Am.  Jour.  Pharni. 
November,  1909. 
College  of  Pharmacy. 
559 
Marine-Hospital  Service,  Dr.  Wiley  that  of  the  laboratories  of  the 
Bureau  of  Chemistry,  and  that  several  manufacturing  firms  had 
likewise  placed  their  laboratories  at  the  service  of  the  Committee 
of  Revision. 
At  the  close  of  the  discussion,  Professor  Kraemer  called  atten 
tion  to  various  interesting  specimens  and  exhibits.  Among  these 
were  an  historical  cinchona  exhibit  which  was  displayed  in  the 
window  of  his  pharmacy  in  Brooklyn  by  Mr.  Otto  Raubenheimer 
during  the  Hudson-Fulton  Celebration  held  in  New  York  from 
September  25  to  October  3  (see  p.  534),  and  loaned  by  him  for 
this  occasion. 
Of  the  other  objects  exhibited  the  following  were  presented 
by  President  Howard  B.  French:  a  square  of  the  vegetable  cloth 
made  from  the  inner  bark  of  the  paper  mulberry  (Broussonetia 
papyri f era)  and  worn  as  a  dress  by  the  Samoan  women;  a  bow  and 
arrows  used  by  the  Samoans ;  specimens  of  eel-grass  (Zostera 
mariana)  and  of  sheathing  material  made  from  eel-grass.  This 
plant  is  found  abundantly  on  the  Massachusetts  coast,  and  at  the 
present  time  is  largely  sold  for  rubbing  down  finished  furniture. 
That  is,  after  the  furniture  has  been  varnished,  the  surface  is  rubbed 
down  with  eel-grass  and  linseed  oil,  which  gives  it  a  dull,  smooth, 
or  so-called  "  egg-shell  "  polish.  Eel-grass  is  also  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  a  sheathing  and  deafening  material  for  the  walls  of 
houses,  and  Samuel  Cabot,  of  Boston,  manufactures  an  article  of  this 
kind  known  as  "  quilt."  The  use  of  eel-grass  as  a  protective 
material  in  the  walls  of  houses  dates  back  to  Colonial  times,  as  was 
shown  some  years  ago  when  the  old  Pierce  house  in  Boston,  which 
was  built  in  1635,  was  examined  for  repairs.  Mr.  French  was  also 
informed  that  many  of  the  old  houses  first  erected  on  Cape  Cod 
and  around  Massachusetts  Bay  had  the  spaces  between  the  weather- 
boarding  and  plaster  filled  in  with  eel-grass. 
Attention  was  also  called  to  a  pillow  made  from  buds  of  Abies 
Fraseri  Lind.  commonly  known  as  double  fir  or  balsam,  indigenous 
to  the  mountainous  regions  of  Tennessee  and  western  North 
Carolina,  which  was  presented  by  Doane  H.  Hage,  P.D.,  of  Ashe- 
ville,  N.  C. ;  and  to  a  decorated  tree  fungus  collected  and  presented 
by  James  P.  Lengel  of  the  class  of  1910. 
A  vote  of  thanks  was  tendered  the  donors  of  the  specimens, 
after  which  the  meeting  was  adjourned.     Florence  Yaple, 
Secretary  pro  tern. 
