All the boys they will be there,Vanderbeck will comb his hair,Kneuper will flirt with the ladies sweet,While Ferguson cries, when do we eat?Roberts will bring in his tambourine,Watling will sing when he is not seen;Bricks will be placed in easy reachIn case he is discovered making such a breach.Flick will make a mash I am sure,While on that plaster hunting tour:For who could resist such charming eyes,When on them Flicky only tries.Boenke will give a song and dance,McClellan will go quietly off in a trance,The Heffley boys will spin some jokes,Which are rivals in age of the mighty Oaks.
All the boys they will be there,Vanderbeck will comb his hair,Kneuper will flirt with the ladies sweet,While Ferguson cries, when do we eat?Roberts will bring in his tambourine,Watling will sing when he is not seen;Bricks will be placed in easy reachIn case he is discovered making such a breach.Flick will make a mash I am sure,While on that plaster hunting tour:For who could resist such charming eyes,When on them Flicky only tries.Boenke will give a song and dance,McClellan will go quietly off in a trance,The Heffley boys will spin some jokes,Which are rivals in age of the mighty Oaks.
All the boys they will be there,Vanderbeck will comb his hair,Kneuper will flirt with the ladies sweet,While Ferguson cries, when do we eat?
All the boys they will be there,
Vanderbeck will comb his hair,
Kneuper will flirt with the ladies sweet,
While Ferguson cries, when do we eat?
Roberts will bring in his tambourine,Watling will sing when he is not seen;Bricks will be placed in easy reachIn case he is discovered making such a breach.
Roberts will bring in his tambourine,
Watling will sing when he is not seen;
Bricks will be placed in easy reach
In case he is discovered making such a breach.
Flick will make a mash I am sure,While on that plaster hunting tour:For who could resist such charming eyes,When on them Flicky only tries.
Flick will make a mash I am sure,
While on that plaster hunting tour:
For who could resist such charming eyes,
When on them Flicky only tries.
Boenke will give a song and dance,McClellan will go quietly off in a trance,The Heffley boys will spin some jokes,Which are rivals in age of the mighty Oaks.
Boenke will give a song and dance,
McClellan will go quietly off in a trance,
The Heffley boys will spin some jokes,
Which are rivals in age of the mighty Oaks.
Mr. H. E. Cooley, who had a slight attack of the grip, is around again to the rejoicing of his many friends.
The action of the class in requiring its candidates for Valedictorian to enter a speaking contest to determine their fitness, meets with the general approval of all its members.
Manvilleadmitted that he was Hazy. How about replacing that H with L.
A very entertaining and instructive visit was made by a number of students of the senior class, on Saturday, Jan. 12th, to the Mineral Water Works of Dr. Carl H. Schultz.
The trip was arranged by the Pharmaceutical Club, of 37th East 19th St., represented by Mr. T. B. Dean, its corresponding secretary, which seems to be especially active as regards our interest and welfare and extends to us the fostering care of a parental guardian. It is due to this club’s hospitality and magnanimity that our Glee Club has thrived so wonderfully.
Mr. Dean kindly introduced us to Mr. Louis Waefelaer, M. E., the assistant chemist of the works (Dr. A. P. Hallock, Ph. D., the chief chemist and Dr. Schultz being away at the time), and Mr. Paul Dimmer, the foreman. These gentlemen, starting at the beginning of the works where the croton water enters by five different mains, and followed the course of the water through each step of the process, whereby the water was filtered, then heated to destroy organic as well as to drive off decomposing and volatile organic matter as well as other impurities and the filtered water there distilled by the most practical and complete apparatus conceivable; then the water was repeatedly subjected to tests, for various impurities, in their admirably equipped chemical laboratory, which is also supplied with a room specially devoted to bacteriological work, and a dark room for spectrum analysis and photographic investigation. Here also are prepared the solutions used in making the various mineral waters and where the finished product of the factory is brought before being sent out in order to be tested and to make doubly certain that it agrees with the label bearing the analysis of contents, which is placed on each siphon of water sent out. Here also we quenched our thirst with the products of the stills of this as well as with the products of the stills of other factories.
The carbonic acid gas used in charging the waters also passes after generation through a set of coolers, mashers and purifiers, to completely remove all impurities, and is stored till required for charging.
