560 
College  of  Pharmacy. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\   November,  1909. 
SPECIAL  LECTURES. 
The  Examination  of  Foods. — Dr.  W.  D.  Bigelow  delivered 
the  opening  lecture  on  October  8,  1909.  The  lecturer  was  intro- 
duced by  Prof.  S.  P.  Sadtler.  The  address  included  a  description 
of  the  types  of  general  methods  employed  in  the  examination  of 
foods  for  the  purpose  of  detecting  adulteration  and  of  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  results  obtained  by  those  methods.  Illustrations  were 
given  of  attempts  that  are  sometimes  made  by  manufacturers  of 
the  cheapest  grade  of  products  to  so  alter  the  composition  of  those 
products  that  their  nature  will  not  be  evident  to  the  analyst,  and 
special  attention  was  given  to  the  importance  of  observing  the 
relations  between  the  different  constituents  determined  by  analysis 
in  order  to  detect  such  methods  of  manipulation. 
A  series  of  lantern  slides  were  employed,  illustrating  different 
forms  of  food  adulteration  and  several  questions  relative  to  the 
manufacture  of  food. 
The  Application  of  the  Microscope  in  Legal  Investiga- 
tions.— The  second  of  the  series  of  special  lectures  was  given  on 
October  22,  by  Mr.  George  M.  Beringer,  who  spoke  on  "  The  Appli- 
cation of  the  Microscope  in  Legal  Investigations."  In  introducing 
the  speaker,  Prof.  Henry  Kraemer,  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Special  Lectures,  said  that  he  was  glad  that  one  of  the  lecturers 
in  the  course  was  a  retail  pharmacist,  and  stated  that  Mr.  Beringer 
had  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  offered  to  pharmacists  to 
take  up  various  lines  of  analytical  work. 
Mr.  Beringer  said  that  the  primary  object  had  in  mind  in 
presenting  this  subject  was  to  show  to  the  retail  pharmacists  and 
others  present  the  great  part  played  by  the  microscope  in  the  work 
of  the  analyst,  stating  that  this  instrument  had  assumed  such  im- 
portance as  to  be  a  constant  adjunct  in  analytical  work.  His 
second  object  was  to  call  the  attention  of  retail  pharmacists  to  a 
special  field  of  work  open  to  them.  Of  the  various  kinds  of  work, 
in  which  the  microscope  plays  an  important  role,  the  speaker  con- 
fined his  attention  principally  to  the  following:  toxicological  ex- 
aminations, blood  examinations,  urinalysis,  and  the  examination  of 
hand  writing.  He  described  in  more  or  less  detail  the  methods 
followed  and  the  points  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  making  analyses 
of  the  kind  mentioned,  and  illustrated  his  remarks  by  means  of 
free-hand  drawings  and  micro-photographs  thrown  on  the  screen, 
which  he  said  were  very  desirable  when  attempting  to  explain 
facts  to  a  jury. 
