- 
tary of  Agriculture  has  taken  to  protect  the  drug  supply  of  the 
country.  Most  of  our  drugs,  in  one  form  or  another,  are  imported 
from  foreign  countries.  The  law  says  that  no  drug  shall  come  into 
this  country  if  it  is  adulterated  or  misbranded  or  may  be  dangerous 
to  the  health  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Accordingly  samples 
are  taken  of  drugs  offered  for  entry  into  the  United  States,  and  if 
they  are  adulterated  or  are  dangerous  to  the  health  of  our  people, 
their  entry  is  not  allowed  and  it  is  required  that  they  be  shipped 