The whole establishment, embracing nineteen different departments, employs over 250 men and 100 horses; the fountain, bottle and siphon filling department has a capacity of 50,000 siphons or 10,000 gallons per day. The elaborate machinery of the works is mainly the invention of the proprietor, his deceased son and staff; not the least important among which is the invention of Mr. Paul Dimmer.
Mr. Louis Waefelaer, the assistant chemist, is a young mechanical engineer of high standing and has sole charge of the mechanical department. Every department is scrupulously clean and neat, and the employees think Mr. Schultz is one of the best and most liberal men to work for, for he spares no expense in investigations and experiments calculated to improve the accuracy and purity of the products of his works, and the safeguards against accident to employees are both numerous and well devised. Several other parties will be formed, from the senior class, during the course of the term and will visit and be shown the workings of this “model establishment.”
Class Reporters.
B. C. Meaney, entered into rest, Sunday, January 6, 1895, in the 22d year of his age. This brief announcement reminds us of the loss and sorrow to so many near relatives and friends, that after the few weeks that have elapsed since their hearts were wrung with grief. We venture to say something of him whose earthly sojourn is ended.
Possessed of a genial happy temperament, a character so manly, conservative and refined, that professors as well as students rendered to him an involuntary tribute of respect. In the three months that the junior class has been organized, few students have become better known or more popular than Mr. Meaney.
Just before the college closed for the Christmas vacation, he said to a friend, “I think this will be the happiest Christmas I have ever had,” and now who that knew him can doubt that this strange prophecy has been fulfilled.
J. Y. C.
The meeting was called on Tuesday, January 8, 1895, by the death of our classmate, Mr. B. C. Meaney. A motion was made that we send flowers to his late home, which was amended so as to include the drawing up of resolutions of condolence, and sending a copy of them to his parents. Carried.
The meeting then adjourned.
F. H. Finley, Sec.
Before vacation it was rumored that our friend and professor, Dr. Jelliffe, was about to become a benedict, and as the rumor has become verified, we, the Class of ’96, send to him our hearty congratulations and best wishes for a long and happy life.
There is one thing the Juniors should pay more attention to, that is class meetings. If each one who could would come, the difference would quickly be seen. Try it.
The Juniors in pharmacognosy commenced work with the compound microscope at the beginning of the term.
On exhibition every Tuesday afternoon, from 4.30 to 5, in Quiz, T.’s hand.
We are sorry to hear our friend and classmate, Mr. Quickburger, has been hurt, and hope it is nothing serious. He was thrown from a cable car against a post on Tuesday, and was picked up insensible. The car was just making the turn, which it does in a rapid manner, and it is supposed he had no hold.
A great many cases of mustaches have broken out among the Juniors. In most cases, however, it is only a light attack, and not at all serious.
They say the back part of the Botany Quiz room was very warm the other day; in fact, some of the boys were nearly roasted.
Did I hand in that joke I heard in Quiz the other day? If not, why not? It would have helped to make the page interesting this month. Two weeks no college. Reporter with one week. He will do the best he can, but every little helps.
Remember, this page is for the Class, not individuals, and every time you help make the Junior page interesting you are doing the Class a favor as well as the reporter.
All communications for Junior notes should be addressed to
J. Y. Cantwell,261 West 42d street.
ByN. H. MARTIN, F. L. S., K. R. M. S., President of the British Pharmaceutical Conference.
(Continued, from December issue)
Doctor’s dispensing is stated by many to be one of the chief if not the chief cause of the ills from which pharmacy is a sufferer, and demands in more or less dignified terms are made that this iniquity shall cease. I make no apology for the existence of this condition of things. Theoretically it is undoubtedly better that dispensing shall be done by the pharmacist, and prescribing by the medical man, but when we pharmacists claim this as a right, and accuse medicine of unjustly usurping our functions, it is well for us to remind ourselves that medical men, although they may not now as frequently as of old take the degree of L. S. A., are the direct and legitimate successors of the old apothecary and that the dispensing of medicine was their legitimate function. So much was this the case that there being a doubt as to whether it was traversed by our own Act of 1868, the short Act of 1869 was passed to preserve the right. Then again it is deep rooted in the habits of the English people to expect the doctor to supply the medicine he has prescribed, and any change can only come about by the slow process of educating the patients and by the exhibition of good will and feeling between medicine and pharmacy. Before it can happen universally there is no doubt that pharmacy must have acquired such a professional standing and education as will enable it to perform its delicate and confidential function with the tact and reserve which is the outcome of prolonged training. The mistake (a very common one) which pharmacy is making, is that it wants the reward before it has made the effort and suitably equipped itself for the service. I exhort the pharmacist of the future to be unremittingin his efforts to raise himself and his calling to a professional status, and then I predict for him that in the natural course the dispensing of medicines will come to him.
Chemist’s prescribing is quite as loudly complained of by the doctors, and when I read some of the letters and comments which appear in the medical journals I am almost tempted to fear that for once medicine is thinking more of its share of the pecuniary reward, than caring for suffering humanity. There is, however, I am sorry to say, a great deal too much prescribing by chemists, and some of it is of a most reprehensible kind. I know a case where a chemist treated a man suffering from rodent ulcer of the face for two years, all the time buoying the man up with the hope that it was getting better, and that he would cure it, until the face was so bad, and the ulcer had spread to such an extent that when it came under the notice of the surgeon nothing could be done for the patient. If that chemist had met the man upon the highway, and robbed him, he would have been liable to imprisonment, but having got the man into his shop he not only robbed him of his money, but he rendered it impossible for the man ever again to be restored to health. For the dishonor which such men bring upon pharmacy, and for the irreparable injury which they inflict upon suffering humanity I should like to give them several years of penal servitude. But there are innumerable small accidents, and little ailments to which humanity is liable, which quite legitimately come within the province of pharmacy to treat, and the pharmacist, if he is wise, is a much safer man to treat these than the clergy and the laity, who are ever ready to prescribe for each other upon any and all occasions. The best and wisest exponents of medicine admit this right on the part of pharmacy, and welcome the service which is rendered by it to sufferers. Pharmacy may make some mistakes, but I know it frequently sends patients to medicine long before they or their friends would think seriously enough of the case to do so.
There should be no rivalries or jealousies between medicine and pharmacy, and the better qualified each of these may be to exercise its own share of the duties devolving upon both, the more will each of them respect the rights and the work of the other.
Before I conclude, one word on the principle upon which remuneration should be based. This is a question of the utmost importance to the English public, as well as to the pharmacists. John Ruskin says, “You do not pay judges large salaries because the same amount of work could not be purchased for a smaller sum, but that you may give them enough to render them superior to the temptation of selling justice.” We cannot err in applying this principle to pharmacy, and deciding that the dispensing chemist must be paid at a rate of remuneration which will enable him to get his living honestly and openly, and render him superior to the temptation to increase his profit and his income by tampering, in ever so small a degree, with the quality of the drugs he uses, and with the health, and may be the lives, of dear ones, and of men important to the community. His remuneration should also enable him to devote sufficient time and care to every detail of his responsible work, and eliminate a very real source of danger which is unavoidable if the haste and the bustle of trade methods are adopted by pharmacy.
The Conference has entered upon the fourth decade of its existence, and, possibly, I should have made a better and wiser choice if I had addressed you upon its past achievements, and its future prospects,but the other matters upon which I have touched seemed to me of greater importance. Let me say, however, briefly, that I think the record of this Conference has been eminently an honorable one, and that it has fulfilled, in a high degree, the functions for which it was called into existence. The story is written in the Year Books, and another phase of it is engraved in the hearts and memories of many of us who have been members almost from the beginning, and who have attended a large number of its meetings. It has added to our knowledge, enlarged our experience, and broadened our intellectual grasp of pharmacy; and last, but not least, it has been the means of bringing together, introducing to each other, and cementing friendships between men who practice a common avocation in districts as wide apart as Inverness and Cornwall. In this latter function the excursion on the last day has played no inconsiderable part. Amongst the critics of the Conference there are some persons who affect to sneer at the excursion as if it were sheer frivolity, and was at variance with the avowed scientific objects of the Conference. I beg to differ, and to claim for the excursion day a very high place in the work of the Conference. It affords the opportunity, as no other arrangement could do so well, for men to meet; and I am quite sure that my own experience is by no means singular when I tell you that many, very many, of the best friends I have in pharmacy were first known to me through the opportunity of one of the Conference excursions; and further I could not exaggerate to you the benefit which I have received from the numerous conversations and informal discussions which always takes place on these days. But it is with societies, as with individuals, they tend to decay, and already, more than once we have the alarm: the Conference is on its last legs! I do not believe it, as I feel sure it fulfils a purpose in the realm of pharmacy which is too important for the Conference to be left to decay, and if we neglect the trust which has been handed down to us, our successors will revive it. I would ask every member of the Conference to get, at least, one other member to join, and I do not think he can use a stronger argument, than that, apart from the opportunity of attending and taking part in this annual scientific gathering of pharmacy, the Year Book, which he will receive, is worth many times the subscription. The Year Book of Pharmacy should find a place on the desk of every chemist and druggist in this land. In it he will find abstracts of papers from a larger number of sources than he can possibly consult for himself, and many of these papers may be of great value to him.
There is no occasion to disguise the fact that we do not get as many or possibly as good papers sent to the Conference as we should like, but when we consider the needs of a weekly press and the number of small societies which absorb in the aggregate a large number of papers, our experience need cause us neither surprise nor alarm. I should like, however, to ask many of those who are doing original work and writing papers in connection with pharmacy to consider whether there is any place so suitable for them to be read as at these meetings.
The authors may feel certain of a larger audience to listen to their papers and a far more capable set of men to discuss them than can be found at any other time or place. In provincial towns the papers are read to a few local men, and the discussion is taken part in by fewer still, and even at the monthly meetings at Bloomsbury Square the discussions have a great tendency to fall into the hands of very few men. However capablethese men may be, they cannot possibly have the wide and varied experience of the aggregate of the men who attend this Conference. I would, therefore, venture to urge thoughtful pharmacists to contribute papers to this Conference, and I should like them to come in such numbers that we may be compelled to add another day or two to our meeting.
I mentioned just now the friends whom we have met at these Conference meetings, and before I close I must briefly allude to those we have lost. The first name that will occur to you, I am sure, is that of our genial botanist, the late Professor Bentley, who was president at Nottingham in 1866 and Dundee in 1867. Many of us knew him first and best at Bloomsbury Square as our dear and honored teacher, but to many others the Conference must have been the means of their meeting him, and by all was he respected and beloved. He reached a good ripe age, and of him it might be said—as of many other men who have lived and been true to themselves and their calling—“He has done his work well and earned his rest.” The next, an even greater loss to us as a Conference, because of his younger age and the promise there was in him of greater achievements for pharmacy, is our late treasurer, Mr. R. H. Davies, I, with many others, made his acquaintance through this Conference, and I feel, as I am sure many of you do, that I have lost a personal friend with whom intimacy would have ripened year by year into stronger bonds.
In thePharmacentische Rundschaufor January, 1895, is found an interesting discussion on the use of the words officinal and official by Theodore Husemann, of Göttingen, and Charles Rice, of New York. It would be interesting to our readers to give the views of both of these well-known writers in full. At present, however, we reprint in full the views of Dr. Rice:
“In compliance with a request by the editor of this journal, the writer presents a few facts, as well as his personal views, regarding the use of the words “official” and “officinal” when applied to drugs and medicinal preparations.”
It should be stated at the outset that the writer accepts the ordinary derivation of the two words, and the meanings assigned to them in accordance with their origin. Nor does he deny that it has been customary, up to within a few decades, to apply the English word “officinal” quite generally in the sense of “pharmacopœial.” Yet, within the memory of most readers of theRundschau, voices arose in favor of a change, the word “official” being proposed to replace “officinal” in the special sense of “pharmacopœial.” It is evident that some cause arose which produced the feeling that such a change was necessary and the cause is not far to seek. In those countries in which the exercise of pharmacy is under the control of the government, and where the stock of a pharmacist, so far as it is used in physicians’ prescriptions, contains comparatively few remedies besides those directed by the Pharmacopœia, the two meanings of the word “officinal,” viz: 1, the original one “pertaining to an ‘officina;’ pertaining to or kept in a drug store,” and, 2, the more modern one, “pharmacopœial; authoritative,” practically cover each other. This is particularly the case in Germany, where the word “officinell,” and in France, where “officinal” is in general use in the second sense mentioned above. It is different in this country, where the pharmacist is compelled to carry a large stock of non-pharmacopœial preparations, many of which are prescribed by physicians.
The two meanings of the word “officinal” have two widely differing boundaries. They may be likened to two concentric circles. In the first mentioned sense (“kept in a drug store”) the word occupies the area of the larger circle; in the second sense (“pharmacopœial”) usually that of the inner, smaller circle. In some parts of this country the inner circle—to continue the simile—is much smaller in proportion to the outer than in others. In some it may attain an area of perhaps three-fourths or four-fifths of the larger; in others it may even outgrow the former outer circle. Only in rare cases will the peripheries ofthe two circles coincide. Since the two meanings long ago ceased to cover each other, the necessity arose to use different words to express the two different meanings, and it was therefore, proposed to employ the closely related word “official” in the sense of “pharmacopœial,” and to use the word “officinal” only in the general sense “kept in a drug store,” which is, indeed, in accordance with its original meaning and origin. Those who object to the use of “official” in the sense of “pharmacopœial” say thatofficialismeans “governmental; pertaining to an office or official, etc.” That it is, therefore, correct to say, for instance: “The official preparations for the reception of the President are completed,” but incorrect to say: “He made all the official preparations in his own laboratory.” There is, however, no danger of any misunderstanding in these two sentences, indeed, much less danger than would be “officinal.”
Professor Husemann, in his letter, brings within the space of his discussion the terms “medicamenta magistralia,” and “formulæ magistrates.” He shows, himself, that while the wordofficinalis[1]was, in more recent times, applied to drugs and preparations of an authoritative character or origin, it was formerly used in its broader sense “what is at any time to be had in a drug store,” in which sense it was the opposite ofmagistralis(magistral, or magisterial), or that which is not kept ready made, but has to be prepared or compounded extemporaneously. It will be noticed that there is a much better logical correspondence between the terms
Medicamenta magistralia= medicines whose composition is fixed or prescribed by themagister(a person), that is the attending physician, andMedicamenta officialia= medicines whose composition is fixed or prescribed by anofficial(a person), that is the Committee of Revision as a body—
Medicamenta magistralia= medicines whose composition is fixed or prescribed by themagister(a person), that is the attending physician, and
Medicamenta officialia= medicines whose composition is fixed or prescribed by anofficial(a person), that is the Committee of Revision as a body—
than there would be between the former andmedicamenta officinalia, which term refers to theshopand not to thepersonof authority.
As to the word “unofficinal,” this means properly “not pertaining to, not kept by or dealt in by a pharmacist.” If used in this strictly literal sense, however, its scope or applicability will become more and more contracted in the course of time, as it may eventually become difficult to mention articles to which the word may justly apply. It should be abandoned altogether. “Unofficial” much better expresses the idea sought to be conveyed by it. A few examples will show the use and meaning of the several words: Fleming’s tincture of Aconite is not official (or “Unofficial;” not “unofficinal,”) but it is officinal. Tinctura Opii Deodorati is official, and ought to be everywhere officinal.
Concerning the right of any person, or body of men, to coin a new word, or to use one already in existence, for the purpose of expressing a new idea, or removing an ambiguity, there can be no question, provided only that the selected word be appropriate and in harmony with the genius of the language. Of course, its acceptance by the public at large, or by the profession, for the use or benefit of which it was coined or selected, cannot be enforced. Yet, if it is found to answer its purpose, and if its superiority over the term formerly used in place of it is recognized, it will gradually and surely come into general use.
The judgment of the writer is that the employment of the word “official” in the sense of “pharmacopœial” is justifiable on linguistic grounds, and that it is, moreover, fully justified by the condition of pharmacy in this country, where a clear distinction between “all sorts of medicines,” and “pharmacopœial medicines” has become necessary. Of course, the Committee of Revision,” which hoped to settle the controversy by an “official” vote, according to which the word “official” was hereafter to be used in place of “officinal,” when applied to pharmacopœial preparations or directions (see U. S. Pharm., 1890, p. xxxvi.), did not mean thereby to encroach upon the ordinary meaning of the word, which appears, for instance, on the title page of the Pharmacopœia in the sentence: “Official from January 1, 1890.”
[1]Professor Husemann did not find this word inDu Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infinæ Latinitatis. It is, however, contained in the latest edition (by Favre; Niort 1883-87), Vol. VI. p. 37.
[1]Professor Husemann did not find this word inDu Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infinæ Latinitatis. It is, however, contained in the latest edition (by Favre; Niort 1883-87), Vol. VI. p. 37.
[1]Professor Husemann did not find this word inDu Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infinæ Latinitatis. It is, however, contained in the latest edition (by Favre; Niort 1883-87), Vol. VI. p. 37.